Chinese Warty Newts H2O refusal

My Chinese Warty Newts are still refusing to go in the water for prolonged periods of time. I transfered them out of their large semi aquatic set up into a new vivarium I've been working on that is almost fully aquatic if it wern't for a small land area, but still no interest in water.

I've been cycling for about a week but I'm running low on space so I went ahead and transfered them into the vivarium thinking they would enjoy the plants and hides regardless of the cycling still going on.

I had the water tested at a petstore and the pH was 6.4, so I bought a neutralizer which made it 7.0. There is a trace of amonia but nothing else. I did a 20% water change with water bought from the pet store before adding them in. They tried to convice me to buy the bottled bacteria but I refused.

Any advice?

They can "feel" if the water is suitable or not, so if they refuse to enter it it´s because it´s not suitable yet.
Once the tank is properly cycled, and if everything is alright, they will eventually go aquatic.

One question, is the water lettuce ok? Looks awfully yellow...but it could be the lighting i guess.

What is the water temperature? And what method do you use to measure it? Sometimes in warm weather, newts will stay more terrestrial. It's important to be able to measure it accurately in summer.

What is the name of the pH neutralizer you used? If it's a buffering solution, like Bullet, that's OK. If it was "pH UP", then that is useless. Your pH of 6.4 is perfectly acceptable, there was no reason to change it.

Are you able to feed them on land? There is nothing terribly wrong with them being terrestrial for a while, as long as they are eating OK.

Sorry for the poor picture quality. I took them in a rush and didn't even wipe down the glass . My Nikon fails miserably! One picture is with the aquarium light on, so that could be the yellow tint you're seeing, but the water lettuce is healthy and growing new blooms, unlike the banana plants which keep loosing their tiny bananas.

I have 2 thermometers on opposite sides of the set up. One stays around 70 while the other never goes above 75F. The light on the top on the tank is never on, only when viewing. They're inside, in the AC, but if the temperature is still too high (outside its about 90-95, and they're placed in a spot where the warmness could seep in from the sliding glass door) what's keeping them out of the water I could move them to a new room and put frozen water bottles in once a day or something of the sort.

The product I used is called "Neutral Regulator" it says it removes chlorine, chloramine and ammonia. It also adjusts high or low pH to 7.0. Could I use this to replace water conditioner for my other animals as well?

On land they are piglets, eating large and chopped worms, wax worms, and small crickets. The one time they did venture into the water they sunk right to the bottom like a rock!

I don't mind them being terrestrial, I normally prefer it, but I've been working on the new set up for awhile now and it saddens me that they won't take advantage of the swimming area. I'd much rather see them in the water than land because in the wild thats where you would find them thriving. I think my female may be gravid, too, so I'm not sure if retaining the eggs will hurt her if she doesn't have a place to lay them.

Also, it turns out they're male and female and in great shape too. So why not take my hobby to the next level and try and give breeding a go if conditions permit? I know, its a stretch, but possible none the less.

Try cutting the water level in half. Behemoth is in about 9" of water, and the rocks in the tank make it easy for him to "walk" onto land oppose to swimming from the bottom of the tank to whatever is on the surface.

If yours sank, they might not know how to swim yet and if they've been terrestrial then regardless of animal instinct, they would still have to adapt.. I would lower the level so that it's around from the tip of the tail to the base of the neck, this way, if they want, they can use their tails and legs to balance against the tank with the heads above water.

I'm moving him from the 50gallon to a 20gallon tomorrow and will be adding a bunch of plants. I'm still debating on whether or not to use substrate. I installed a 75 gallon pond in the backyard today so Im going to need the big tank in the winter for the eventual fish and I'm going to use it for a place to grow plants for my other tanks in the meantime.

Success! I lowered the water levels and sure enough they're in the water exploring Thanks VolatileXIII!!

I plan to add a little more water with every partial water change to ease them into a fully aquatic lifestyle, but right now I'm just happy they're in the water! :happy:

No problemo yo!
I'm just glad I could help, let alone that I was actually right for once.
Hahaha.
How big is your water lettuce? I just picked up a few, wondering how long they take to grow. Also picked up a bunch of duckweed and can't wait until it covers the surface.

Mine are like an inch and a half tall but I'm starting to suspect they need a lot of light to be healthy. I keep the light off now that the newts are in the set up and they're getting kinda droopy-ish. Could be because I cut the roots (originally 6 inches long) short when I first got them but I don't think that really had an effect since I've spotted 3 new little blooms since I bought the first 2. ?

I love the duckweed and water lettuce combo, it adds a nice touch to a naturalistic set up:happy:

Find any other cool plants? Not sure if theres Petco in Canada but I bought some really cool cut up coconut shells covered with java moss at Petco last week that serve as both land and an under water cave sort of thing.

