Triturus kar. change in behavior

[tony]

I have a 5 year old Southern Crested newt who has always stuck to the water -- only crawling up onto her bark at night. Lately, however, she has been spending nearly all her time out of the water and molting frequently. She does not appear to be ill (alert and eating regularly), but I am concerned by her change in behavior. I don't think there is a water problem (I have been following the same routing of water changing and filtration for three years), and it is always temperate near the ocean here in California. Any advice? Is this a "stage of life" thing? Should I build her a more interesting and substantial land area?

 

[jennifer]

When I had karelinii, I found that they always came out on land during the summer (except for one particular individual that never left the water). Perhaps you are having a hotter summer this year, or perhaps the newt has other cues (day length) to know that this is summer. It sounds quite normal to me. If it's just one newt, a small island is quite OK, as long as it doesn't get too dirty. You'll probably need to clean it often. If there are several of them, and only one is climbing out, you might want to provide a larger island so they can all get out comfortably if they want to.

 

[tony]

Thanks for the tip. Her bark is probably a bit dirty, come to think of it. Any advice on how to clean it up -- or is there a better synthetic alternative?

 

[jennifer]

I take out the bark and swish it around in a container of water or under the tap. I rinse it in tank water afterwards to rinse off the chlorinated water.

 

[tony]

Another question about my newt: she has not regularly gone in the water since I sent this posting initially, and I am getting worried about her. Because of her change in habits, it has become very hard to feed her and I am afraid she is losing weight. Any further advice is much appreciated! Tony

 

[felipe]

I'm with the same problem here! All my four triturus where prefering to stay in dry land, but now the temperature of the aquarium is lower than before and they are returning to the water!!!