New here, and im expecting 4 fire belly newts in 2 days

Im expecting 2 males and 2 female fire belly newts wensday in the mail. They are about 2-3 years old. I have there tank partially set up. A quick question, can you keep 4 adults in a 10 gallon aquarium?
I have a 10 gallon and a 20 gal long and a 30 gal long.
At the momet I have the 10 gal set up for them, but I can upgrade to the bigger tank .

The 10 gal setup I have at the moment is half way filled with water, a low flow filter for turtles, and a floating dry area.
Is it ok to keep rocks at the bottom of the tank for a breeding group? Or is it better to keep them without anythig on the bottom. Or does it matter? lol. I thought id ask before going out to buy them. Im looking to get some live and fake plants to add in there too. I got some frozen blood worms, will they eat this, or do they need to be alive? Im just trying to get all of the ifo straight that way I can have the setup ready for when they arrive

I´d recommend the 20gallon. You´ll also want to fill it up with water instead of only having half the tank. The more water the better.
You should have really cycled the tank before getting the newts....too late now. You can read about cycling it with the newts in, here in the forum and on Caudata Culture.
Where are you getting them from? It´s strange that you know their age, people VERY rarely sell adults.

I wouldn´t use a filter, specially if you go with the 20 gallon tank. They don´t like currents, they love their water completely still. If you have enough live plants and a properly cycled tank, the filter is completely unnecessary.

Frozen bloodworms are ok, but you´ll need more for a healthy diet. Earthworms are the very best, they are simply excellent. You can complete an earthworm based diet with the bloodworms, and small crickets, blackworms, isopodos, fresh-water crustaceans, tiny slugs...

Make sure to read as much as you can. There is a VAST amount of information about this species around the forum.

I'd definitely go with the 20 or 30 gal tank. The 20 will be fine but 30 will be easier to maintain. I currently have just one adult C. Orientalis in a 29gal long with about 25 gallons of water and it is extremely happy As Azhael said, go with lots of live plants and you won't need a filter if you clean out plant debris and such every so often (I use a turkey baster, lots of great tank upkeep tools can be bought at 99 cent stores). Basically lots of still, cool water and dense vegetation is ideal. I would look into sand as a substrate, and you can scatter small rocks to increase aesthetic value, just make sure the rocks are large enough so they can unquestionably not be ingested. My C. Orientalis isn't a huge fan of frozen bloodworms, but yours very well may be, but again as Azhael stated, you'll want to use bloodworms/blackworms sparingly and look into earthworms (pieces perhaps) as the main staple of their diet. I am also curious as to where you obtained these animals from, I had been looking for quite some time for someone willing to ship adults for my fully aquatic tank.

Please also check out the caresheet for this species:
Caudata Culture Species Entry - Cynops orientalis - Chinese firebelly

as well as the nutritional values table:
Caudata Culture Articles - Nutritional Values

Good luck, and keep us updated!

I found the person on Kingsnake.com. I thought ive look up about everything I could find, but I havnt once heard about cycling? I will get the worms today

As the guys have said, that water needs to be cycled. Even if it is, there is a good chance the newts won't go into the water for several weeks, maybe more. They will arrive stressed and will likely huddle together on the land portion. Give them a hide to make them feel safer.

Good luck. My adult pair gave me 50+ juveniles which wasn't my plan when I got them! It's been a fun and informative journey.

Dana

Yea they just arrived this morning. And they dont really go into the water.. they stay huddles together too.. Ill find them something to hide under tho. Thanks for the help! This site has help me more in the past 2 days then using google for a week....

vistajpdf said:

As the guys have said, that water needs to be cycled. Even if it is, there is a good chance the newts won't go into the water for several weeks, maybe more. They will arrive stressed and will likely huddle together on the land portion. Give them a hide to make them feel safer.

Good luck. My adult pair gave me 50+ juveniles which wasn't my plan when I got them! It's been a fun and informative journey.

Dana

Click to expand...

Just something to consider:

I was in a similar situation recently with my C.O., (I managed to break it's 10gal tank during a cleaning) where I had a newt in my possession and I needed to cycle a tank. I purchased my 29gal tank, put in my substrate and added live plants from an already cycled tank (you can get these from a friend or even aquarium stores, but watch for hitchhikers!). This helps set your nitrogen cycle in place faster, adding a 'starter' culture of good bacterias. My tank took a little under two weeks to get to the point where my C.O. is comfortable being fully aquatic.

In the time I was waiting for the water to cycle, I kept him in a small tupperware container in the fridge with some dechlorinated water (changed daily) with a fake plant breaking the surface/acting as a hide. If you pay attention to conditions, change water and collect debris every day, you can keep the newts in the fridge for as long as it will take to get your tank set up. You also won't have to feed them as much as the cold temperatures slow down their metabolism.

Ok there tank is good and there settled in. but wont eat or go into the water? I put the food in a small lid.. Any ideas to help with eating?

They are probably quite stressed from the journey and will take a while to settle down. My alpine newts took a few days to get settled in and start eating (juveniles).

I'd keep an eye on them and if they still don't eat I hear wax worms promote a good feeding response due to their movement, but shouldn't form a main part of their diet as they lack a lot of nutrition.

The not going in the water bit is understandable as your tank wont have cycled yet and so the water parameters will not be up to their standards.