CFB Escaped, Will he be Alright?

This morning I went to check on my newt, only to discover him missing. After a couple of minutes he crawled out from behind the desk, I was lucky to find him.

I'm not sure how long he was out. About 10 hours went by between checking him at night and finding him on the floor. He was a bit dusty, and a bit dry, but not too bad. So I put him back in his tank and secured any possible escape routes.

What I want to know is, should I be worried about his survival now? I have no idea how long he was out, so could he have gotten to dry? He shed a bit of skin this evening, is that a normal consequence of drying? Also, I'm worried about him getting injured from a possible fall. The desk his tank was on was about 3 feet high, combined with the tank, he might have fallen almost four feet; could he be potentially injured? Since I put him back in the tank he's been acting a bit peculiar, he stayed out of the water most of the day, and it took some prodding to get him to eat his supper. He also appeared to be trying to escape again today; he was on a tree that's near the hole that the filter comes in, I believe this must be how he escaped last night/this morning. What should I interpret from this behavior?

Does anyone know if I can relax, or should I keep an eye on him for a while.

It sounds like it should be just fine and you should just keep an eye on him. The next thing to do is to figure out why he was trying to escape as this is usually due to a water quality issue.

Greatwtehunter said:

It sounds like it should be just fine and you should just keep an eye on him. The next thing to do is to figure out why he was trying to escape as this is usually due to a water quality issue.

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Hmm. Well I did do a water change yesterday morning, though it was no different than any other I think. I just treat tap water to remove chlorine and chloramine, and change about a third of his water with each change. I can't imagine what would suddenly upset him that much. Could he just be curious?

one of mine got out last year was out for over 12 hours and is fine, i dont think there is always a reason for escapes mine found i filter hole i hadnt secured very well and just wriggled out one day, I was lucky to find it, i hadnt changed anything in the tank and the temps and water were fine, it was just one of those things. But a check to make sure everything in the tank is ok isnt a bad idea incase there is a reason

Greatwtehunter said:

The next thing to do is to figure out why he was trying to escape as this is usually due to a water quality issue.

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In my opinion a newt will try to escape whatever the conditions inside the tank. Poor conditions may encourage escape but they are natural explorers.

I dont know about the newt but my african dwarf frog escaped cause the fish were bugging her (it was a girl).

TLaw - please review this page:
http://www.caudata.org/cc/articles/escape.shtml

If you have a "waterfall" type filter that hangs on the tank, your newt would be far better of with no filter at all. Escape kills, lack of a filter usually doesn't. See options here:
http://www.caudata.org/cc/articles/filters.shtml

I wouldn't say that the water quality is necessarily at fault, although it's certainly something to consider. Newts are natural escape artists.

^^ I was thinking of getting a new filter. Does anyone have any recommendations for CFBs? Someone recommended a Fluval plus 1, though I haven't been able to find one, though I did see a Fluval U1, which looked pretty good and similar to the plus 1. Does anyone know if this is any good for a CFB in a 10 gallon?

I once woke up for school and saw a long-toed salamander sitting in my window well in the middle of winter. I quickly went to get it out of the snow, and set up the tank (very exited). And it was doing fine for about three weeks, then one morning I checked on him, but he wasn't there? I looked all over my house but I couldn't find it. That went on for about two weeks, then one morning it was in the middle of my floor doing just fine. A little skinny, and dry but alive and well.
I plumped it up then let it go in the spring. I was very happy it didn't perish!

I've seen a couple threads on them escaping, should I get a aquarium with a closed top or would the mesh top i have be ok?

Mesh has worked all my life.

About 15 years ago I had two red-bellied newts in a tank on a bookshelf. I would occasionally see a large ball of dust crawling across the floor and I would pick it up, rinse it off and then put it back in its tank. Once my dog was walking around with one in her mouth, she was a Malamute and I am shocked that the newt did not even have a scratch on it.

The newts were fine and did not die from all of this. They are surprisingly robust.

(by the way they used to squeeze through by the filter and it only happened a few times... I am usually very careful about animals in my care).

Rachel