Tank sizes? (for T.a.apuanus)

Hi all, I've read a number of triturus caresheets, but haven't found a "rule of thumb" for how large an enclosure should be. Is there one?

I hope to be getting 7 T.a.apuanus juveniles and maintaining them as a colony.

Thanks for any thoughts! I'm glad to be back on the Caudata site semi-regularily again...

Keegan

PS: not in the right spot... but I also may get 2 N. viridescens... tank size thoughts for them?

A good rule of thumb to follow is to have about 5 gallons for each newt. You can generally house 2 newts in a 10 gallon tank. As for 7 newts, 30-35 gallons should do it.

Alpestris are fairly small. I think a 20-long would be plenty. Certainly, a 30-gallon LONG would be even better. But a "standard" 30 gallon tank is the same size (LxW) as a 20-long anyway.

Thanks guys!

It is so cold out.. man I hope those little guys are having an OK time in the post!

Well, don't you have a thermometer on the tank?

Oh wait, nevermind, you're talking about the wild little guys. Sorry.

What's your method of keeping the temperatures low for the T. alpestris?

Well, I don't have any of that species, however, keeping tank temp low can be done by air conditioning, or putting a 20oz soda bottle full of water in the freezer and then sticking it in the tank. Also, keep the tank out of direct sunlight, and away from any heaters.

Yes, I have heard about all of these. The soda bottle method is pretty inefficient and only good for emergencies, I think. The air conditioning would have to be the kind that's just for one room or everyone else in the house would freeze .
We are using chest freezers with different thermostats so that they only cool down to 55 or 60 degrees F. But in that case you cannot have tanks larger than 10g, unless you put only one or two tanks in a freezer...

Still looking for the perfect solution for people who live with the restrictions of apartment living, I guess.

Actaully I'm talking about the little package of newts that is somewhere in the mail between my supplier and I!

Once they get here, temps should be fine. My room is very cool, dropping to 15C at night, and definitely not reaching 20 in the day... this will change in the summer so I'll have to use an airstone, or move them to the basement...

OR: I was sort of thinking, what if you tried to run you're newts cycles backwards, so that in the hottest part of summer you had them hibernating in the fridge? Household temperatures otherwise stay pretty simmilar - exept in the hottest of summer and coldest of winter

Swan, a small fan should honestly be good enough. You just need to get the air circulating.