Fire belly newt

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Warwick

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Hi sorry, I'm new to keeping newts, but can anyone help me? I think my newts a male, can anyone confirm this, I looked on the links provided and I think my newts a boy?
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It spends a lot of time in the water, does this mean it's happy? And content? How do I know if it's stressed or not? He's feeding well :)


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If its really stressed it probably wouldn't enter the water but, what's your setup like? Water temperature, Water volume, etc. And what's its staple diet?
And I suck at sexing H. orientalis, I thought I had 2.1.0 but I had 3.0.0
But I think you can also sex by the size of the tail, that males have shorter and taller tails.
And personally I would change river rock for sand or a bare-bottom tank to prevent waste to build up under the rock
 
Thanks for the reply I've not had the newt long a week about, I've put in brine from our pond, don't know if that's bad but it's been eating them a lot, also chopped up tiny bits of earthworm, it seems to be pigging out a fair bit, my waters about 10cm deep, I conditioned the water, and let it run for a week, (I have a siphon if that's how it's spelt) for the bottom of the tank. The newts seems to "hunt" in the stones, I was cautious of it swallowing stones, my waters really clear, my set up looks like this, it's got no heater, it's around 17 degrees are the stones bad for the newt? I don't seem to be having a issue with cleaning with them or keeping the water nice
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The fish are not in there with the newt no more I read it's bad for the newt, plus it was determine to eat the small ones!!


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There's a floating island but it never goes on it or out the water only up for air, hence me asking signs of stress, hope my set ups not to bad!! Thank u for helping me out


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Welcome to the site! Based on the size and shape of it's cloaca I'm pretty sure your newt is a male. He looks healthy enough to me, if he's fully aquatic and eating well I doubt he's stressed.
 
The water temp is fine and feeding earthworm is good, but I would remove the fish and add a lot of plants, I use Wisteria, Java Moss, and Java Fern in my tanks. The problem with rocks as a substrate is that all the waste will fall under those rocks. You could silicone the rocks down or add sand over it to prevent waste from building up.
The fish may be okay if they were quarantined though this specie doesn't really enjoy having fish around.

Someone may be able to sex them if you could get a good side view of the newt
 
Thank you everyone been really helpful, il get him some extra plants, I struggled to find java moss, I've not seen any java fern, just the grass plant I don't know it's name, and the pond weed I got out the pond I washed it first, defiantly going to find some java moss or fern, I already took the fish out, I left a snail in there it's doing a good job of cleaning everything! Thank you again for helping me and welcoming me to the site :)


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The fish have a other tank now, in a way it was a bit of a ploy to be honest, I wanted fish and a newt, I then moaned it's not heathy for the newt, so I got a other tank, and more fish, I'm now working on trying to get my newt a girlfriend but it's not working so far :(
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Chinadog said:
Based on the size and shape of it's cloaca I'm pretty sure your newt is a male. He looks healthy enough to me, if he's fully aquatic and eating well I doubt he's stressed.
Click to expand...

My females have a cloaca like that, which is why I thought they were males, but they were females, I pretty much rely on the tail length and height for sexing H. orientalis now lol.

And it being only in the water is good, under the right conditions H. orientalis is fully aquatic, I don't even bother with a land area
 
Il try take a picture of the tail, that's what's been throwing me off, as it's a thin tail, is this better for the bottom of the tank it's red stones?
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I'm worried about them won't it ingest them while eating?


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Warwick said:
I'm worried about them won't it ingest them while eating?


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Click to expand...

I'm new here also but yes that aquarium gravel would be a concern as they may ingest it. As they mentioned above, a sand bottom or bare bottom would be best. I went to a nearby pool store and bought a huge bag of pool filter sand. If you do go with sand do not make it higher than an inch. The pool filter sand is a very economical way to go. It was only 10 bucks for a 50 lb. bag. I also put it in my 30 gallon tank and still have lots left for other tanks. :)
 
I thought sand would be even ore risk? I'm in the uk, so not many swimming pools about! I have a filter in the tank, I may take most the stones out, but it's not as pleasing to the eye, I was liking my Chinese polished stones lol :(


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Fine Sand passes through them, you can keep the stones and put some sand in between the cracks and some over the rock so you have a mix of river rock and sand, just make sure you rinse the sand a lot
 
I wanted them mainly to hold the plants to the bottom rather than be a floating mess, is silica sand ok?


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I've took the rocks out, il try find some proper sand tomorrow then plant the plants back in the sand, won't the sand get dirty?


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How about a slate sheet cut to fit the bottom? With a few stones on the top is that ok? I don't like a bare tank at the bottom :(


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I've seen tanks with slate cut to fit the bottom, it looks quite nice and gives the newts better grip than bare glass.
 
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