Japanese Red Bellied Newt won't eat! Please help!

Hi there, long time forum surfer first time poster.

I was recently given a female Japanese red bellied newt to look after. She is an ex-London Zoo animal (my friend works there and ended up owning her but has now given her to me).

She arrived to me healthy and well, but has since not eaten (I got her two weeks ago today). She's used to eating frozen blood worm which is what my friend gave me to feed her. I have changed the viv she is in as I had a bigger one and figured I might as well give her as much space to roam about as possible.

However every time I drop some frozen bloodworm in she doesn't eat any. For a few days she was acting a bit stressed; swimming around the sides of the viv and into the corners and trying to haul herself out, so I moved her into a spare room where the radiator isn't on so it's cooler and she isn't under any direct light, as well as making her a fixed raft in the corner of the viv which she can now find (I think she didn't realise there was a raft floating about). I also noticed that because she wasn't eating and I was leaving food in her viv longer than I probably should to try and encourage her to eat that there was a growing colony of black planaria in her tank. I emptied the viv and ran the substrate, enrichment and everything in her tank through boiling water which seems to have sorted that problem out.

This has stopped her "stressed" behaviour but she's still not eating. She now hasn't eaten for two weeks now and I'm really starting to worry about her. I've tried moving her back to her original viv and putting nothing bur water and food in there to see if she's just not finding it in the larger viv, but still no luck.

Anyone got any advice?

It sounds like before you tore the tank down, when she was swimming at the sides, water conditions must have been very inadequate. That kind of frantic swimming is very typical of an animal that is struggling to get out of the water for good reasons. After the tank was reset water parametres must have started at zero which would explain why the frantic swimming stopped, but those conditions won't last. Particularly if you are feeding bloodworms, which foul the water very quickly, ammonia and nitrite spikes are on their way. To avoid this, make sure to make small, partial water changes of about 10-20% of the total volume of water every day or two, as necessary. You will have to keep this up until the tank is fully cycled.
The best advice i can give you is to fill the tank with live plants...literally, fill it good. An aquarium shaped, green block of plants with some water in between is what you want xD The plants, along with the water changes, will keep water parametres in check until the cycling process is done. They will also prevent drowning which is possible when a newt is constantly swimming trying to get out.

As for the food, forget the bloodworms, they are rubbish anyway. Get her some earthworms. They are nutritionally complete, rich in calcium and they should atract her attention and get her to eat. They make an excellent staple.

Thanks for the advice. I was planning on getting more live plants anyway to keep the water nice. I currently don't have a working pump so I'm doing manual water changes anyway.

Where is the best place to buy some earthworms for her? Or is it a case of going digging in the garden?

I can't help you with that since i'm not even from your country xD You can dig them up as long as you take them froma completely safe area, no pesticides, no chemicals or anything.
There are also plenty of online shops that will sell earthworms, and you can very easily start a culture at home which will provide you with safe to eat worms year round.

A pump or a filter are not necessary, their function can be completely substituted with live plants, but without an undesirable current and no heat or vibrations.

Make sure to check the caresheet, the cycling article and to read as much as you can.

I've offered her live earthworms I got from the compost this morning and still no change. She's not even remotely interested in them.

Leave a piece of earthworm around and let the newt be. Insisting too much causes stress and prolongs abstinence.
Upload pictures of the tank and the newt if you can.

Just a thought, it might be better to dig an earthworm out of the ground. Compost heap worms are often the type that smell and taste nasty, especially when cut. Some newts can be trained to accept them, but at this point you need to offer super palatable items to tempt her.

From personal experience, go for the garden worms rather than compost like @Chinadog suggested. Apparently those red compost worms are yucky. Whole, chopped, blanched.... My salamanders won't look twice at them. Maybe try wax worms? Reptiworns (calciworms, other name)? Or am I wrong, maybe newts won't go for them. Good luck!

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I left her for a couple of days but I gave her some earthworms this morning (not compost worms) and she ate one! She struggled a bit with it so I've chopped the other ones and left them in her tank.
She is however now quite slim compared to when she stopped eating two weeks ago. Her gills seem to protrude a bit and when she brushed against my hand when I was putting the worms in some white flakes came off her. She's not flaky to look at but I'm assuming it's her skin, so I'm still quite worried about her. However she has eaten one worm!

This is how she looked when I first got her.



This is how she looks now



This is how I've set up her tank

Others will chime in soon, but that is not a great set up for her. First, those green rocks are just the right size for her to swallow, so are very dangerous. Second, it looks like a critter keeper type cage, which will not allow you to have the volume of water she will need. It will also be very difficult to maintain good water conditions and the temperature will fluctuate a lot more with a smaller volume. Last, I don't see any live plants for her to hide in. This species prefers a heavily planted tank. Plants will also help keep your water safer.

She looks fine, just a little slim. I don't see any obvious issues. I think she is just very stressed by her new, and not ideal, home. Please read up on proper housing for this species. There are tons of good threads with pictures. Check out threads by user Chinadog: he has some great examples of Cynops housing.

I agree with Slowfoot, Cynops pyrrhogaster are dependent on heavy plant growth to be happy, especially females, mine spend most of their time hanging in the plants, so you should make correcting her environment a priority. The simplest set up could be a ten gallon aquarium with a tight fitting lid that's rammed full of aquatic plants. I don't think it really matters what kind of plants, but fast growing ones like Hydracotile or Elodea are good. With enough plants no filter is needed, but it would be wise to check the water for ammonia or nitrite daily and do small water changes when required. Once the tank cycles, the water changes can be less frequent because the plants will remove the ammonia as they grow.

The green substrate she's on is what her previous keeper gave me, so it's what she's used to. He said he's never had problems with her swallowing it and neither have I.
I'm going to get her plants when I can next get out (I don't have a car) and Christmas has required me to stay in with the family. Also she wasn't kept with live plants previously, but it is something I plan on rectifying.
She has got quite a deep tank, it's the biggest one I own. It's a heck of a lot bigger than the one she was given to me in (which is the one she was kept in for a few months before my friend gave her to me), so I figured it was better.

You're not going to know if it has been swallowing it until something happens. Why take the risk when you can switch to a fine sand or bare bottom, I don't think a change in substrate would annoy the newt. That gravel and the rocks stacked in the back also traps a lot of waste, which combined with the small amount water in the tank will basically ruin the water quality.
The minimum volume of water(not tank size, but water volume) is considered to be 10 gallons to keep the water quality stable. Also pyres are very aquatic and shouldn't leave the water too often, you should be able to have the water near the top and make sure you have a secure screen lid.

I'm going to be a bit more blunt, that's not ok, that's a pretty terrible set-up.
She is not in trouble as far as weight goes, but the abnormal shedding of skin and the refusal to eat regularly are again, pretty good indicators of inadequate water conditions. If you fail to provide acceptable conditions soon, she might not be ok for much longer...
She has no gills, it's a fully metamorphosed adult. If you were refering to the lumpy things on either side of the head, those aren't gills, they are just fleshy protrusions characteristic of this species.
That substrate needs to go, it's a hazard. You need to get a larger container, no less than 10 gallons but preferably more (20 gallons would be highly recommended), and you absolutely need to get live plants as soon as possible.

Nice looking newt ! I hope to take the advice you've been given its spot on. If you get worms from the compost heap they don't seem palatable to many species, if you keep them on organic compost and feed them porridge it scours all the gunk out of them and they will be eaten. I buy my worms from a fishing tackle shop, the species I prefer are dendrobena just make sure they are organic worms.