Chinese fire bellied newt vivarium question

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LDavidCohen

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I have two Chinese fire bellied newts, one male one female, in a 10x6x6 vivarium with coconut husk and pebble substrate that's filled 2/3 of the way up with spring water, 3 small aquatic grass plants, and a piece of floating driftwood. I've had one for about a year and a half and another for roughly 3 months. I usually feed them bloodworms or chopped up earthworms, but I've noticed a heavy presence of daphnia in the vivarium as well. I don't change he water, just add some when levels are low. The water has never become stagnant thanks to the plants, and the vivarium receives adequate sunlight for he plants in addition to plenty dark hiding spaces for the newts. Are they able to survive off of the daphnia in the vivarium?
 
How do you have the coconut husk, under the pebbles or a whole one as a hiding place? I think daphnia doesn't cause problems (though I don't have experience with them so somebody wiser could help you better). Anyway I'd suggest you to test the water and do changes as needed. It might be that I understood wrong but three small plants doesn't sound enough to keep water stable if you never change it. You can't see it if there's a problem in water parameters, it could still look "clean". Hope everything is fine there and sorry if misunderstood you, this is not my native language ��
 
Live Daphnia are a good food for small aquatic newts, but I wouldn't rely on them exclusively. I did read that they sometimes make up to 75% of the diet for newts in their aquatic faze, but that was referring to animals that spend a good part of their year living terrestrially eating other thing like insects and worms etc. Chinese firebellies will usually be 100% aquatic in captivity, so it would be best if they are still given worms on a regular basis, I'm sure they'll snack on the Daphnia between meals though.
 
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  • Clareclare:
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