Water Hyacinths float on top, and bloom a purple flower. I was going to grab some the other day but they were all out. I think they look pretty Feng Shui-ish. I got some sort of underwater palm tree looking thing in the bag when I got the duckweed and lettuce. I'll try and get a pic up for id'ing.

I have most duckweed and a water lettuce in the 10gallon tank I have with 8 "feeder guppies" that have been around about a month and a half. I wanna see how fast it grows.

I have a little bit of duckweed inside of a cricket keeper with a "pregnant" guppy and her "mate". I assume because of appearance and mating behavior.

The rest of the duckweed is split between my 50gallon Chinensis tank and my new pond outside.

I'm still waiting on my new 20gallon, then my Chinensis is getting a new home. I'm going to overhaul it, still debating on whether I should put play sand as substrate. What do you use?

A lot of the hides I find in stores seem sharp and really abrasive. I really like just finding nice rocks, boiling them, arrange them as hides then bond them with silicone. I've made all of my rock piles using aquarium silicone and rocks I find.

My water lettuce almost completely died off so I recently put the remaining blooms outside (full sunlight in 90 degree weather) and they look healthy again. I think there are different types but the ones I have definitely need a lot of light. I had fairy moss, which is like Duckweed, in my set up for awhile but it all disappeared.

Right now I use play sand for substrate with some medium sized river rocks to keep some of the plants in place. I bought black calcium sand for my little brother's leopard gecko set up and have a lot left over, so I might switch them out if I get bored enough.

Do you plan on getting another P.Chinensis for Behemoth?

misslyss said:

My water lettuce almost completely died off so I recently put the remaining blooms outside (full sunlight in 90 degree weather) and they look healthy again. I think there are different types but the ones I have definitely need a lot of light. I had fairy moss, which is like Duckweed, in my set up for awhile but it all disappeared.

Right now I use play sand for substrate with some medium sized river rocks to keep some of the plants in place. I bought black calcium sand for my little brother's leopard gecko set up and have a lot left over, so I might switch them out if I get bored enough.

Do you plan on getting another P.Chinensis for Behemoth?

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The 3 lettuces I bought were beginning to yellow, so I put them outside in my pond to see if they'd do any better and with my luck, they died. The duckweed I got and divided between tanks isn't thriving or multiplying at all which is also confusing me.

Do you feed them in the tank or remove them? I'm thinking about using playsand in my new tank but if I do, I'm going to have to take him out every time to feed to avoid impaction.

How long do you rinse your playsand for?

Fine sand poses no danger of impaction. If accidentally ingested, it simply passes through the animal and is excreted without problems. Just make sure you don´t use a layer deeper than an inch.

Sand usually requires very thorough rinsing. Put it in a bucket, fill with water, move around, then tip it, refill with water, move around, etc, etc. Once the water is clear, the sand is ready. You might still get some minor clouding even if you rinsing it well enough, but it should disappear after a few hours.

I would not take the animals out of the tank for feeding. Manipulation causes stress, and it´s completely unnecessary.

Azhael said:

Fine sand poses no danger of impaction. If accidentally ingested, it simply passes through the animal and is excreted without problems. Just make sure you don´t use a layer deeper than an inch.

Sand usually requires very thorough rinsing. Put it in a bucket, fill with water, move around, then tip it, refill with water, move around, etc, etc. Once the water is clear, the sand is ready. You might still get some minor clouding even if you rinsing it well enough, but it should disappear after a few hours.

I would not take the animals out of the tank for feeding. Manipulation causes stress, and it´s completely unnecessary.

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I'm using playsand in the wifes guppy tank, but aquascaping is more fun when you can make hills and all that with rocks and such.

If I use playsand in Behemoths new 20gallon, I'm going to be hella tempted to put more than one inch of sand on the bottom. You know?

I rinsed my sand for a good ten rinses, sifting through it all with my hands and its really clear in the fish tank.

Any idea's why the duck weed isn't thriving? Lighting and water quality is testing fine.

FYI: I wouldn't boil any rocks. I have heard and read they can explode. I would do a search before boiling rocks again.

Second, play sand from your local hardware store is fine. Rinse it a little and use. I have quite a few tanks utilizing the $2.99 for 50lbs of sand. Why spend $20-$40 when it is just going to get dirty anyways.

Woah. Big mistake using the black calcium sand as substrate in an aquatic set-up. Apparently its hydrophobic! Back to the drawing board..

merk199 said:

FYI: I wouldn't boil any rocks. I have heard and read they can explode. I would do a search before boiling rocks again.

Second, play sand from your local hardware store is fine. Rinse it a little and use. I have quite a few tanks utilizing the $2.99 for 50lbs of sand. Why spend $20-$40 when it is just going to get dirty anyways.

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What other ways do you recommend disinfecting "wild" rocks? Everywhere I've looked online advises boiling them. I'm not going to use any cleaning products or spend seven hours using a brillo pad because they "may" explode. LOL. If they do, the lid on top of the pot is good for stopping any projectiles.