Water problems

i put in way too many blackworms for my chinese fire belly newts and now the water smells really bad and there's also a ton of dead blackworms under the gravel too. Does anybody know what i should do about the blackworms or how to get them all out? Also should I change all the water and put in new water? I heard that doing that can kill the newts. Please help me this is the first time i've kept newts (well i'm only 12 anyways) and i HATE dead animals.

You MUST clean the gravel, immediately. You need a gravel cleaner from the pet store or else you'll have to dump the whole thing (which is REALLY bad, but not as bad as leaving it all in there). If you can't do this right away, put about a half inch of water on wet paper towels in a tupperware container and poke holes in the top.
You need to take immediate action!

Rancid blackworms are incredibly nasty! I ran into something similar a few weeks back (but luckily I had the blackworms in a beaker and not the tank!)....I almost threw up! Ack. I know doing a complete water change is not ideal but if the water quality is that bad you may want to do that. As Ali suggested, I'd try the gravel cleaner first (you can get them in any pet store). Also, check the filter to make sure there aren't any blackworms lodged in there that will dirty the water again. Either way, I think new water will be better than rancid water. Check the levels of ammonia and nitrites in the tank (you can get this kit in the pet store too, they also check for pH and nitrates).

Once this is cleared up, may I suggest something that had worked incredibly well for me? I put a small feeding dish (you can find those in the reptile section) in the bottom- you can even use a small shallow dish you already have at home. When feeding time comes, I put a few blackworms in the dish and the newts now know that that's where they'll be fed. It prevents the worms from ending up all over the place (although I've had a few worms squiggle out). I only feed the newts what they can eat so there's no left over food around to spoil the water. The newts will get trained to go to the dish and eat as well. It's kind of neat to watch. Good luck and let us know what happened!!

I'm all for feeding dishes as well.

I was trying to get out all the blackworms for literally three hours it was so annoying!!! I couldn't get them all out though so I think I'm going to have to get new gravel so that just makes my three hours of labor intensive work USELESS!!! grrrrrrrrrrrr

I think I'm gonna get a feedind dish or something. Just wondering, can you keep the blackworms in a seperate container and put the newts in the container with the blackworms to feed them or something like that? I have water testing stuff already but I only have a test kit for the pH levels.

My tank has some live plants and a rock. My newts look pretty happy I'm just really worried about them. I didn't really mean to put that many blackworms in(I'm a clutz alot of the time especially when I'm tired).

Also How do you feed live brine shrimp to the newts? I'm just wondering.

Sorry that your ordeal took 3 hours. I've never tried putting the newts into a holding tank with the worms. Please consider that newts don't really like to be touched or moved around too much; they can get stressed by such things. Try to handle them as little as possible. I'd strongly recommend the feeding dish method; it works well, keeps the tank clean and doesn't bother the nets in their environment. I'd also stress investing in a water testing kit that tests more than pH. You should really keep an eye on ammonia and nitrite levels; if these get too high they can be toxic to the newts. It's a bit pricey, mine cost around $30, but it will last a long time. And it really sounds like you're concerned about keeping the nets healthy, so the testing kit will help check on water quality. Never tried live brine shrimp, so I can't answer that question; I'm sure someone else here can.

Moderator note: Karen I removed the double post.

Ed

(Message edited by Ed on January 15, 2006)

Thanks for the info, Karen. Tomorrow I'm going to get water testing kits for ammonia and nitrite and a food bowl.

Still looking fo somebody who knows how to feed live brine shrimp tough.

I don't see why you would have to get new gravel. If you clean it with a gravel syphon, those things have pretty good suction. You don't have to get out EVERY SINGLE TINY WORM. You might want to clean the gravel using a syphon about once a week (or a little more often than normal) until you think everything is safe again.

I unfortunately have not invested in a testing kit, but am very careful about what goes in my tanks and how I take care of them. Some people will argue about water changes, but if I think things are fishy (fishy....joke...hehe) then I do a water change and add a few drops of this stuff that levels about ph levels.

How are you currently cleaning the gravel (what took you THREE HOURS?!)?

