Too cold, too fast?

I will be getting my first Pleurodeles this weekend from someone off my local classified who no longer wants it. I am told it is about 6 months old but it was originally purchased from a pet store so I don't really know how accurate this information is.

By looking at the pictures the seller has sent, the animal does not appear to have had proper husbandry - in about 3 inches of water with a deep layer of gravel that's perfectly sized for swallowing. Seller doesn't know what temperature the water is, but the current water temp in my newt room is 52F/ 11C. So my question is should I place the set up for this animal in the cool water newt room or should its aquarium be placed where the water will be closer to 60F/ 15C? The change in housing alone can cause stress and my guess is the newt is already stressed and not in the best health. I don't want to compound these issues by shocking it with drastically different temperatures than what is has heretofore been living in.

Thanks guys!

As long as it's acclimatised it should be fine, 15c is OK for waltl. I just put 100 outside at 12c daytime time 5c night time temp, they were raised indoors at 20c, no fatalities after a week.

Thanks for the response Ian.

I guess my concern is that there wouldn't really be any acclimatizing or transitioning from its current potentially warmish water of maybe 20C to then going directly in 11C water. But it sounds like you have had no problems so I should stop worrying

Thanks again! Hope the little guy handles all the changes that are in store for it!

HJ

The ribbed newts have no problems with the cold, here in Spain there is also harsh winters.

I have come to see them walking on a frozen pond.

Heather, when I said "acclimatise" I ment put it in a tub at 20c, leave the tub in the new room so the water gradually cools down, I avoid fast temp changes.

Ian: I must have been channeling you as that's what I ended up doing, and the newt has seemed to settle in very well. It eats nightcrawlers like a champ and is learning that this human = food It is shedding quite a bit without eating the shed, but I am not concerned about that, mostly just an observation. Thanks for all the feedback guys! I will have to post pics of it and its set up some time.

HJ

The shed on waltl is quit noticeable, they don't seem to eat it much, unlike my nasty xenopus who try to eat each other's lol