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FBN Not Eating

Ammeratsu

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My female Chinese fire bellied newt is about 3.5 inches long. She’s not eating, but still shedding. When she sheds, she doesn’t eat her skin. I got her to eat a couple of frozen blood worms, but no more.

I’ve tried giving her blackworms, earthworms, bloodworms, pheonix worms, meal worms, crickets, feeder fish, freeze-dried bloodworms, fish food.

She lives in a 20 gallon long terrarium with about 11.5 x 12 inches of land and 18.5 x 12 inches of water(Length)

I use coconut fiber substate with sphagnum and another kind of moss on top. There’s a piece of drift wood to hide under on land and a live plant(Gold Ribbon)

I have 4 inch deep water with a cave in it as well as a leafy fake plant to hide in I use large gravel in the water and there’s a turtle dock floating. I have a filter and dechlorinate the water when I add more with tap water conditioner.

The water temperature is usually around 75 and the air 70-80. The humidity is 70-80%

Also, she never ever goes on land. She always hides in her fake leafy plant underwater. When I first got her, she wouldn’t eat on land, either, and now she won’t eat at all.

Her skin is smooth and without cuts, her eyes, nose, and vent are clear, but she’s not very active

When I first got her, she hate earthworms(Unchopped because I didn’t know much). She ate one every day, then, when I moved her to her new home (20 gallon long aqua-terrarium) she ate some feeder fish and then just stopped eating for months. I thought of trying frozen daphnia or plankton, but I haven’t yet.

I recently did a health check for all her cage-mates, and they all seem healthy and are eating well.

Please help me find out what’s wrong with her or what I can feed her that she’ll eat.

Here's what happened when I tried to feed her today:
I placed her in a plastic container of chlorine free water. I decided to try feeding her plankton. I thawed some, took a pair of tweezers and dangled it in front of her. She ate it. I tried another one, and she grabbed it and spit it out. I tried two more and she did the same. Then, I was dangling a thawed frozen bloodworm in front of her and she did something really weird. She Curled into a ball so her nose touched her tail. Then, she cringed and snapped at her back foot or tail and seemed to go rigid, flip on her back, and roll over so she was upright.

I'm so worried about her. =( Her behavior during that feeding deeply distubred me and I don't know what to do about it.
 
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fishkeeper

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How is her weight? She may not be hungry. Also, try lowering the water temperature a bit to see if that makes her more comfy. I don't really think moving a newt for feeding is a good idea if it is having trouble eating. Most of the time it merely distracts them.

Have you tried live blackworms?
 

Ammeratsu

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She seems like she may be a little underweight, but not much. It's just that she hasn't eaten for three months. And yeah, I tried live blackworms. She took one and spit it out.

As for the temperature, do you know any good methods of lowering temperature? I live in a desert and it gets really hot during the summer. I've tried frozen water bottles but I have too much water to cool it like that.

And what about her strange behavior during feeding? She's done it twice before, but this one was much more noticeable.
 

Jennewt

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Here is a page with a whole list of various methods to keep tank water cooler. Using a screen lid instead of a hood helps a lot.
http://www.caudata.org/cc/articles/cooling.shtml
The advantage of living in a desert (so do I) is that the air is dry, so evaporative cooling of aquarium water works very well.

If the newt behaves normally in her normal tank, I wouldn't worry too much about the strange behavior in the feeding tank. If she'll eat from tweezers, try feeding her bits of earthworm. She may eat better if you feed her in her regular tank rather than moving her for feeding.
 

dane_zu

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dont forget to separate it from your Fire Belly toads and other newt, these other tank mates could be stressing your newt into not eating, as I replied on the other forum, I noticed you left that part out
 

shanerules

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My FBN stopped eating awile ago for almost a month! I had to force feed it. I know it sounds harsh but if they wont eat this helps. put your thumbnail on their bottom lip and GENTLY pull down. then place the food on their tongue. this is how i got mine to start eating again. hope this helped.

-shane
 
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