Pachytriton Labiatus

My 4 pachytriton labiatusses live in an aquarium of 50cm to 50cm.
Water level is at 25cm. I know it's not much room but i really
wanted to keep these animals instead of keeping a betta family
in this aquarium. The problem is that I don't have enough place to
put away a big tank. But they are peaceful. I'm sure to have at
least one male (white spots on tail).
I think the other 3 are females. Now there's enough hiding place
and difference to choose a territory. 2 females and the male
live along. One of the females stays rather alone in the tank.
Do I have to provide a good nest for each female ?
Do they keep and guard the nest ?
Does anyone has tips for my set up ?
Best regards,
Tom

You have a water volume of aprox 60l. That´s little for 4 Pachytriton...
You really should try to upgrade them to a biggere tank or separate them into two 60l tanks.

I´m sorry but the excuse of "i have no room for a bigger tank" is not acceptable...if you don´t have the space...don´t buy 4 newts. Sorry if it sounds rude but you have to realize that it´s very irresponsible to buy more animals than you can apropriately take care off.

Anyway, provide shelter for each individual animal as these animals are territorial and defend their own areas. I doubt you´ll be able to prevent agression for much longer, but providing lots of hiding places, lots of plants and decoration will help a lot, since they will work as visual barriers.


Other than that, just keep them cool and well fed.

Oh and welcome to the forum!

Tom, I believe azhael is right on about providing more space for your newts. Many newts you can get away with groups in smaller setups without problems, not really so with these guys.

As azhael said, P. Labiatus in groups can get very "testy". These guys are both territorial and aggressive. Many members that keep them provide fairly large tanks for them, many even keep genders separated for periods of time.

To make your setup better suited for P. labiatus (along cool water and more space) is making sure it is well aerated with a bit of a current. These guys are one of the few that like moving water.

This information and more can be found here on your beauties.
http://www.caudata.org/cc/species/Pachytriton/Pachytriton.shtml

Good Luck!
Mitch

I agree with the posters above in that you really need a larger tank for your P. labiatus. With four animals and a perfect division of the aquarium each animal will only have a 25cm square area to keep as territory, that's only about two newt lengths in each direction; a pretty tiny area!

Providing lots of hides ("nests") is pretty essential to keeping this species without aggression issues. I'd recommend at least two hides per animal. This will also make the available floor space even smaller which makes having a larger tank even more important.

While your animals may be peaceful right now, it is quite likely that they are suffering from these cramped conditions. It's a frequently observed behavior in aggressive, captive fish such as cichlids that when they are stocked at high densities they will not exhibit as much territorial behavior. I imagine that this will also apply to newts. The animals will not be acting aggressive but will still be stressed. This stress is not instantly lethal but does make disease more fatal and more common. Slight changes in water chemistry will also have a much more dramatic effect on the newt's health.