Question: Anorexic Fire Bellied Newts

Hey there,

Five days ago, I bought three fire bellied newts. I set up their 15 gal tank two days before with about 8 inches of water, larger substrate, plenty of dense foliage to hide in, and a mossy raft for them to climb out on. I got the water tested and everything was perfecto.

For the first two days, they would not enter the water (held at 65º). Then I turned off the pump and noticed they started going in, but typically they just lay together on land and do not move much. I tried feeding them newt pellets, freeze dried worms, and chopped live worms every day. I tried feeding them in the tank and out of the tank. It's the fifth day and I figure the instinct to eat should be prevailing in at least ONE of them.

Anyways, I was hoping an experienced fire bellied newt owner could give me some tips/encouragement.

Thank you, I really appreciate it.

5 days are not necessarily a concern. Bare in mind that the newts have gone through hell...they are very stressed and it will take time for them to adjust to captivity and their new conditions.
It would have been highly preferable that the tank was fully cycled rather than brand new. The water parametres will fluctutate and toxic compounds will accumulate while the cycling process begins to take place. Do 20% partial water changes every one or two days with dechlorinated water.
The filter is redundant if you have lots of plants. As you´ve already seen they don´t like the current and filters produce some heat too. It´s best to not use it at all.

They are very unlikely to accept pellets at this point, they just arrived in captivity, they probably won´t recognize them as food for a while. The freeze-dried worms are rubbish, really...i wouldn´t use them at all.
Live foods are best, so keep trying with the earthworms which are the best food. If you can buy blackworms, those should work well too. They may accept frozen (not freeze-dried) bloodworms even now, although there´s no guarantee. You can try to feed them with tweezers if they are not too skittish.

Don´t take them out of the tank to feed them. In fact, don´t disturbe them or touch them at all. Handling causes stress and even the natural oils in our skins are not good for their sensitive skins. Leave them alone and don´t insist too often with the food. Their stress levels need to go down before they can adapt well.
Keep an eye on the parametres and make sure the tank cycles properly.
Check the articles in my signature and read around the forum. There´s toooones of information about Hypselotriton orientalis in here. Good luck!

I had the same problem with my firebelly newts when I brought them home 2 years ago. I rescued them from the pet shop I worked at since they were little more than dried out skelletons at the time. What I found to work might help you out. Though as Azhael said, a few days will not be that detrimental to them.

I actually removed any strictly land areas by lowering them so that they were about a quarter of an inch below the water line. This allows them to rest, but also encourages them to return to an aquatic state. My guys refused to enter the water to the point of drying out, if yours are doing the same this might help.

For getting them to eat, I found that frozen bloodworms was fairly easy to temp them with. I started out by hanging a clump off the end of a toothpick and wiggling it in front of my newts face to see if they would take the bate. Even gently touching it gently to their nose sometimes helps. I would tempt them a couple times a day for a few minutes until they decided to start eating. It is ok if they refuse the food at first.

I also found that when they started eating they were more than willing to return to an aquatic lifestyle.

If I do not feed them with tweezers, how else should I give them food? Should I put it in a dish and leave it lying around for them to investigate and hopefully nom on?

kalsea said:

If I do not feed them with tweezers, how else should I give them food? Should I put it in a dish and leave it lying around for them to investigate and hopefully nom on?

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If you do not want to try using tweezers or a toothpick you can try leaving the food in a dish. Though if they are wildcaught, stressed, or unused to non-live foods they may not recognize it as food. The advantage of tweezers is that you can help induce the feeding instinct by wiggling the food in front of them as if it were live. This can entice them to strike at it. It also means that cleaning the uneaten food out of the system is relly easy since you will be holding it.

Once they are not eating and aquatic you can simply put the food in the tank and they should be able to "hunt" it.