Sick/ dying Noto please help

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Ltdanicecream

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I bought two notos at a pet store that looked to be in good condition, I've had them for 3 days. The male hasn't ate once, and I thought he was dead this morning. I'm going to put him in a tubberware with cold water and some
plants and put him in my fridge.

He has red veins all over and I think it's stress. Sorry but Ive gotta go to school thanks for your help.
 
The veins sound normal.
The problem with all pet-shop notos is that they are all wild-caught and exposed to bad conditions...so by the time you purchase one, they are very stressed and possibly ill. Even if they are healthy, this species seems to adapt very badly, and many die shortly after being purchased.
Three days is nothing , though...don´t dispair! Offer apropriate live foods, specially waxworms are excelent for getting picky eaters back in the game.
If you think about getting more newts in the future, remember, pet-shops newts are WC and a bad option....you are much better off with captive bred.
 
Hey I'm checking this in school. Thanks for the quick reply. The veins are normal? I read a story about an axototl (sp?) that had them and it died. I know that the pet shop stores are all WC, and I really hate that, but I bought two in hopes of breeding them and selling or even giving the offspring to the store so that the demand is met. Is he alright in my fridge? It's in a container with about 1cm of water, and its in the dark part. (hidden by a case of pop). I have water bottles in there that don't freeze so no worry about that.
 
Do you have them in an aquatic setup to begin with? Unless they are in their terrestrial, bright red phase, they'd be wanting to live in cold water anyway. Have you read our care sheet?
http://www.caudata.org/cc/species/Notophthalmus/N_viridescens.shtml

Keep us updated. I don't really know if that fridging is necessary, I've never fridged mine. It would be great if you could post a picture, if at all possible; that would help us evaluate the state of your newts.
 
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The veins are rather noticiable in this species, so i wouldn´t worry, but a picture sure would help.
This species is not hard to breed, but it´s considered hard to raise. The juveniles morph very small, and the long eft phase is a bit of a nightmare sometimes. Although your idea is very noble, i don´t think it´s viable. Raising this species in large numbers to supply pet-shops would be very hard. You could offer them to other hobbyists, though, and that would be helpful.

If, as Dawn says, they are adults, then i wouldn´t worry about the temps as long as they are not higher than 20ºC. If so, fridging the newt would be unnecesary.
If they are still in the eft stage, they can drown even in 1cm of water, so watch out.
 
nope, they are aquatic adults in full breeding dress. maybe the male is just caught up in the looove fever? maybe the separation will be good for him.

thanks, ill post a picture tomorrow if i can figure out how. ill have to take a good one tonight.

thanks a lot.:D so do you think he'll be alright? i don't like WC to begin with and when they die it makes me feel terrible :(
 
oops sorry otterwoman i didn't see your post. they are in an aquatic setup, its got a cave and about 2 or so inches of water. the water is cold, and i add an ice cube every night.

i have indeed read the caresheet and found it very helpful.
 
If the male is in breeding dress (nuptial pads, very wide tail, etc..) then the veins are very normal. The hind legs increase in size and strength and the veins become much moe obvious.
Here you can see an example:
http://faculty.bsc.edu/mgibbons/red spotted newt male (1).JPG

If he looks like that, then you have nothing to worry about.

PS: 2 inches of water is way too little. I wouldn´t recommend a smaller volume than 40l of water for a pair.
 
well he also hasn't ate, and he looked dead this morning until i moved him. he's very skinny so 3 days might be a lot.

hmmm my male seems to have all the signs of breeding ( tails, legs, veins ) but not nupital pads. what could this mean? also, how important is land to them? I could probally apoxy something to the side of the cage as a land source, or use a brick. how many inches or centimeters do you use, if you have any? i'll check the caresheet.
 
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Adult notos can be considered 100% aquatic so you don´t need a terrestrial area. Just to be on the safe side and provide something for them to rest on if so they choose (unlikely), you can provide a piece of floating cork bark, it´s more than enough.
The rest should be water....as much water as possible. Remember, the minimum for a pair would be 40l of water. Life plants are an excelent adition. You don´t need a filter if you have enough plants and you follow a decent cleaning routine. You also need to cycle the tank, and you can read about that in the CC articles (check my signature).

If there are no nuptial pads and the animal is skinny then i seriously doubt it´s in breeding season.
Try to entice it to eat with waxworms (which will also give an extra bust of fat), and earthworms. Don´t freak out, 3 days is nothing, they can go without food for much more longer, so don´t stress it out.
 
yeah I dont think our little buddy is going to make it... I took him out of the fridge, and it seemed to be all good, then after a while i came back and there he was belly up. so I thought he was dead, i picked him up, and he moved one leg. so i put him on land and put a waxworm right in front of him. no signs of life. he didnt **** his head or anything like most herps do with food.
 
Yeah after school I found him dead... it was probally from all the stress... I'm brining the body to the petstore tomorrow to get another one.. hopefully this one makes it.
 
I´m sorry the poor little fella didn´t make it.
I would strongly recommend not to get another one.
By buying another newt from the pet-shop to replace a dead one you are only promoting that many more are collected from the wild. As you have very well experienced, they don´t adapt well, so why get another one who will probably be just as stressed and risk loosing it too?
Before you consider getting new newts, you should take your time and learn as much as possible, gain experience, become familiar with the possible problems and be prepared. It´s only fair that if a poor newt is taken from it´s habitat to serve as a pet, at least it receives as best a chance as possible.
Also, i´d also like to recommend that when you decide to get more, you look into acquiring captive-bred animals. Wild-caught are not good for the species, nor for you.
 
Well I don't think the death was my fault, it arrived in poor condition and died like that. My female is doing fine, eating, gaining weight, using both water and land areas. What I'll do is look on here, or locally, for CB individuals. Spending $30 on shipping when the animals is less than $10 is a foreign idea to my parents... the price doesn't matter to me but my parents beg to differ.

By the way, I switched the cage. She now has 5 inches of water with a sterilised terra cotta pot filled with rocks and a smaller plastic container for land, also I added more plants.

Thanks a ton,

Ryan
 
Hi there,

As Azhael suggested, I too recommend adding more water to your tank. What size is your tank? I would also recommend (If you don't have one already) a 10 gallon tank and have the water level about 1-2 inches under the trim of the tank. A screen top is also a great idea so your newt wont climb out. Like mentioned above earthworms are a great staple food.
Don't be afraid to ask more questions!

Hope this helps you,

-Frank
 
Yeah thanks guys, but now the female has died also.... They were in like a 7 gallon, with 4-5 inches of water. Temps, food, everything was to par. It was because of pre-existing conditions. I'm done with notos till I can find CB ones, cuz the (CB) firebellies I have (from the same store, in the same tank) are fine. So hey if anyone lives around Chicago and breeds these awesome creatures hit me up.

Don't get me wrong I love firebellies, and will try my hand at breeding them, but I want to keep the North American species too. They are often overlooked, which isn't surprising because when a kid walks into a petstore and sees a green noto, and a black and red firebelly, hes gonna go for the Cynops...
 
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