Newt 101

I would like to introduce myself. My name is Alexandra and I moved to the US from Hamburg, Germany about seven years ago. I currently reside in Chicago. I just adopted a newt from a friend who works as a curator at the Trailside Museum in River Forest, IL.

The Trailside Museum takes in sick and injured wild animals such as coyotes, foxes, and birds of prey. Some time ago a couple dropped off a newt because their son went off to college and could no longer care for the newt. Because Trailside does not take in amphibians, my friend gave the newt a temporary home. She has several adopted animals already including a rabbit, three cats and now she adopted two abandoned German Sheperds. Needless to say, she was getting overwhelmed caring for all her room mates.

I had never seen a newt before I visited her. It was love at first sight. A couple of weeks ago my friend brought the newt unexpectedly to a party at a friend’s house. Now I am living with a newt (his name is Izzie) and don't know much about amphibians. Izzie is a California newt (at least I think he is). The first thing I did was read up on newts on the internet to get a basic understanding of their needs. Then I went and bought a larger tank. Izzie came in a tiny 5 gallon tank, it was really a sad sight.

Izzie is about 12 years of age and I really felt bad that his previous owners kept him in such a confined space. He currently has only plastic plants in his aquarium (I provided him with a little land area with moss, but he seems to prefer the water). I would like to give Izzie the best habitat possible. I checked out the vivariums some of you have put together and they are so beautiful. Eventually I would love to put something like that together for Izzie. Here are a couple of questions I have for all you old-timers.
-are newts social animals? Do they prefer to share their living quarters with the same species? If so, do you have any suggestions where I could obtain a second california newt?
-how deep should the water in the tank be? I saw some tanks with very deep water and the newts walking around on the bottom. Izzie seems to float, rather than submerge. The water is about 1 ½ - 2 inches deep. Do they prefer deeper water?
-life plants - which ones are safe and how on earth are you going to clean the tank/water once you introduce life plants?
-Is it ok to change the diet? I just switched to feeding freeze dried tubifex worms because they are higher in protein and fat than frozen blood worms (I think izzie is too skinny. I will attach an image so you guys can let me know what you think)
I have more questions, but I don't want to make this post so long that nobody will read it.

Any feedback is very much appreciated!




(Message edited by mike_g on May 19, 2005)

Hello Alex,

I´m not a specialist in Taricha granulosa (Izzy´s species name) myself, but I try to answer the questions I can

For first Information you should search the web for "Taricha granulosa", it belongs to the genus "salamandridae"; there are a lot useful resources, I would recommend:

http://elib.cs.berkeley.edu/cgi-bin/amphib_query?query_src=aw_lists_genera_&where-genus=Taricha&where-species=granulosa
http://www.livingunderworld.org/caudata/database/salamandridae/taricha

<blockquote><hr size=0><!-quote-!><font size=1>Alexandra Haban-Spanos wrote on Thursday, 19 May, 2005 - 08:03 :</font>

"-are newts social animals? Do they prefer to share their living quarters with the same species? If so, do you have any suggestions where I could obtain a second california newt?
-how deep should the water in the tank be? I saw some tanks with very deep water and the newts walking around on the bottom. Izzie seems to float, rather than submerge. The water is about 1 ½ - 2 inches deep. Do they prefer deeper water?
-life plants - which ones are safe and how on earth are you going to clean the tank/water once you introduce life plants?
-Is it ok to change the diet? I just switched to feeding freeze dried tubifex worms because they are higher in protein and fat than frozen blood worms (I think izzie is too skinny. I will attach an image so you guys can let me know what you think)
I have more questions, but I don't want to make this post so long that nobody will read it.
"<!-/quote-!><hr size=0></blockquote>
Newts are not really social species; they take only interest of each other in breeding season. When you don´t want to breed, you can keep him single. However; when you decide to give company to Izzy, it´s important to avoid mixing different species, because the poisonous secretes of the skin can harm other species.

Now, I would recommend to read the websites first; because when I start to write too much, YOU won´t read it as well

Greets, Ingo

Hello Alexandra,

That sounds wonderful. The sites above are good, but there is also a caresheet written for T. granulosa on this website. http://www.caudata.org/cc/species/Taricha/T_granulosa.shtml

It was written by Nate Nelson, who now works for the Ft. Worth zoo, so the information is quite nice.

As for food, if you want to fatten Izzie up and aren't too squeamish, try to buy a tub of nightcrawlers. Chop them up to bite-size and if Izzie is any respectable Taricha, he will appreciate the good meal.

Freeze-dried foods are poor in nutrients, despite what the label says.

Oh and do you mind if I move this to the Newt and Salamander help section? I'll move it at the end of this week.

(Message edited by apples on May 19, 2005)

Hello everyone,
I was so excited reading your posts this morning. I feel so much better knowing that you guys are out there. Ingo, thank you so much for the links. Don't worry ,I will ready them all tonight after work. Pin-pin, I don't mind at all if you move the post to the help section. I must have missed that section...sorry about that.
Thanks again! I am looking forward to learning from you guys and making a nice home for Izzie!

I just read up on some of the links you guys sent me that suggest to keep the water between 8 and 15 centimeters for the species Taricha granulosa and raised Izzies water level to 8 cm. I have never seen him this active! He is swimming all over the place, exploring his tank. He looks happy!

Hi Alex,

that sounds great!
Now about the cleaning of the water: Since Taricha granulosa is mostly aquatic, you should think of a kind of filtration for the aquarium. For the beginning you should run the new setup with water and filtration for at least two or three weeks before you can introduce "Izzy".

About the different filtration systems you can learn a lot at This Article by Jennifer Macke.

Greets,

Ingo

Hi Ingo,

Thanks for the info. I will get a new tank and get it ready and then transfer Izzie. I found this web-site http://www.aquabotanic.com/abstore/index.html to get some water plants. Do you know how often the water needs to be changed once I have a filter system? I posted a question on the Help forum, but haven't heard back from anyone yet. Perhpas you know. Izzie has been moving about a lot since I raised the water level, but doesn't seem to be able to submerge. Is this normal? My friend who had him before said he never submerged while she had him either. Sometimes he looks like he is trying to submerge but can only go so far with the help of his hands holding on to leafs. Any ideas?

Hello Alexandra,

I've moved your post now to the North American Newts threads since you have a few photos and we might be able to direct this towards Taricha care.

As for water quality, you have to test it out yourself. Typically 1/3 of the water ever two weeks if you do not have a well-cycled tank is the rule of thumb. You can buy kits to test the ammonia, nitrite, and other levels. This can be done for the first month, and then you'll get a feeling of how often you need to change the water.

How is Izzie doing?

Hey Alexandra! I just got two T. grans a few weeks ago, so I'm new at this too. I have been posting updates as to how my newts are doing on a thread in N. American newts. The thread is called "T. grans at last!" The photos and suggestions from others on that thread may help you out. I made my water depth at about 7.5 inches and they just love it. They do spend a lot of time laying on the pothos leaves half in water, half out. I think they're trying to stay cool because I can only get my water down to about 69 F. Good luck with everything, Izzie is adorable.

http://www.caudata.org/forum/messages/13/36387.html?1117639042

(Message edited by lindsay on June 05, 2005)