Question about my firebelly..

[Jimmy NewtTron]

So my firebelly is really small, like one and a half inches long. I was keeping him in a dish with a wet paper towel and very shallow water and he was fine. Ive been feeding him earthworms because he wont touch newt bites. People have been telling me that he should be ok to put in my 10 gallon tank, even though he's really small. He seems like he has a hard time reaching the surface and i'm a little worried about him. theres a little castle thing that barely sticks out of the water, and when i put him in there on the castle, he wont go in the water. he stays on the castle. ill attach a picture of the tank. i know very little about these creatures so i ask you guys: Is he okay to go in the tank?

 

[Asevernnnn]

These newts are imported from china to pet stores are are usually stressed out. When my newts stressed that they wouldn't go into the water all i had to do was make sure on their land area they can never be completely dry. So partially submerging the land area might work. You might also want to change your substrate to sand or bare bottom, gravel hides waste and makes it harder to clean. You're also going to want a lot more plants in that tank, like have them everywhere. I would also not buy any more newts from pet stores and to find a good reputable breeder.

 

[Jimmy NewtTron]

Thanks. I dont have money for a different substrate or more plants right now, but ill keep that in mind. So do you think he is ready for the tank or no? Like if he goes in the water do you think he will drown?

edit: I added more water so the land area is partially submerged. so he isn't floating away or anything, but at least hes staying wet now. By the way, he's been eating 1 or 2 earth worms a day, each being about the same length as him, but much skinnier. is that enough, too much, or not enough?

 

[Asevernnnn]

Thanks. I dont have money for a different substrate or more plants right now, but ill keep that in mind. So do you think he is ready for the tank or no? Like if he goes in the water do you think he will drown?

If theres a good amount of plants(i prefer live since it helps the tank, and i personally think it looks better, but silk and plastic works too) he won't drown, considering he's sticking to the land area for now, i think he'll be fine until you can get some more plants. You can purchase playsand at home depot or some hardware store for like 3$, you just have to rinse it a lot. Bare-bottom works too, with bare bottom its super easy to clean, and you could have plants tied to decor, floating or have like planters in the tank.

 

[Jimmy NewtTron]

Thanks.. So for now, should i just keep him how he was before? like i had him in a big tuperware tub with wet paper towel at the bottom and like 1/4 inch of water, so he was always wet but his head didnt go under. He would have a lot more room. because right now he is like on top of that little tiny castle thing and he has like no room i feel kind of bad for him.. or does he mind? and what do you think about what i said about the earth worms?

 

[sde]

More plants would be very helpful, and would probably get him more comfortable. However you don't have to buy plants. If there are water plants at any pond or lake then you can just get those, but dip them in saltwater and rinse them before you put them in your tank so that anything bad on them will get killed. You might end up with some snails and other water bugs in your tank, but they are just a additional snack

Well, when you move him it probably stresses him a bit, so the less you move him the better. I would keep him in the tank. If you cant add any more plants right now thats ok. Maybe just give him a cork float, and have like a leaf on it or something for him to hide under. That way he would have more room on the float, plus the top of the castle.

Keep feeding him those worms! If he is eating them keep feeding them until he has a noticeable "plump" in his belly. Then stop feeding him so much, and cut down to about one piece of worm every 3 or so days. The reason for this is because he looks pretty thin, so it is a good idea to fatten him up a bit, and then slow down to less often feeding. Also its alright if you don't feed him exactly every 3 days.

Hope that Jimmy Newtron does well! -Seth

 

[Jimmy NewtTron]

Thank you so much for the reply! i actually have a pond in my yard! So maybe i can gather some plants tomorrow!! I'm super excited! Also - i moved a lot of water out of the tank so now it's like half of it is almost land but not quite. So he wont drown in that half, but he will always remain wet. and the other half gets up to like 6 inches deep at the deepest part. so whenever he is ready he can venture in to the deep end. when he does that ill start giving him more water.


Here is a pic of his current tank setup. on the left, shallow water ( that he can walk in), a rock to climb up on, and a little chinese castle thing that he loves to hide in! he freakin LOVES it. and on the right, deeper water for later.

 

[Chinadog]

As I said in your other thread, for the best chance of your newt surviving the horrors of collection, importation and poor care at the petstore, you need to provide it with perfect living conditions. The minimum recommended volume of water for these animals is 10 gallons, with less water than that its very difficult to stop the water quality and temperature from fluctuating wildly. These wild caught aquatic newts are extremely stressed and very often sick, they have usually gone into terrestrial mode as a reaction to the foul conditions at petstores and wholesalers etc, so their tails are no longer adapted for swimming. This is why your newt clings to the decorations, it will never willingly enter open water for fear of drowning, the masses of live plants are needed to begin with, to give it something to hold on to until it returns to an aquatic life and regrows it's tail fin.
You are lucky your newt is eating, many WC firebellies just refuse food until they fade away and die, given the proper environment there is every chance it will survive and adapt to captivity,but with the tank the way it is at the moment it's probably on borrowed time.
I've added a picture of the tank I use for raising baby fire bellies, that's what you should be aiming for at the moment, but with at least 10 gallons of water, once your newt re grows his tail fin the plants aren't strictly necessary but I would still recommend them.