T carnifex concerns

[Ken Worthington]

Hello, I was wondering if I could pick up some advice/reassurance as I'm slightly worried about my four T carnifex juveniles who have shown little activity and haven't eaten in a little while.

They are this years morphed CB newts, they were in perfect health when I got them (6 weeks ago) and have been happy munching whiteworm (mainly), hatchling crickets, and the odd springtail, up until maybe ten days ago. They seem to prefer the terrestrial life, and are about 4 cm long.

Since I got them, they've been housed in an 18"x12"x12" (in metric, I think that's about a foot an' a half ) 460mm glass tank with a substrate of coco-fibre with a layer of live moss on top (organic, from my garden).

A half-coconut shell and the odd broken flowerpot (sterilized beforehand) was providing the hides, and two large 'pub' ash-trays filled with bottled spring water (changed daily), which they very rarely touched, was their access to water.

The ambient temperature is about mid 50s/low 60s F

After a week of setting up this tank, I took a small sample of the substrate and left it in a pint glass overnight. I tested this along with a pint of tank water, and the results were very similar (for all intents and purposes)

My concern is, that when I lift the lid off, instead of seeing a couple of lttle heads popping up in anticipation of food, I can leave a good scoop of whiteworm on their usual 'plastic feeding tea-spoon' and it's ignored, even overnight!

It seems that more neonate crickets/springtails drown than get eaten (although they do seem to want to 'hunt' them, before giving up)

They haven't been themselves, so tonight I separated the four newts and placed them in pairs in two smaller 'clinical' tanks, so hopefully I can monitor and meet their needs more appropriately.

I've put the newts in pairs in two spare plastic tanks I have.
Both are lined with damp unbleached kitchen roll and I'll only use bottled spring water for them. Similar temperatures as before.

At least this way, I imagine, it'll be easier to see how much the little fellas are eating (and defaecating).

I love these little newts, and it's just that they're so vunerable-looking at the moment.

Have I done the wrong thing by moving them?

Do these newts have 'swings' in their dietary preferences?

They really do seem to be showing no interest at all in food and water (however suitable)

I welcome any replies

Thanks in advance

 

[huug]

Hi Ken,

Hope all turned out well for your T.carnifex, or does the problem still excists?

I havent got the anwsers or you i guess!
But i have a good experience with raising carnifex aquatic!
I would recommend you to keep them aquatic!

I find all my crested species do well in an aquatic set up!
Tried terrestrial to and it hasnt always worked out as well as aquatic.
Be sure to fill the tank with lost of waterplants so they can rest on them at the surface!

Greetz,
Hugo

 

[RobM]

:-o how did this thread go unanswered so long!?
Give us an update Ken!

Ps. I am in a mood to be a smartass, so here goes: Inches and feet are both imperial measurements (12" = 1')

 

[Ken Worthington]

: Give us an update Ken!

Ps. I am in a mood to be a smartass, so here goes: Inches and feet are both imperial measurements (12" = 1')

Hi, firstly, things are going well, secondly, I apologise for not posting an update on their progress in the meantime.

The easiest thing for me to do would be for me to upload a quick cam-corder video.....I'll try and post one in the next few days

To cut a long story short, I have a beautiful pair of carnifex (both around 7cm long, or in metric, a bit shorter than my little finger) that enjoy their 2ft x 1ft aquatic tank.
It's about 6 inches deep and has Elodea, Frog-bit, red Ludwigia and duckweed.
No filter or airstone. I 'hoover' with a modified syphon-tube to clear the (bare) floor of the tank from gubbins every day/couple of days, then replacing with treated water/mineral water. (Parameters stable for ages)
There's a piece of cork-bark, a lump of rose-quartz(!), and some broken plant-pot to entertain their terrestrial desires. I'd like to add more land area to offer them more diversity. (moss, a few more 'hides', turtle-dock? maybe)
Water temperature got down to 10*c occassionally, but hovered around 12* for most of the winter, its 14.2* as I type, rarely gone over 16*c.

