Ill? Not Eating?

Hopefully someone can point me in the right direction. I recently "adopted" an Oriental Fire Bellied Newt from a girl who was moving. Unfortunately I know almost nothing about amphibians. I've read many of the FAQs and care guides on this site (and while very helpful) I'm a bit stuck.

I've had the newt for about 2 weeks now. He used to be housed with a Betta, but now he enjoys his own place with a pebbly bottom and log to climb up on. But he isn't eating, anything! Not the Newt Bites, and not the live Small Meal Worms that were suggested to me by a PetCo person. And now there appears to be some sort of extra goo on his skin, and a "dried leech" look to parts of his body. Is he ill? Is he just taking a long time to adjust to living alone? Or have I just royally screwed something up? Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

First, it's good you moved him to his own tank as it's not a good idea to mix newts with most fish (or other newts for that matter). Regarding the food, sometimes newts get stressed and a move from one place to another can do that, so they may not eat for awhile. I've found my newts don't respond to newts bits much, they definitely prefer live food best. I don't know much about meal worms, but you may want to try blackworms or you can get frozen blood worms from petco. If you're not squeemish, you can also dig up some earthworms and chop them up (assuming you don't have pesticides in your soil, or you can go to a bait shop for those). Try hand feeding him with tweezers or a siphon, so you can make sure he's eating something and doesn't get too skinny.

What kind of tank is your newt in? How amny gallons of water, how is the water quality? Have you checked pH, ammonia, nitrites, nitrates? What about the water them? As newts prefer cooler temps to warmer (another reason to keep them housed separately from fish).

I'm sorry I can't help you with the skin condition much. Are you sure he's not shedding? It sounds like there may be a fungal or parasitic infection of some sort. I know someone here with alot more expertise can help with that issue. Good luck!

To the pet store again! I have no problem with worms, but I'm not so sure we've got a bait shop thats open right now.

Its a 1/2 gallon tank, about 1/2 filled with water. The PH test strip looked like it was close to neutral. I don't know how to check the other things. And I added some Betta Bowl cleaner since that's all I've got. The water is at room temp (72 or so), and I can't figure out if it needs to be cooler, and how to do so.

What does shedding typicaly look like anyway? I've always had mammalean pets, so non-hair shedding sounds a bit different.

Thank you for your help! Really really!

You may want to get a larger tank, my 2 newts are in a 10 gallon tank, which is probably as small as you want to go. (Did you mean your tank is 0.5 gallons or 1 - 2 gallons?) Also, get a screen top (probably in the reptile isle of the pet store), the screen top will help in evaporation to keep the water cool. Room temp is the maximum temp you want! Cooler is always better; I always keep some water in the fridge, so when I do partial water changes I can add cooler water. Temp especially becomes as issue during summer months! You have to really try to keep the newts comfortable and cool. Pet store commonly sell water testing kits which contain tests for pH as well as ammonia and the other things I mentioned. This site also has an article on water cycling which you should read (do a search) which goes into the specifics of what happens to the water with living creatures and plants in there.

Do you have plants in your tank? It's nice to have live plants (which you can also get at pet stores) but if time for tank maintenance is an issue, you can always pick up nice fake ones. My newts like to swim around and hide in the plants. Try to provide a hiding place for your newt too.

Newt shedding is very interesting. The skin comes off, often in one piece, it almost looks like they're peeling a glove off themselves. Newts like to eat their own shedding so don't be alarmed if you see that. They often shed from head to tail and twist themselves around to pull their shedding off with their mouths. But if you say your newt has "goo" on his skin, that would look different than shedding.

I'd be alittle cautious about adding any cleaner (or anything else) to the tank. You may just have to empty the tank and clean it by hand if you think there's a problem.

Since your tank is small, you don't really need a filter, but then you have to be diligent about checking the water quality. Should you buy a larger tank, you should get a filter, which will help keep the tank clean.

