Ari P
New member
I wanted to post this up incase it hadn't been mentioned before and to spare anyone else the horror show I created for my newts.
I had a happy collection of 8 living in a simple temp tank for a year with no issues. During that time I built what I thought would be a much more natural environment for them with fish, snails, shrimp, clams and a moss laden, orchid filled terrestial section for some matching dart frogs. The Strauchii newts and the ranitomeya vanzolinis nicely matched and seemed to be doing excellent in the enclosure. What didn't seem to be thriving was the aquatic plants. In lieu of a true CO2 system I opted to try out API liquid CO2 - billed as safe for fish, water critters and excellent for stimulating water plants.
Within 2-3 weeks of starting the daily dosing according to the bottle my newts started acting differently. I spotted a couple on land which had been somewhat rare and thought optimistically that my son and I were going to get lucky and experience some newt lovin and maybe some babies. I could not have been further from the truth. I started removing dead newts and a visit to a local aquarium store informed me that the product in liquid CO2 is a form of formaldehyde that breaks down organic matter in the tank thus increasing CO2.
In an effort to create a better living space for my little guys I ended up with a newt death camp. Ashamed to be responsible for their deaths I wanted to post this as a warning to any other well intended aqua-scapers on here.
I had a happy collection of 8 living in a simple temp tank for a year with no issues. During that time I built what I thought would be a much more natural environment for them with fish, snails, shrimp, clams and a moss laden, orchid filled terrestial section for some matching dart frogs. The Strauchii newts and the ranitomeya vanzolinis nicely matched and seemed to be doing excellent in the enclosure. What didn't seem to be thriving was the aquatic plants. In lieu of a true CO2 system I opted to try out API liquid CO2 - billed as safe for fish, water critters and excellent for stimulating water plants.
Within 2-3 weeks of starting the daily dosing according to the bottle my newts started acting differently. I spotted a couple on land which had been somewhat rare and thought optimistically that my son and I were going to get lucky and experience some newt lovin and maybe some babies. I could not have been further from the truth. I started removing dead newts and a visit to a local aquarium store informed me that the product in liquid CO2 is a form of formaldehyde that breaks down organic matter in the tank thus increasing CO2.
In an effort to create a better living space for my little guys I ended up with a newt death camp. Ashamed to be responsible for their deaths I wanted to post this as a warning to any other well intended aqua-scapers on here.