Discomafia

[Koda]

I am wondering if you use a special water conditioner for your newts?I found one that claims to add electrolytes and calcium,aid the skin,and remove chlorine.It also claims to remove ammonia and prevent it accumulating.It's called Reptisafe.

Also...I am feeding mealworms and crickets.Do I need the supplement/water substitute for the crickets to make them more nourishing?

Sadly,our firebelly died

I wasn't really surprised as he just had not seemed to thrive from the beginning.He never showed as much interest in food as the other newt did.I just wish I knew if he was unhealthy from the start or if I missed some critical need.The remaining newt,(Snoopy) is still active and interested in everything,an entirely charming creature


Thanks for alll your help.

Koda

 

[Discomafia]

Sorry to hear about your loss.

I would be just gutted if mine died. Let's see if we can figure out what happened.

Firstly, how big was your FB newt? Mine is about 7 cm which I think should be adult. I see many FB newts in pet stores that are smaller than that, must be as a result of poor care and food. Or they're just young?

I feed mine bloodworms and small chunks of freeze-dried tubifex worms. I never feed more than twice a week, what about you. I have yet to try crikets or mealworms, but I did buy something called Newt & Salamander Bites, and they're produced by HBH. I've yet to try it out, will post back some results when I do.

What temperature did you keep him in? That may be another problem, although mine survived a month in my 80F tank in the summer. This was before I knew better. Anything above 70F is not good, so that may be the problem.

As for that special conditioner you were talking about, today just happens to be your lucky day. I found out about this [/B]only yesterday, when I was at my friend's place and I was wondering what he was adding into the water bowl for his 2 water monitors and several boas.

But I think that's just for reptiles, and it's not a water conditioner, more of an electrolyte supplement for his pet's water. He didn't use any de-chlor come to think about it, so I guess that does the work of both. I'm not sure if it is to be used in tanks as I noticed he added quite a bit (not in drops like I usually measure) and that's really impractical if you want to add in in your newt's tank.

Than again, I'm not sure if that was the same brand. I could call him up and ask him for you, he works at the lfs so won't be too hard to get a quick answer for you.

As for doing anything to the crickets, I know many people that feed crickets dust them with this calcium powder or Vitamin D, but that may be just for reptiles. However, I have heard of this often, so I think that many people who buy crickets do this. After all, I don't think it'll hurt the animal. Calcium powder may be just for reptiles because of bone development, but the Vitamin D is defn. for everything.

As for keeping your crickets, I think that getting some carrots or apples and put them and the crickets in a kritter keeper or something like that and put some egg covers in the thing. This is because the crickets don't like light (I think...) You can ask some of the members here how they store theirs, I don't have much experience feeding crickets.

Also, some people buy special cricket food that they use to gut load (feed) their cricket with before they feed them to their pets. Not sure what's the diff. between that and the carrots/fruits. Must be more nutritional.
Did he eat his food eagerly or did he need a lot of persuading? Newts can live for 3 weeks without food I think, so maybe he was starving without you knowing. Mine always has to have food placed in front of his snout, and if he's hungry, he'll take it. You also mentioned that he wasn't thriving from the start, that is important too.

Pet stores seldom know how to take care of amps, so that may be the reason your newt has died. I always go into mine and want to rescue them because they all look so sick and have this strange white fungus growing on their mouths. If only I had the space, I would give it a try.

I don't think you missed any critical need as we've already gone through all of them before, I guess this is just one of the newts that had it too hard in the store he couldn't adjust to life at your home.

Once again, I'm really sorry for your newt and I hope everything continues to be normal with Snoopy.

Anyway, sorry I took so long to reply. I don't always come into this forum like I used to, so next time PM me if you've anything.

 

[Koda]

Thanks...I am pretty heartbroken over the FB although he was with us only a short time.I doubt that temperature was the problem as we are in our cold season here.Room temp keeps the water around 68-70.He never did seem as eager for food.Mostly he ignored it except for a cricket.I may have been feeding too often...every other day.But I am very prompt about getting uneaten food cleaned up.I think maybe he was just too stressed or poorly cared for at the lfs.

The additive is like dechlorinator and takes only a couple of drops per 5gs of water.I wondered about it because I couldn't find any mention of anything like it on caudata.org.It wasn't very expensive...but it claims to do an awful lot for the water.Mostly I'm concerened about making sure he's getting all the nutrients he needs.I have the newt bites too.He doesn't eat them when I offer them.But once I left some on the land and they were gone in the morning

Thanks again,

Koda

 

[Discomafia]

Newts are very sensitive to ammonia in the water. Did you take any tests? If he was eating regularly, then that shows he isn't THAT stressed or sick. Did you provide any hiding spaces like caves or pipes for him? Caudata.org says that the tank needs to be planted (although mine isn't). Is yours?

And I think the stuff we're talking about isn't the same. I'll call my friend up tomorrow and see what he says. And how big did you say he was again?

 

[Koda]

Newts are very sensitive to ammonia in the water. Did you take any tests? If he was eating regularly, then that shows he isn't THAT stressed or sick. Did you provide any hiding spaces like caves or pipes for him? Caudata.org says that the tank needs to be planted (although mine isn't). Is yours?

And I think the stuff we're talking about isn't the same. I'll call my friend up tomorrow and see what he says. And how big did you say he was again?

He hardly touched the food I offered.And he had lots of hiding places.I do wonder if my water didn't suit him.It's clean and the tests I did came out good, but maybe it was too different from what he was used to.I got them at an out of state pet shop and they were just put in a bag with a very tiny amount of water.So they went into the tanks right away.Oh...and he was probably only 5 inches from the nose to the tip of his tail.I really thought I was taking good care of him.And the Taricha is fine and seems very healthy.So I just don't know what went wrong

Koda

 

[Discomafia]

He hardly touched the food I offered.And he had lots of hiding places.I do wonder if my water didn't suit him.It's clean and the tests I did came out good, but maybe it was too different from what he was used to.I got them at an out of state pet shop and they were just put in a bag with a very tiny amount of water.So they went into the tanks right away.Oh...and he was probably only 5 inches from the nose to the tip of his tail.I really thought I was taking good care of him.And the Taricha is fine and seems very healthy.So I just don't know what went wrong

Koda

I think if he hardly touched the food since the start, it might mean that there was a problem before you got him. Maybe the tough shipping conditions or improper housing at the pet store had an adverse effect on him. How were they housed at the pet store? 5 inches would be very large!

http/www.caudata.org/cc/species/Cynops/C_orientalis.shtml

How did you acclimatise him? You said that they were in a bag with very little water, this might have been a problem too. Why was this?