I know starting the joys of newt keeping can be very expensive at the beginning, but once your newt's home is established, the most expensive part is probably done!

When time allows, definitely check out as many articles as you can on this site....you can learn so much! I'm learning new things all the time, and that's part of the fun.

http://www.luverly.org/almost/Newt%20002.jpg
http://www.luverly.org/almost/Newt%20003.jpg

The second one kind of shows the little kink type things in his tail. And he might be shedding, there was a film floating around that looked like it could've been skin.

As for everything else, thank you very much again for your help. I really really appreciate it! Hopefully it will work and he'll start to eat and whatnot.

I think mealworm is bad for the newt. Maybe too big. And it might have too much fat in it for a stable diet.
I will suggest bloodworm or blackworm. If you cann't get a live one, try some frozen bloodworm.

I think you will need at least a 5 gallon tank for the newt. You also have to cycle the tank water and condition the tap water before using it. Do you have previous experience with aquarium? Those experience may help as well.

Make sure the tempeture is not too high. Try to keep it lower than 72F for CFB

I have asked local pet stores about water quality and they suggested to use distilled or reverse osmosis water. Tap water contains fluoride and chlorine which is not good for newts let alone humans. And of course the newts absorb the water through their skin. Good luck!

(Message edited by kristien on March 18, 2006)

Dont use distilled water on amphibian. If tap water is bad, use spring water. I think due to reverse osmosis, distilled water is unhealthy or lethal to amphibian.

Tap water's chorine can be removed by water conditioner. Or let the water seat still for severl days.

Might better read this article.
http://www.caudata.org/cc/articles/Spring_water.shtml

(Message edited by achiinto on March 18, 2006)

Distilled and RO water are bad to use because the process to purify the water also removes all the minerals (these are the things that make water 'hard'), and this is bad. Because of diffusion, any ions in the newts body (which it needs) will diffuse into the water, which is low in ions. That's bad.

I just use tap water. If I'm living in an area with municipal water supply, I use Stress Coat brand dechlorinator.

Thanks for pointing that out. I seem to be getting a lot of conflicting info from different sources. I read the info on this site and it seems logical so I will try the spring water technique. I was going to use tap water with a dechlorinater solution but I was told that the commercial dechlorinaters sold in stores actually cause other problems for the water. I have been reluctant to use any chemicals like that. You may however have a reputable brand there Joan. I haven't heard of it.

Thanks again for the info

(Message edited by kristien on March 21, 2006)

Chlorine is not a problem as long as it's dealt with appropriately. It is important to know whether your tap water contains chlorine versus chloramine, as this affects what you need to do. I've never heard of any reports regarding harm from de-chlorinating products, except that some may be bad for invertebrates. Do you have any sources for the idea that these products cause problems?

An alternative method to remove chlorine (and other nasties) is a Brita-type drinking water filter. That might be an option you could consider for purifying water for your aquarium.

One problem with using bottled water is that you have to lug the stuff home. If you have a big tank, it wouldn't really be possible to do the recommended 10%/week water changes with bottled water long-term.

If you were really determined to use distilled or RO water, you could add back minerals. This is what the serious saltwater aquarium people do. You'd need to get some good advice from aquarium pros to do this correctly.

I don't want to get into the whole fluoride controversy, but many of us have kept amphibians alive for many, many years using ordinary tap water. Personally, I don't worry about the fluoride in the slightest.

snip "If you were really determined to use distilled or RO water, you could add back minerals. This is what the serious saltwater aquarium people do. You'd need to get some good advice from aquarium pros to do this correctly. "

Just a clarification on this, distilled and RO are used two different ways. If the distilled/RO are added to the tank to replace water that has evaporated then do not add replacement minerals. This practice will cause the dissolved mineral content to continually increase.... (Think of how the great salt lakes are formed).
If you are using it to replace water removed for a water change then I would suggest adding the replacement minerals to it.

Ed