I'm getting new grave because i put in WAYYYY too many black worms. Also the siphon thing i bought didn't have good enough suction so i had to keep on redoing it over and over and over again. It's probably because of all the gravel I have and the worms all go to the bottom any ways. There's still alot of the worms left in the tank too. Also the gravel still smells really bad even after washing them with hot water. plus the tank is in my room pretty close to my bed so i have to smell it when i sleep and it's pretty gross.

Probably one of the better ways to feed worms are those plastic cones that are suctioned cupped to the side of the tank (see http://store.worldpetstore.com/01083810526.html for an example). You then place a small saucer below the cone to catch any as they fall from the cone. This keeps a huge amount from being dropped into the tank at one time, and if you have the cones that can be sunk into the tank, then you can keep it just above the bottom allowing the newts to eat from the cone and the plate...

With live brine shrimp, I just rinse well and add small amounts and keep an eye on the newts to see how much they are still actively hunting and eating the brine shrimp. Frozen brine is best fed on a shallow dish to allow for easy removal of the excess food.

Ed

Why not just take out all the gravel into a bucket and rinse it many times with water? That should work. If you are getting new gravel, be sure to get the kind that cannot be swallowed (either fine sand, or pebble-sized gravel). Also, use a THIN layer of gravel so that it is easier to clean next time.

A special gravel-cleaning siphon would work. And if you're going to have gravel, you should probably have one of these anyway. There will always be SOME kind of crud getting into the gravel and needing to be cleaned out. Ask at your pet shop.

Another option is just to use NO gravel at all! I keep a lot of my newt tanks this way, especially if I want to feed the occupants live blackworms.

In the meantime, did you remove the newts from the tank? They should not be kept in there with the rotten blackworms! You can use a plastic sweater box to rig up a temporary tank until their home is habitable.

When you say "somebody who knows how to feed live brine shrimp".... do you mean how to feed the live shrimp and keep them alive? Or do you mean how to feed the shrimp to the newts?

By somebody who knows how to feed live brine shrimp I meant like how to keep them alive and how to feed them to the newts.

If you are buying adult brine shrimp from the store, then they will live the longest if they are kept in the refrigerator but they still will die off in a couple of days. If you match the salinity with sea salt the shrimp can be transferred to a larger container and aerated in which they will survive for a few days but feeding them to keep them alive is tricky as too much pollutes the water and kills the shrimp, too little and they continue to starve.
To feed out, pour some through a net and rinse well and add to the tank.
If you want to raise them, this is typically not efficient unless you have a lot of time and space as they require green salt water....

Ed

Cool. By a couple of days how long is that? A week? Also how much would you have to use to feed 5 cynops orientalis?

Oh yeah I did take them out of the tank until i got every thing back to normal and now they're back in.

From what I've read, brine shrimp should not be fed to newts very often due to the fat content. I'm a huge advocate of finely chopped earthworm and nightcrawler. (Found at any bait shop)

Yeah live brine shrimp are supposed to have alot of salt in they so I'm not going to use them that often just once every month or two. My friend has been feeding her newt (1 cynops orientalis) frozen brine shrimp for 1 1/2 years and that's all she feeds it pretty much. I was amazed when I heard that.

For me I guess I'll just keep feeding my newts live worms. I still like blackworms though because when I first fed them the blackworms the newts went CRAZZZZZZYYYYYY!!! so I can't stop feeding them stuff they love cause that's just unfair to them. and I love my newts.

I agree with everyone that feeding dishes are a great way to keep your tank clean and also to keep an eye on how much is consumed.
Here are a couple of pictures of the feeding dish in my tank. I also feed my T. grans life black worms.
I simply leave the worms in the dish until they are eaten and check every day for dead worms and debris. I would suggest to get a turkey baster and take out any dirt and leave the rest of the worms in the dish.







(Message edited by jennewt on January 16, 2006)

WOW!!! I love your tank setup it's AWESOME!!! I could never do anything like that well at least not now. Just out of curiosity how many newts do you have?

Thanks for the pics, they're really helpful.

For more pictures of tank setups see:
http://www.caudata.org/cc/articles/setups.shtml
While you are there, the FAQ might also be helpful.