Firebelly Newt gas bubble?

overrotate

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Hello everyone,

Very cool community here. This is my first time posting, as my longtime firebelly buddy of over 15 years has been having some buoyancy issues. He has been in great health for a long time, but recently I noticed him struggling to stay level on the floor of his enclosure. His back end wants to float up, so he fights it by swimming downward and often ends up on his back while fighting this buoyancy to stay somewhat on the ground. His front can stay down, but his back end wants to float.

I gently picked him out of the tank once and lifted him near the surface, where he let out a few bubbles and then was back to normal, able to return to the bottom and crawl like his normal self. However, a day later or so and I see the buoyancy issue again. Off and on his back end seems to get overly buoyant.

He has always been fed half a frozen brine shrimp cube every 2 to 3 days, is kept in a 10 gallon tank. Please let me know if you have had any experience with this or remedies to help my little guy out with his issue, I would greatly appreciate it and would love to see him back to his sprightly little self. Thank you!

Brandon
 
Welcome to the site!
Congrats on keeping him healthy for all this time. :)
I've seen this from time to time with my Firebellies and always assumed it was constipation as it seems to disappear after a day or so. I would try varying his diet a little by offering him live blackworms from the petstore, or earthworms and see if it improves.
 
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