What type of newt would work well in this tank? + need lots of newbie help and advice.

Hello all,

I am a newt newbie who has put a good amount of work into a paludarium tank (1/3 land, 2/3 water). Right now, I am leaning towards getting one or two rough-skinned newts. However, I am a newbie and I do not know what type of newt would be most ideal for this setup. Any advice is welcome.

Tank specs: 20 gallon (high) tank, which is 2 feet wide, 1 foot deep, and 1.5 feet high. Water and land is divided by acrylic sheets. There is about 6-7 gallons of water in the tank, and the average water depth is 6-7 inches.

Plants: Land is covered with many varieties of living moss and a single creeping fig (which is very quickly taking over). The water, which is about 6-7 inches deep, is planted with pennywort, hornwort, java moss, and dwarf sag.

Animals: None at the moment, since the tank is still cycling. Will add bio-spira and 3 white cloud minnows once the plants situate themselves. I wish to keep these minnows (and possibly 1 to 3 more) with the newt. Though if not recommended, I'll remove them to a separate tank.

Filtration: Currently, the tank uses a filter that I built into the waterfall pump. Basic mechanical filtration (by filter floss) and biological filtration (once the cycling process is complete). I also have a duetto power filter that I can plop in the tank if the filter I made proves to be inadiquate.

Substrate: In water, 1" of gravel mixed with laterite topped with 1.5" of larger gravel and a scattering of river stones. On land, substrate is mostly organic soil. Proper drainage has been included, with a layer of drainage stones (lavarock), landscape fabric, sand, and charcoal.

Lighting: Two tubes, basic flourescent--I think this is all I will need for the low-light plants I have in the aquarium.

Further tank descriptions (lettered descriptions correspond to letters located on the attached image):

A. Thick hornwort, water is about 7" deep.
B. Driftwood arch, just barely breaks the surface of the water. Water is otherwise fairly open and deep here, as most of the plants are very small.
C. Pump chamber--acrylic "cube" that houses the pump and filter materials. Water is shallow above (2" and less).
D. Moss-covered and mostly buried "log" of cork bark. Can be used as a terrestrial hideout.
E. Waterfall pool--shallow pool of water (about 2.5" deep).
F. Waterfall, about 1.5-2" high. The water gently flows over a flate piece of slate and then "falls" into a shallow pool. Newts should be able to cross the piece of slate without problem, as the water is very shallow and flows gently.
G. Mossy land area with creeping fig (ficus repens).
H. Ravine--area is deep, but the sides of the tank and land area form a ravine. Mostly grasses and java moss planted here.

Overhead view of the tank:

Cool tank
It's best to begin with a hardy species like a cynops species, they are very good to begin with.

I disagree with Mark. If you can get T. granulosa that is what I would recommend. C. pyrrhogaster would probably do well but I don't think they would use the land much. C. oreintalis is not a great starter pet.

T. granulosa though is a very hardy animal that would probably make the most use from this tank tha tyou very obviously spent lots of time creating. I recommend this. It's also probably one of the easiest ones to find.

You can keep the white clouds with the newts, just if you hope to breed them you may have to remove them.

If anyone disagrees with me feel free to voice your opinions.

Thanks for your advice so far!

A couple things I might as well ask, while my setup is being discussed:

1. If I want white cloud minnows, ghost shrimp, and rough-skinned newt(s), then how many of each can I fit in this setup? Would 2 newts, 6 minnows, and 3 shrimp be too much?

2. Do I need to include an airstone or two?

"Overcrowding puts the lives of all your animals in danger. Even when a tank doesn’t look crowded, it may have more animals than the carrying capacity of the water allows. As an example, a 10-gallon tank can easily support about 12 inches of animal (three 4-inch newts, for example), and a 15-20 gallon tank can easily support about 16 inches of animal. Any fish in the tank also count toward the total. Any animals beyond this are verging on overcrowded."
Take from off of Caudate Central's pages. Use that as a guideline. I would personally keep 2 newts, and then a few shrimp. I like the shrimp because they eat all all the missed food that the newts can't get and they make a tasty treat for the newt if they get caught. Fish tend to go after the food..almost seeming to steal it from the newts. Also I find the fish require more food and produce more waste then the shrimp. That's just my personal opinion though.

As for airstones...if you're going to put an airpump hooked up I would recommend also attaching it to a spounge filter. That way it oxygenates the water and helps it stay clean all in one, and you won't have to use the Duetto as mechanical filtration can increase the temperature of the water.

Thanks, Rob.

I am adding a 5- or 10-gallon overflow to the tank. My current planned bioload is:

1 newt (either P. chinensis or T. granulosa)
4-6 white cloud minnows
shrimp/snails

If you feel that this is pushing the limits of the tank (with the added overflow), I will gladly get rid of the fish. I may skip the fish anyway...I want the newt to be comfortable.

Thanks again,

^iMp^