Question: What stage newts should I get?

Unfortunatly my newton died, he was pretty weak no matter what I did. I bought them from the store(so prob wild caught) before i knew anything about keeping newts.

But his counterpart darwin (f) is doing great, fully aquatic, eating well and happy. Roughly 2 years w/ me so maybe 2.5 - 3 years old.

I'm working on a new enclosure (prob around 25-30 circulating gallons) and was wondering how I can get some more cfbn Later on and if having four would be supported by the tank.

would getting terresrial stage ones be better? Or fully aquatic adults.

Just planning ahead and hoping to find someone I can purchase, adopt, aquire these guys from in the future.

Oh! Is there a male to female ratio i should keep?



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You could easily fit 4 in a tank that size.

As for what stage you want, that's really up to you. You can purchase eggs from a breeder, and have the satisfaction of raising them up yourself! Adults that are captive bred are a bit harder to come by. Of course, if you raised your own, you would have to keep them separate until they're of appropriate size to be put in with Darwin.

There isn't a strict ratio you need to adhere to, but if you want to breed them in the future, 2-3 females per male is what most people do.

suztor said:

Unfortunatly my newton died, he was pretty weak no matter what I did. I bought them from the store(so prob wild caught) before i knew anything about keeping newts.

But his counterpart darwin (f) is doing great, fully aquatic, eating well and happy. Roughly 2 years w/ me so maybe 2.5 - 3 years old.

I'm working on a new enclosure (prob around 25-30 circulating gallons) and was wondering how I can get some more cfbn Later on and if having four would be supported by the tank.

would getting terresrial stage ones be better? Or fully aquatic adults.

Just planning ahead and hoping to find someone I can purchase, adopt, aquire these guys from in the future.

Oh! Is there a male to female ratio i should keep?



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Sorry to hear about your newt

I can help with a couple of questions! As for what stage newt you get that is entirely down to you When I got my first set of newts as a newbie they were fully aquatic ones and were a lot easier than some I got at the beginning of the year (from the lovely evut on here) that were juveniles! I myself did not realise just how hard these guys are to raise lol (cynops pyrrhogaster! I hand feed these guys daily, but the worry of getting water levels right so they dont drown etc and making sure they have enough food, islands to come out of water on etc has been a stress and they still are not fully aquatic!

So my point is it is down to you and what you are prepared to take on really :happy:

As for getting captive bred amphibians that is always preferred I personally hate the idea of anything wild caught and being kept when there are plenty of captive bred species around!

Your best bet is to look through caudatas for sale section and also post a wanted ad for some CB newts.

Wish you the best of luck!

It´s true that juveniles of this species are considerably more difficult to raise than others. However, it´s certainly not impossible, and if you already have some experience with newt keeping, then it´s just a matter of being prepared and well informed and a bit of patience.
I´d say, if you think you can take on raising this species from eggs, it´s the best option, for what the experience represents. I think it´s preferable, at least to my mind, to begin with eggs rather than with juveniles, specially in cases such as this were juveniles are trickier than larvae. Starting with eggs allows you time to prepare for the juveniles, experience, and continuity (since you´ll probably keep using similar foods which they already accept, similar housing conditions, etc).
It´s very rare, but it happens that people offer CB adults of this species. If you encounter such an option, it´s a fantastic one.
The alternative to all this is obviously just getting more WC adults. It´s entirely up to you, of course. Personally, though i don´t think that´s on your best interest. The sad experience with your Newton (sorry, by the way) could repeat itself, in even more dramatic ways. Of course it could all go well, with no problems, but the chances are not very favourable. Because it implies extra risks, i think it´s not an ideal option. There´s also of course the moral issues about the process of importation itself and the costs of animal lifes and the impact on wild populations, but that´s a very personal thing of which there are a variety of positions. Nevertheless, i think it ought to be taken into account when making a decission.

About terrestrial vs aquatic, most people find the terrestrial phase difficult when compared to the easiness of aquatic housing. In all fairness, it´s not more difficult than any terrestrial species, but it´s still a situation that many people would rather not deal with. That´s an issue when raising juveniles of this species. Many people raise them semi.aquatically, which i find makes things substantially easier, so there are alternatives to "terrestrial" in a more conventional sense.

You can definitely keep 4 newts in a tank of that volume, you could keep twice as much, really. I think there are a lot of advantages about underpopulated tanks, so i think it would be great to keep 4 animals in a big tank like that, specially if you have future breedings in mind.

As Kaysie said the ratio of males/females it´s not really important, although most people prefer to have one male and several females, simply because you only "need" one male xD There´s no harm in having more males, or in having more males than females.

Thanks for the responses!

When I got Newton i'm pretty sure he was still in his terrestrial phase, the end of it. I think i can handle it if i can make it work in my set up, haveing a small land area. I'll post pictures tonight of how my build is going.

I'm not wanting to have several tanks at the moment, I'm even considering getting rid of my 2 guppies and kuhli loaches who no longer share the tank with darwin.

I'm sure that will change when I find eggs in my tank again lol.

Since I mentioned my build, are under water hidy holes important for these guys? I'm planning on adding some but not.sure if I should aim for a few or a lot.

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Here is the Link to my build album, I'm taking lots of pictures and eventually am going to set up a little website to show how it was all done.

http://www.caudata.org/forum/members/suztor-albums-36-gal-vivarium-plans-build.html

Top view: The chamber on the right is where the filter is, in take is going to be at the bottom of that chamber Clean filtered (warm) water falls in to the chamber on the left were I'm going to be using a really really long hose coiled in a cooler with ice for cooling (someday it'll be a fridge ) Pump intake is at the bottom of the Left chamber (Depending on water level in that chamber I may ad bio balls to help with the natural filtration)


cool water out put is the black tube on the left water will be dumped into a well and over flow onto rocks and over the ledge into the water and the java moss ledge. The Java moss ledge is to get them a fixed location to come to the surface and help with more natural micro filtration.

Build!

Man i fail at this picture posting!