Help! i can't find my boy !

My FB newt is missing he left his tank while i was watching a movie (i know cus i said hello just before leaving for the living room). he has a bare tank except for a hide, and a 'tree ornament that doubles as a hide and rest area. the only new addition was a filter i had just added (which i suspect is how he escaped - even though i sealed off the gaps pretty well with tape and cardboard). i looked all over my room (which very small) under the bed, dresser, his self, and any place on the floor, even up inside my book self. i set out 6 shallow water dishes for him in hopes that he will hydrate himself (i really really don't want him to die). i searched till 4:00 AM and slept till 9:00 AM and immediately searched again. no sign of him i feel like crying, but i don't want to give up on him. does anyone have advice for helping me find my boy?

Put some wet towels around. I think they can smell water. In a few hours he might find his way to one of the towels. Put them around the tank and anywhere near where he might have crawled under to hide.

I had that happen years ago and the newt was still in the tank. I checked the tank thoroughly two different times. I finally found him the third time. They can get into some pretty tight places. Best of luck.

I had the same thing happen to me but he was actually hiding on my filter.

Hey, if the tree ornaments and hide are hollow lift them up and check way up in there, when i had 3 newts and a giant hollow tree they spent most of there time climbing to the top of the inside of the tree.

Any luck?

thank you for your kind advice guys but i've lost hope for isaac... he was a wonderful pal but i know logically he couldn't have survived so long out of his tank. i hoped and watched but he never did go to any of the water dishes or paper towels i set out for him.

if someday i feel better about losing him i was wondering if you had advice for making my aquarium escape proof?
it's got a metal lid that has no gaps until the filter is put in then one end of the lid is lifted slightly around the tube and latch of the filter. the opening is about a quarter of an inch high maximum a half inch - had covered it with pieces of card board and 8 layers of tape but obviously that wasn't good enough.. any safe secure ideas would be greatly appreciated

I would just take the filter out. Cynops and Hypselotriton don't need filters and I believe even dislike too much movement in their water. They are generally pond dwellers, so they're used to still water. Just make sure to do partial water changes once or twice a week once the aquarium has been established.

ok thank you stanleyc - the shame of it all is that was his tank set up for 9 months. the last week i had him he had a bad shed (a piece got stuck to him) and he wasn't eating well (and he was a great eater) - i went into over-protective worry mode. i went through all my books on keeping them and some said they need a filter (low power)... so i thought 'maybe my partial water changes aren't enough, i'll find him an extremely gentle filter and monitor him to see if its what he needs' then he escaped the first day i put the thing in. :<

i still can't figure out what it was that was initially bothering him (ph was good, ammonia was safe, there was no filter so no water flow, i did partial change 2x a week with zoomed conditioner, fed him the 'newt food pellets' the store owner raised them on...)

Could be a bunch of things, but maybe you could try offering live foods to change it up. Tubifex worms, blackworms, and earthworms are good options, especially earthworms. The movement of these food items should help stimulate feeding. Also, feeding a variety of foods would be beneficial anyways for making sure they get all the nutrients they need to be as healthy as possible.

Also I don't want to make it seem like filters are never a good idea. They're just not necessary for this species. If you're using a filter that doesn't create much water movement, they can help maintain water quality. I've been told sponge filters are great for this.

alright thank you again, if I decide to get another fb newt I'll try some live foods.