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New Member Here! Let me know what you think about my set up pls :)

AeonMapa

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Hi everyone I'm new to the site, and I just wanted to introduce myself as well as ask what the more experienced owners think about the current set up i have.

I'm a teacher from the Philippines and I currently own 5 fire bellied newts. This isn't my first time to own them as I had two when I was a child. I kept those two in a small container with some water and an island, and they were ok there for about 2 years, till one escaped, never to be found, and I mistakenly put some turtles in with the one that stayed, they all died soon after from disease I'd guess.

Recently I decided i wanted to keep some of these little guys again and made sure to do my research this time. First thing I did was buy a 30 litre tank (8 or 9 gallons I think). I Put some large Stones on the bottom (made sure they were stable), Placed about 5 plants of various kinds, and added some floating wood as islands. I filled the tank about 4/5 of the way. After letting the tank filter run for a few hours I added 3 Chinese Fire Bellied newts. One immediately took to the water while the other two (younger newts) preferred the floating wood.

After 1 week , I added 6 white cloud minnows (I know fish aren't recommended but I read that these are sometimes acceptable), 6 cherry shrimp, and 2 more newts. I hadn't learned about quarantining new animals yet before I put them in, but thankfully no incidents occurred. I later added 6 more cherry shrimp and 4 more white clouds.

Anyway! Today the tank is about 2 weeks old, 1 white cloud died of swim bladder disorder, and another white cloud has simply disappeared! The shrimp are thriving however and are growing at an fast rate. As for the newts they seem very happy! After the arrival of the 2 new newts, the 2 younger newts seem to have taken up becoming fully aquatic (though one still comes out for an hour or so sometimes), and all 5 newts have gained significant weight and look a lot healthier than they did when I bought them. (you can't see their skeletons through the skin anymore :) ) I've been feeding them tubifex worms, which seems to be a good choice as the white clouds and cherry shrimp eat them as well, so I just throw in a whole bunch at a time, anything that survives the newts, fish and shrimp are found eventually anyways!

I live in a warm country but I keep my tank cool by doing 25% cool water changes everyday, as well as cycling 2 frozen water bottles, also I use air conditioning at night.

So that's my set-up! Everything seems to be happy and thriving, the newts spending most of their days chilling out hidden in the plants till they get hungry and hunt for worms :)
Thanks to you guys for taking the time to read my post, you've got a great community here and I hope to learn all the ways to give my pets a long and happy life. Cheers!
 

Otterwoman

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You can also keep the tank a little cooler by keeping it on the floor or in a basement if you have one. It all sounds OK except that the tank is starting to sound a little small for all the animals you have in there!
 

AeonMapa

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Aug 2, 2013
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Location
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Yes I did realize that.. I think in terms of newts and fish it is getting a little overcrowded, so I won't really add to that number anymore, maybe even transfer three white clouds to my fishtank leaving only five in the newt tank. Would my 5 newts be alright in the 9 gallon tank though? :/
 
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