When I first got these little newts, I also got some tiny I a alpestris from the same guy (all perfectly healthy, btw, appreciated) and not long after I did a trade with a local newt keeper (who loves to tell me stories about the T cristatus/Great Crested that he used to breed back in the pre-Motorway 1950's!)

So moving on a few months, the 'carnies' regularly enjoy Daphnia (magna?), live bloodworms, whiteworms, and will on ocassion be tempted by a small earthworm (which is great to watch, for many reasons!). Only one of them has so far eaten a 'calci-worm'/soldier-fly-larva......although they've looked at them with a "should I or shouldn't I?" expression for a good while before now......(any uneaten ones go straight into the P waltl tank )

The carnies have a 'banana' yellow colour to their spotted bellies which is a nice deep yellow. Like this; :happy:
I'm only now starting to tinker with adding paprika, spirulina, carrot-tops (lol) to their diet indirectly (following the excellent threads on the subject, thanks ppl)

I have a couple of alpines that live in a 'basic but natural' tank, with moss, coco-fibre earth, coconut-shell, plant-pot and slate 'hides'.
The water is in a small dish (changed daily) and leaf-litter from my garden, occasional small wood-lice, springtails and a few hatchling crickets (begged from local shop!) are added to the tank when I can find some.

The similarities with attempting to raise young I a alpestris and T carnifex at the same size/age has taught me something I'd like to share.

As I relative 'newt-noob' I soon found out that;

*whiteworm are easy to culture, wriggle, are 'bite-sized', and can be fed to the guys both in water and on land.....given enough time and the newts 'confidence'. Not a 100% complete nutritional diet, but some food is preferable to no food.

*Feeding a lit'lun involves more patience in the owner (sitting there holding tweezers for an eternity, plus over-time) than it does confidence, eagerness or appetite demonstrated by the newt. (I'd only try a couple of times a day, to save harassing the poor things!))

*Once they are familiar with the food (whiteworm) that appears in their tank then they may be able to be tempted by a w/worm from hand-held tweezers.....(yipee!)
Once they can do this with a small piece of chopped earthworm, then the tears of pride start welling up, just like when your own child reaches a certain 'rite-de-passage'......(losing their first tooth, first school report, asking to borrow the car, their inventive excuses as to why it's just been impounded, etc)

*The next attempt was a tank re-shuffle which involved tilting the tank to encompass a small water area at one end.
I bought some Frog-bit (Limnobium?) from ebay for another tank.....it had doubled in no-time, so I added loads of this, and tried to use their leaves as floating plates.

*When you next attend a job interview and are asked about any particular skills that you may have developed through pursueing any personal hobbies or interests......remember to point out that you can identify newt-poo on tissue paper in seconds, and have extensive experience of utilizing the 'siphon' principle, when applied to narrow plastic tubes, water, and gravity. ...... remarkable dextrous abilities with a turkey-baster....?

*After a while of 'dipping their toes in', the carnifex are doing great!
I probably sit and gaze at them more than I do my other newts, at the moment
(Its great to watch your newts endlessly, but a tank without a comfortable chair next to that tank, ........... what's the point? (I'm over 40 btw))

* Previously having only had experience of keeping a Pleurodeles waltl before obtaining these two species, I now realise that most newts, whether tiny, young, healthy or otherwise, will never have an appetite like a P waltl !!

* In hindsight, it's so easy to stress out over seemingly small and delicate newts, and so easy to feel guilty if you didn't see them all eat at least something everyday.....
The way I see it is that the little guys have plumpish little bellies, and bright eyes, so maybe I should learn to stress less when it comes to looking after the wee fellas.

Hehe :happy: KW

PS. Rob, in my original post, after saying "in metric, a foot and a half", I'm glad that I included a after!
(I'm glad some-one noticed and appreciates the irony )

 

[RobM]

First!
That was quite a read for the morning! It sounds like they are in good hands, if not for their environment but for a good story at least

If you fancy a read maybe have a look at the colour section in this article: Caudata Culture Articles - Raising Juvenile Newts (but only if you think you need more info, you might find useful stuff in the rest of the article too)

I don't think you have anything to stress about, you sound like you are giving the patience and care that they need. :happy: