Would like some advice please!!

Aaaargh these things make me so angry!!!!!!!
As i´m sure you know, they are all WC, and the importation process takes a big toll on them. Those who survive have to deal with the petshop which usually takes an even bigger toll. By the time you take them home they have been suffering for at least about a month....generally with no food, the wrong housing...
As you can imagine they are mightily stressed, which inhibits their inmune system, and leaves them susceptible to infections. It´s tragic to see so many newts die by flesh-eating infections and starvation...

I would beg you not to purchase more....everytime you do, you are promoting further capture of these newts, and condemning more and more of them to the same terrible fate. It´s of course your decission, but personally i trully believe it´s just not right.

There are plenty of other species which can you can easily find by contacting breeders in the UK. In fact you are lucky, since the UK has many many excelent breeders (many of which you can find in this forum), who will provide you with captive bred animals, in excelent health, already adapted to captivity, and at VERY reasonable prices. Some of the species that are highly recommendable for beginners are Pleurodeles waltl, Triturus dobrogicus, T.karelinii, T.carnifex, Ambystoma mexicanum...

As for advice, i have to say that sadly, you´ve rushed a bit too much into getting new newts. I don´t know if you are familiar with the concept of cycling a tank. It´s a process which you can read about in the articles on my signature. It takes aproximately a month, and is necessary in order to provide an stable, healthy tank for them. 7 days is not nearly enough for a tank to become stablished, which can create severe problems with the concentrations of ammonia and nitrites which can indeed reach levels high enough to kill a newt. Take a good read on the articles, the more you read, the better you´ll be prapared.

If you want the new newts (oh how i wish you hadn´t ordered them ) to have a fighting chance, you need to provide EXCELENT conditions, so that there´s nothing that can cause further stress and they can recover. Even then, it will be a matter of how damaged they already are...but without that their chances are small.

Hi, thank you so much for your reply. When I bought the first 3 Newts, I knew that there was a chance that some were wild caught, but didn't realise that they were so badly cared for until I spoke to someone last week on a different forum - I think they are registered on here too. I had tried looking on the internet for local breeders but to no avail, which was why I ended up buying from a pet shop, however, rest-assured that I won't be doing it again. I am so pleased that I found this website - which was recomended to me. No I wasn't aware that the whole cycling of the tank took about a month.

Thank you for your advice. I will do my best for the 2 Newts that I have already ordered, but like you have already written, it depends how damaged they already are. But from now on - I will only be buying Captive Bred Specimens :happy:

Thanks again.

That´s what we are here for, to help an inform!!!


It´s not that some are WC....they ALL are..(seriously, all Cynops orientalis that you can find in petshops are WC, even if they tell you otherwise) It´s a sad and tragic thing when you learn about it...

You can cycle a tank with the newts inside, but it requires careful monitoring. Read as much as you can, it really is the only way to be prapared, and this forum and the CC articles are FULL of excelent information.

Two quick pieces of advice: Give them as much volume of water as you can, the more the better! The minimum would be a 10 gallon for a pair, but a bigger tank (and therefore a bigger volume) would come in very handy, specially since you are going to have to cycle the tank with them in.
Provide them with cold temps. If you can keep them at 15ºC or so it would be perfect. This will give them a better chance of recovering since their inmune system works best at colder temps. Don´t let the tank go over 20ºC as it will be seriously risky.

At the moment it is in a 10 gallon tank. We have just moved our living room round and I'm soon going to start looking at buying a bigger tank. Most of the tank is water, at one end there is a tub that measures 10" x 4" which I have filled up with gravel to make sure it doesn't float! And then some peat with a couple of hiding places. I have sand at the bottom of my tank which slopes up to the tub so it can get out on to the land easily. I have never caught him on the land itself, but sometimes see him completely out of the water on the sand slopping upwards. There is also a rock that breaks the surface of the water and plants. The water is about 6" at it's deepest. When I get my new tank I will have it a bit deeper. I do have one question if you don't mind me asking. I've read up about the temperature and it's not a problem keeping the tank around that temperature BUT it never says if the water is mean't to be that temperature or just inside the tank. I have one digital sensor in the water and one just above the water line. Most of the time they are different, but the highest they go up to is 17.C. I have caught it at 18.C before. The water temperature is lower.

Thanks again!

mummyhamster said:

I do have one question if you don't mind me asking. I've read up about the temperature and it's not a problem keeping the tank around that temperature BUT it never says if the water is mean't to be that temperature or just inside the tank.

Thanks again!

Click to expand...

The water should also be kept in that range of temperature (never above 20C) closer to 15-17C.

I would strongly recommend that you get rid of the slope of sand! Any depth greater than an inch of sand can cause anaerobic pockets inside the layer of substrate which allows anaerobic bacteria to flourish. This can cause severe problems with ammonia and nitrite spikes as well as accumulation of gases.
When this happens the sand actually becomes dark and foul smelling.

You don´t need a slope at all, nor any permanent land area. Just provide a piece of floating cork bark for it to rest on if so it chooses. It´s more than enough!
Having land areas is a waste of water volume, since a healthy, well housed C.orientalis will very rarely, if ever at all, go out of water. All that space is therefore wasted, limiting greatly the volume of water.

Remember, don´t use a layer of sand thicker than an inch, and try to provide as much volume of water as you can.

As for the temp, what Eric says is right. These newts can tolerate and in fact thrive at any temp between 4-22ºC. They have problems with temps over 22ºC specially if exposed to them for long periods. I´m of course talking about water temp. They actually can tolerate higher temps when terrestrial than they do when they are aquatic.

Ok! Do you think I should do it now, or leave it for a while? Just because the Newt isn't very well at the moment.

That´s not easy to answer...
Change and inestability should be avoided when a newt is not doing well....however a slope of sand really is a dangerous business, and the reduced volume of water is not going to help at all.
Personally i would make the change now. The new housing, with a substantially bigger volume of water should help a great deal. However, if you do the changes, don´t clean anything and try to disturb the decoration and the plants as little as you can (keep them in a bucket with aquairu water while you redecorate). This is to save the benefitial bacteria.

I have sorted out the sand slope. Now there is more water volume. I didn't disturb the plants or the decorations. As I moved some of the plants out of the way I noticed they felt 'slimey' which I am hoping is all part of the bio-filter. So thats good. Although the fungus seems to be getting worse, this Newt really is fighting for his life. He is still rather active, swimming about. If he is fighting, it only seems right that I give him as much help as I can. I think I am doing everything, but wondered if anybody had any advice on how to treat the fungus itself. I am currently using a 'Anti Fungus and Fin Rot' soloution by 'Interpet'. This was recomended to me by a petshop, and yes before anyone says, I know that they don't have any expertise in Amphibians - that's why I am asking here!

Is the newt swimming rather frantically at the surface? If so, that means he wants out.

The fungus can be treated with salt baths, see:
Caudata Culture Articles - Salt Solutions in Treating Salamanders
However, i´m sorry to tell you that the chances are low...i´m only saying this so that you are prepared for the worst (it´s a really unpleasent experience).
Mind you, don´t give up!

This is VERY common with pet-shop bought C.orientalis, so there´s lots of information around, make sure to read as much as you can.

I´m not familiar with the product you are using but some fish oriented products are not suitable. Hopefully someone will be able to help you with that. In the meantime i would stick with the salt baths.

Best of lucks!