New T. verrucosus, photos and questions

[Eva]

I got four beautiful little T. verrucosus from Julia (bellabelloo) last week.

Unfortunately two of them developed skin sores. One had a white patch behind its parotoid gland. I separated it, gave it a salt bath, and the next day, after a shed, it was gone. This newtlet is now back with the others.

The other one has a different problem. I noticed a rough sore area on its back where the skin seemed to be coming off. This newtlet was also separated and is receiving salt baths. The area looked good the next day after it shed its skin, just very smooth. Now I noticed a sore spot which was weeping a bit. This animal is still kept separate and is still getting salt baths twice a day.

They are all kept semi-aquatically with shallow water and islands. The ones afflicted with the skin problems like to be on land now. I decided to keep their habitat simple so I can clean it well and often, and will be inspecting them every day. The temperature is about 22˚C. I would be interested to hear what more experienced keepers think. These are photos: 1. of the white sore which is now gone, and 2. and 3. of the sore back of the other animal - before salt baths and today. Thank you for your help.

[mr cyclone]

Gorgeous wee newts Evut.I have noticed sometimes that the verrucoses juveniles sometimes have slight imperfections on their skin during Metamorphosis,these skin blemishes seem to disappear by themselves,(my experience).
I had several with white marks/sores initially and I was concerned,but as you've seen they seem to be very hardy and shed the mark off.I f you want the newts to go aquatic and bulk up/grow fast,place them in an aquarium with a heater at 22 to 24C.
Martin Davies and Ummi both advised me before that this was the temperature that would keep them aquatic.I lost juveniles before trying to raise them terrestrial,they wouldn't eat anything.Those are lovely wee beasties good luck with em!

[Rodrigo]

First of all, congrats on your new newts, Eva!
I don´t know what else to say about the white sores except to continue with the salt baths. The one with the weird patch of skin looks like a healed sore to me. Given that it doesn´t look shiny or wet, i would assume it´s rather benign and probably will go away with the next shed. I would provide it with a variety of humidities levels to choose from and good ventilation, just to avoid more skin problems.

[Eva]

Thanks for your advice. They do seem to be healing well. I gave them a hide on the land area which they utilised during the healing period. I will try to get them in the water when I'm sure they're all ok. They are robust animals (Julia fattened them up nicely ) and like their food.
Here are some more pictures:

[Eva]

The newts have grown a lot since I last posted photos here. They are living in a bigger planted tank now and rarely come out of water. Their appetite does not cease to amaze me...especially one (I'm guessing a female) who has the shape of a sphere after yesterday's feeding. She (?) was strangely pale this morning and now has zombie-like eyes, I assume that a shed is due as the animal cannot possibly fit its old skin.
I feed them with tweezers and sometimes it's hard work to keep them from eating another one's limb but I have been managing this quite well so far. Only once, and this was with no food around, I caught one eating his sibling's tail - it had swallowed all of it...

[Julia]

They are looking really lovely Eva, and so is their tank. Feeding time is so much fun with this species

[Jakob]

Nice tank! I am still wondering why planted tanks havent spread around the hobby that much still. How large is that tank? I assumed it was a standard 60 cm?

[Eva]

Good guess, it is a 60 litre. It has a bit of soil and some sand and a small sponge filter. Even with just a 15W light, the plants grow really well. The newts love sitting in them close to the surface.

[kettering bloke]

Hi great looking newts. Did you consider you nitrate levels ? They zoom up when you first stock your new tank with a clean filter and drop as the de-nitrifying baacteria increase. I find the plants help lots with mine and if you keep them cut they grow quicker and in the process use up more nitrates that you can then take out the system. Regards and well done KB

[Eva]

The tank has been running for months so I didn't test it. I just added the newts and dropped the water level for them

[Eva]

These are a couple of recent photos of the newts. They have grown into small whales...about 14cm at the moment. I feed them only every third day, because otherwise they get too fat and also too crazy, constantly eating each other. I had a bit of a scare with one having its leg nearly chewed off, but luckily it healed well in a quarantine set-up with salt baths. They seem to have calmed down a bit now but you can see they are still covered with small scabs.