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Some Questions on C. Orientalis and tank.

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Gingrich

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First, how old are the newts at the pet shop and how much water they need? They are barely 2 in. long with the orange/reddish underside and have smooth-looking skin (C. Orientalis). More importantly how should I make my tank to be adequate for two of them. I've tried various ways of setting it up but so far all I have is the tank (10 gallon), two rocks I found and boiled, gravel, and a small plastic "log" hideaway. I plan on having like 3-5 in. of water but I want to know what plants and filters work best before adding it. After the newts grow larger I'm planing on eventually moving them into a larger 20+ gallon tank because of their small size. Any suggestions or ideas would be greatly appreciated, thanks.
 

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MissJones

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You're actually in the exact same situation as me when I first got my newts. They were the same species and size. Mine were a little less than a year old.
I wanted to reply because one of my newts died soon after I took them home, so hopefully you won't make the same mistakes I made:

The main problem I had was that one newt was slightly larger and far more dominant than the other. As a result, the weaker one refused to go in the water and refused to eat, because whenever it did the other would attack it. You can do a number of things to (hopefully) prevent this:

Give each newt it's own dry spot.
Feed frequently. Always feed the dominant one first.
A ten gallon should be big enough, but if they start fighting, that might me a signal that they need more space.
 
Jennewt

Jennewt

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It's impossible to know the age of newts in a pet shop. They are always wild-caught, which means that nobody could possibly know.

From what you have shown in the photo, I would remove about 75% of the gravel (it just acts as a dirt trap). Make an island just above water level by stacking the rocks. Put the wood hide in top of the rock, above the water level. How deep the water is doesn't matter a whole lot.

For a tank like this, I would recommend just an airstone. If you can make the water deep enough, you could use a sponge filter or box filter. See:
http://www.caudata.org/cc/articles/filters.shtml
 
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