Marmoratus Questions

I just received my first two marmoratus from Michael Shrom. I have several questions about them since I have never kept this species, or a terrestrial newt before. They are small juveniles.

For now, I have them in a plastic shoebox w/lid until I can make a good lid for my spare ten gallon. I Have them in coco fiber and some dried leaves by suggestion of Michael. I have a shallow water dish, and some terracotta pot hides, made from broken drainage plates for potted plants. The newts don't seem to care, they spend all their time in the open. Is this normal?

The temperature is about 70 in the basement give or take a couple degrees. my aquatic newts have no problems as the water is always a couple degrees below RT, but I am worried about the marms. their throats move very fast as they breathe, and I, being used to only aquatic newts find it alarming since aquatic newts only do this when out of the water which is often in times of stress or heat. What do you suggest here?

Also, there are some diet concerns. I keep my newts on a diet of almost solely earthworms, with the occasional blackworms when there are larvae and juvies. I read in this thread http://www.caudata.org/forum/showthread.php?t=62332 that Marms have dietary problems and need supplements. What is everyone's collective experience here? Does everyone use supplements? What supplements? What kinds of varied diets do people use? And, would adding supplements to earthworms + the occasional stint of blackworms be a sufficient diet?

Lastly, I was wondering if there were people who keep Marms aquatic all year round. I always have preferred the aquatic setup. If it is wrong for the species then i won't. However, I know that in the wild many newts have a land phase each year, but they can be kept aquatic all year round in captivity. I was just wondering it this was true for marms. Thanks!

Patrick

I have raised countless marms from eggs through to adulthood over the years and have never used any supplements??
Mine are always fed on sweepings, live bloodworm[offered on damp kitchen paper] the occasional earthworm, cricket waxmoth larvae etc, and grow quite quickly.
I generaly find that they can be persueded to become semi aquatic at a year or so old, in fact I have had one male completely aquatic and crested up at a year old.
Once they have taken to the semi aquatic set up, Ive found that a lot of these marms will happily stay almost completely aquatic year round, witheither a shelf above the water or a large piece of floating cork bark.
I cannot speak for anybody else, but this is how I keep mine, and all have done just fine.

Well it's been a year since I've had my marms and I still haven't put them in an aquatic setup. I have actually really loved the terrarium look, and they have become trained to feed from my hand so i have no issues at all with the terrestrial setup. I was wondering if there would be any downside of keeping them permanently terrestrial? or what the minimum aquatic period should be for them?

I have two females so they won't breed anyway. It has been really nice to have a green and brown terrarium alongside my aquariums and I think that if i do make them aquatic I'll just put them in another tank and keep the terrarium up and running.

one last question, do those of you who cycle between keeping marms aquatic and terrestrial have any advice on how to transition to terrestrial from aquatic? I was planning on raising an lowering the water level in order to do this. and switch them completely once they spend most of their time in the water or on the land. does that sound like a good idea?