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One of my Firebellies died today

BLizardNewt

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Ok, this is probably going to be hard to follow so ill explain a bit first. I bought the only Firebelly newts my local shop had. These were already mostly aquatic and very thin, two preferred the turtle dock I got and two preferred to be in the water all the time. The two land ones rarely ever swam so I had to feed them wax worms, or meal worms, each worked well, but the water buddies rarely ever went onto land so I got them Black worms which they loved, so I began to cultivate them in the same tank, have had no issues, they thrived, and the newts had unlimited food till today. I found that some of the worms had died off since yesterdays cleaning and polluted the water so I added a second filter to relieve stress on the main filter, it helped but today I found that one of my newts had gorged on worms so much so that he couldnt swallow them and died, I also found that every worm in the tank had died suddenly but had been alive at least a few hours before as the newt was. Plenty of air in the water, plenty of food and coverage. I have two cordy catfish and two guppies who are unharmed by whatever happened.
I do weekly water changed, clean the objects inside, pump out any dead worms I find as well as waste, so I dont know what happened.
I am going to cultivate the worms in another tank from now on just in case but have any of you had a newt eat itself to death?

Thanks everyone.
 

CatSpit

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That's sad to hear, do you have gravel in your tank or any other small objects that the newt may have accidentally ingested while eating?
 

BLizardNewt

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Nothing too small, the smallest rock was half his size, he simply ingested too many worms I guess. He liked to eat a lot of worms when he hunted, after each hunt he'd be fat from it, his appetite was bigger than his stomach, lol.
When i took him out he was stiff and much heavier than he should be. It is possible he was overwhelmed by the sheer quantity of worms in the spot.
 

Asevernnnn

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I feel like it did not choke as a lot of newts can eat earthworm that are like the same size as them. Its possible that it could have died of a disease or from water quality, amphibians are a lot more sensitive to water quality compared to like fish, and it could have gotten a disease easily since I'm assuming they're wild caught since some are avoiding water. Other possible reasons of them refusing water could be the fish, many newts will seek out fishes waters and will not go into water with fish, not to mention catfish can be harmful to newts and I would remove them as soon as you can. If you want your terrestrial newts to go aquatic I would try putting them in a very shallow aquatic setup with lots of live plants and no dry land and increase the water slightly every few weeks. Ive heard of deficiencies happening when raised on solely blackworms, I would switch to a staple of earthworm/nightcrawler, chopped if needed be, or a high quality newt/salmon/carnivore pellet if they'll accept it.
 

BLizardNewt

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It could be disease they are wild caught and ive heard of pet stores not treating them well and some being sick. I say he choked because his mouth was packed full of dead black worms, but maybe it wasnt the reason. Water quality is kept well within limits, its cleaned weekly, water is prepared, with water conditioner and goes into the tank at about 60-65 degrees,

I only recently got the fish, the now dead newt and his buddy continued to go into the water like nothing changed, the other two have never liked being in water though the original tank at the pet store had no real dry land, they just hid inside and under the wood objects.

The first tank I had them in was less than an inch of water with more than enough area to bask on, maybe that changed their life style.
 

Asevernnnn

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The tank should ideally have 10 gallons of water at least (for an aquatic newt), filled with plants, with weekly water changes and spot cleaning, filtration not being necessary. I would also remove the fish, as they are probably adding additional stress and the Cory cats can be dangerous. 100% water changes should never be done unless cleaning out for a new specie or for a disease or fungal break out. I would go ahead and put the hydrophobic newts in the shallow setup I described as well
 

Chinadog

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I also think it sounds like a water quality issue of some kind, dead blackworms would cause ammonia levels to spike very quickly. What were the water parameters?
Aaron is right, you should remove either the fish or the newts, very few newts will coexist with fish in nature, to force them to share a tank usually causes great stress and could well be the reason the other two have abandoned the water.
 
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