Problems with juvenile firebellies

I am having a problem similar to the one in the post about the fire belly newts. I have collected 22 eggs (so far). The eggs hatch, go through the larval stage and become terrestrial juveniles. I have had two make it to the terrestrial stage (the rest are still larvae - two different broods). After a few weeks as terrestrial juveniles, they go off food, develop sores, and walk as if they are "drunk."

I have been feeding live black worms (both chopped and whole) as well as frozen blood worms.

I have tried keeping the terrestrial juveniles in both a standard terrarium set up as well as a "sterile" set-up. Neither made a difference.

Any help someone can provide will be gratefully appreciated.

Thank you...

Doug, welcome to the forum. Your problem seemed rather different than the one in the other post, so I moved it here.

There are a number of possible causes. I know how disheartening it can be to raise larvae only to have them drop dead after morphing. One issue is size... how large are they at morph? I notice that the smallest ones are the most likely to die.

I have heard of people having problems with dieing morphs as a result of using live blackworms. If the worms escape into the soil, they foul quickly, and morphs die quickly if their substrate goes bad. What kind of substrate are you using? And what size/shape of water dish?

My best suggestion is to try raising some with other food. Fruit flies work well for me. Also, you might want to try using a different kind of feeding dish for the blackworms.

The first newt was about 6 cm long. The original substrate was a piece of cork bark covered with damp sheet moss. The newt was fed in the water. An 80% water change was done daily. I was only feeding live black worms.

I now have a set up with a slanted tank for my remaining newt. The water is the bottom end, which I use for the (water dish). The rest of the substrate is a piece of mostly damp paper-like towel. The towel and most of the water is changed daily. This morning I have started the remaining terrestrial juvenile on grindal worms. I also have springtails and fruit flies I can use (I'll try both). I will take the newt off of black worms entirely.

Thank you for the quick reply. I'll see what I can do for the remaining 20, if this one dies.

is the paper towel un bleached ,are you using dechlorinated water,
mark

Hi Mark,

The paper towels I am using are unbleached. We use them around here for cage substrate in many enclosures. The water I am using is decholorinated. Any more ideas? I've exhausted mine

Thank you again

You might also want to try training the morphs to hand-feed. Use a toothpick and either worm pieces or bloodworms. Some of them learn this quite readily, and then your housing needs become much easier because you don't have to add food to the enclosure.

6 cm is quite a large size. I wouldn't worry about size unless they are 3 cm or less.