Raising chinese fire belly morphs

[mianewt]

I have seen that some raise their morph fully aquatic while other terrestrial or semi terrestrial, I was wondering if you who have raised them aquatic used a substrate or did you leave it barebottom? I was also wondering about water depth used with lots of plants. I have some newly morphed little ones but I am unsure if my set up is ok so would like more detsils from experienced people. Mine are presently in a 20 gallon long tank with a sand substrate, 4 inches of water with many pieces of wood, java moss and floating plants. I put in a piece cork bark as some kept climbing the glass and I was afraid they would drown. How many can be kept in a 20 gallon long? I have about 10 that have morphed and 5 that are still larvaes.

Thank you for any information on your experiences you can give me:happy:

 

[Sith the turtle]

I suggest bare-bottom for ease. You can see if they are eating and pooping

 

[Chinadog]

I think the key is to have lots of plants, they should be literally crammed in there so there's very little open water, its very easy for the morphs to drown otherwise. Bare bottom is definitely easiest from a cleaning point of view, to begin with there could be bits of uneaten food until the baby newts get the hang of feeding in the water again.
Raising Cynops and Hypselotriton aquatically is discussed in this thread...

http://www.caudata.org/forum/f1173-...275-raising-metamorphs-aquatic-new-way-p.html

...and this is my thread on raising Japanese firebellies in the water. In the end most of them were kind of semi aquatic I guess, but some never set foot on land. Good luck with them.

http://www.caudata.org/forum/f1173-...423-raising-c-pyrrhogaster-fully-aquatic.html

 

[mianewt]

Thank you very much for your replies. I will be keeping it bare bottom and I will be adding more plants as soon as my petshop gets in more, then I will take out some of the pieces of wood.

How many can be kept in a tank that is 30 by 12 inches. I have a 20 long and a 29 gallon tank and I was wondering if I should separate them or can I keep all 15 together until they grow more and then separate them?

 

[Chinadog]

That tank looks perfect, all of them should be fine in there.

 

[Niels D]

I've raised them in a semi-aquatic setup or fully aquatic, using only 10 centimeters of water filled with lots of Javamoss. When using a semi-aquatic setup I put in a pile of gravel at one side of the tank. You will see the animals both on land as in the water (sometimes). Results of both methods were good. I'm now using a fully aquatic setup for this year's batch, but now I'm keeping the adults in there as well.

 

[mianewt]

I will do semi aquatic as I am using cork bark and wood. Do any of you use a filter?

 

[Chinadog]

Looking at your tank you won't need a filter with all those plants, any kind of water movement is undesirable for H. orientalis, especially babies. To get them to stay in the water instead of following their instinct to leave you need to make sure everything is perfect.