Question: Fire belly newts won't enter water or eat

I have 7 newts with excellent water quality (ph gh and kh are all fine) and temperature (60 degrees F). The water is full of hiding places and plants and it had a large land section with hiding places on it too. I've owned them for over a year and since then they haven't grown or entered the water. If I put them underwater they quickly run towards land. They are all only about an inch long and are a little skinny. (I guess since they don't enter the water, they don't eat much). If I feed them by tongs they refuse to eat. (I feed them blood worms and meal worms) they don't look sick so what might be the problem with them.
P.s they are the only animals inside the tank

More important than pH and kH are the levels of ammonia, nitrites and to a lesser extent, nitrates.
How big is the tank? What´s the volume of water?
For 7 newts i would say you need a bare minimum of 60l, although a bigger volume would be better.

Are they pet-shop bought? i´ve never seen H.orientalis so small in any pet-shop. If they trully are just an inch long, they are juveniles, which means they are not yet ready to be aquatic. They may not be until they become sexually mature.

The bloodworms are ok, but i´d advice you to stop using mealworms, they are a very poor choice. The staple should be earthworms, which you can complement with the bloodworms, with small crickets, woodlice, waxworms, whiteworms, blackworms...

I agree - at that size they are likely to be juveniles. They won't grow unless you can get them eating well.

Do you have access to a source of pinhead crickets? I would move these guys to a terrarium setup and feed them terrestrial foods, such as fruit flies and pinheads.

My tank is 30 gallons And I also have nitrates nitrites and ammonia testers which indicate that the waters fine. And yes they are store bought. I thought at first that they were just stressed but I don't believe they could be stressed after a year. Also I have the aquarium light on for 12 hours a day and there always hiding in caves on the terrestrial side. Do you think that the lighting might be the problem. Also I barely use mealworms so I guess I'll switch and how long does it take the newts to finally become sexually mature. I don't believe live food is an option for me though

Small terrestrial newts will naturally be quite shy. I think you should change their set-up to a more terrestrial one at this stage. I have similarly sized newts in a shoe box with about an inch of water and a lot of islands and plants. In conditions like these, the transition can be gradual and the risk of drowning is small. This type of environment worked very well for their parents and older siblings.
My newtlets don't have a full hiding place to encourage them to be less shy and go aquatic sooner. I leave chopped earthworms on a piece if tissue on the largest island and they help themselves, mostly at night. Maybe you could try something like this until they've grown bigger and are able to swim.
You should really try to get some earthworms for them (from a pesticide and fertilizer free place). Lesser wax worms would also be good, but not as a staple.
Regarding sexual maturity, I think it will depend on how fast they can reach (near) adult size.
By the way, do you know which species you have? And can you post some photos of the animals and the tank?

They are Chinese firebelly Newts and here are some pictures:

I think you need to measure them again - they seem a lot larger than an inch :happy:

I would suggest making a couple of changes in the tank:

- temporarily lower the water level so they can feel safe in it, perhaps increase the number of places where they can haul themselves out of the water. Give them a place where they can sit in water but be able to breathe, kind of a platform half an inch under water would be good.

- make sure there is no current in the water, it might mean removing the filter (I am not sure from the photo if you have one...?). These newts hate strong currents and it might be the reason they won't go in the water. You can either have no filter (lots of live plants can do the job) or have a box filter or a sponge filter, both of which are driven by an airpump.

- change the gravel as a precaution - it could cause intestinal impaction if swallowed. Sand or no substrate are more suitable for newts.

Also, rotate you photos before you attach them

Yeah, those are definitely bigger than an inch xD
Being pet-shop bought, they should be mature, or close. People have been reporting younger newts in imports, but they are still adults. Anything bigger than 5,5-6 cm can be sexually mature, specially for males.

As Eva says, you should really change the substrate. Gravel traps enormous amounts of debris and makes feeding harder. It also posses a risk if it´s ingested.
Fine sand is a much better substrate. Alternatively you can go with no substrate which is the most practical option.
I´d strongly recommend adding LOTS of plants. This species loves very dense areas of vegetation, plus having lots of live plants helps a great deal with water quality. Also, having plants near the surface where the newts can easily access the air, helps them feel secure in the water and makes a big difference in getting newts to be aquatic (they like being able to touch "ground" initially).
I too think you should stop using the filter. they really apreciate still waters with no currents, and you can easily substitute the effect of having a filter by using lots of plants.

