Please help, eastern newt larvae deaths

[Crystalann0219]

This is my first time raising any newt larvae. They are notophthalmus viridescens, the eggs were collected from the parents tank, i've had the parents 3 years . Things were going great, had lots of healthy looking larvae, and did not expect them all to make it. Recently the deaths have been more and more. The only thing that has changed is I've been feeding frozen blood worms in addition to live daphnia because my daphnia have crashed and there isnt enough to feed them all. I may have gotten a little lazy with the water changes as I've been super busy. But i have still been replacing water every few days and cleaning containers and adding all new water about once a week. Recently I separated the largest into a small tank wit an air bubbler as they were better at eating and that seemed to help because i could tell the smaller ones were getting more to eat. But lately I have had alot of deaths. Their bodies seem to be curled before or as they are dying. I also noticed some of their gills have a red tint on the ones still alive. Is the curling of the body just something that happens when they die or is it a cause??. Is this some kiND of disease? I am desperate for help and quite depressed as things had been going so well up to this point . Please any input needed fast and much appreciated.

 

[slowfoot]

A lot of them will just die from unknown causes. But if you are having too many deaths, I would try to add bunches of dried leaves - oak leaves work well - to increase the tannins and drop the pH. Mine do better with fewer water changes. Just use a turkey baster to remove uneaten food and top off the water. Lots of live plants will also help.

You can also try dosing the water with Furan 2 (fish medicine) which is an anti-biotic and anti-fungal.

 

[Crystalann0219]

Thank you so much for your reply. The larvae are doing much better since I separated them and added more plants and a few leaves. My first one is loosing his gills now and has his little yellow spots. I am so excited. I believe the ones that did die were just weaker ones. Survival of the fittest I guess.

 

[slowfoot]

Don't stress too much These guys are probably some of the hardest larvae to raise. I thought I just really sucked at taking care of newt larvae, and then I tried some other species... Just hang in there.