You are going to have to make an effort with the live food issue. It is very unlikely that you´ll get them to eat dead foods. That usually takes a lot of patience and training, and from the look of those newts you don´t have the time to spare. You need to get them to eat as soon as possible. Try waxworms, newts seldom resist them, and they are rich in fat which will help them put on some weight. Earthworms are the absolute best, so you should try to use them. They will be much more inclined to accept dead foods and even pellets when they are aquatic(although earthworms should still be the staple), but as long as they are terrestrial, live foods are your best and probaby only chance.

Given that they are larger than I had thought, I think they can be induced to go into the water. And when they are more aquatic you'll have no trouble getting them to eat non-live food.

As Eva suggested, one good approach would be to lower the water level. When I have small firebellies that I think are "ready" for water, this is the type of tank I use:
Caudata.org - Member Galleries - shallow semi-aquatic setup for juveniles
After a few days, the newts will be aquatic, unless they are truly "not ready". In your case, I would say these guys should be able to adapt to water readily.

Another approach you could try would simply be to make the land area less comfortable. Remove all their hides, and make the land areas less-dry. However, since these guys are rather thin, this method has some risk - they need more caloric intake when aquatic, so you'd need to get them eating well immediately.

In the US, you can buy Canadian nightcrawlers in almost any bait shop or Walmart. I recommend them.
Caudata Culture Articles - How to Feed a Large Worm to a Small Newt

Yeah I guess they are bigger than an inch :happy: but I will turn off the filters and Remove all of the hiding places. Also I have been planning to replace the substrate with sand so I will get right on that. I will see if I can order some live food from the Internet and I will lower the water level. If they don't go underwater in a week I will write back

Keep an eye on the water quality, mostly ammonia. More frequent water changes might be required if you suddenly stop the filtration. Good luck!

I was worried about ammonia like you said so I turned the filter back on but with blocks to keep the water still. But that is besides the point, I finally obtained some live earthworms but when I wiggled it and/or placed it in front of the newts, they payed little attention to it. Only one actually actively chased it as it wiggled away and ate it. The good news is that the one who ate it quickly entered the water and began eating some food that was there. Finally it became aquatic. One down six to go

That's a good start. I would go to an aquatics shop and buy lots of hardy, fast-growing cold water plants (Elodea, Cabomba, Java moss, Fontinalis (willow moss) etc) so that you have dense thickets of plants. Make sure to take off the metal weights as they can cause the plant stems to rot.

Also, try putting the chopped pieces of worm under the hide with the newts after lights have turned off and leave them with them over night. They may not want to eat with you watching them. Also, make sure the worms are not 'trout worms' (Eisenia/Dendrobaena) (the ones that release a milky substance when cut) as they are distasteful and many newts will not accept them.

Good luck with the rest

C

So it's been a week and little progress has been made. The newts do seem a little more active but not very much more. The newts all stay on land except one which if I place underwater would stay there and then return to land without much of a struggle. Still the skinniest of the newts refuse to eat the earthworms but the other 3 love them. What else can I do to speed up there transfer to water

When my firebellies would not go in the water i had sucess with a combination of the following which might or might not be appropriate in your area. Aphids were awesome, i just broke a branch of them off and left the newts to pick them like grapes. small caterpillars were chased around the rocks, when they didnt climb up the newts face and completely confuse it. and wingless fruitflies were a good food source as i could have them slowly self releasing. really small whole worms seemed to work better than bits of worm, and they didnt seem to like compost worms.

Any progress with the newts?

Sorry for not responding for such long time, I've been very busy. But anyways I followed all of your advice. I began to feed the newts a mix of earthworms and waxworms (they have all begun to eat quite actively). I changed the substrate and I even added some java moss which has grown to cover much of the sand. I even got new liquid testers and tested everything (ammonia, nitrates...) and everything was fine. I also cut holes on the top of their terrestrial hiding spots and removed all currents. But still the newts seem resistant to the thought of diving into the water. They are more active though and will swim (in a panic) across the surface of the water in an effort to reach another land mass (by themselves, I didn't push them in). I would think that after such time that at least one would dive underwater but still none of them do. The one that did enter the water emerged on land a day later. I also have a blue mystery snail in the tank; could that be causing the problem. What else can I do???

How deep is the water?

Just about 8 inches

My set-up for acclimating my juvenile C.e.popei to the water is just a 10 gallon bare bottom tank with 3.5-4" of water, a lone piece of driftwood that rests about a half inch under the water, and LOTS of elodea densa and java moss. The floating plants are everywhere so they never have to panic when they're maneuvering over the top of the water. In this set-up there are also no places for them to get completely out of the water, even though have the tank is so densely packed with java moss they have no problems resting at the surface.

It actually looks a lot like the set-up Jen posted but with wood instead of a rock.

How is your water quality?