Illness/Sickness: Eye Problem with Paddletail Newt

My male Paddletail Newt Rojo seems to have something wrong with his left eye. I just noticed it two days ago; the day before he was fine. The eye appears cloudy and white, with a slight bluish tint. At first I thought his eyes were clouding over from shedding (I know reptiles do that, and thought maybe amphibians do the same?), but he is not shedding. Also, his right eye appears to be normal. His behavior hasn't seemed to have changed any since I noticed this, but he does appear to have difficulty closing the eye. It almost never blinks, and I observed him once pushing his head against the side of the tank to close it. The pupil on the clouded eye doesn't seem to be moving, either, but fixed in one direction. I've gotten him out and taken a closer look, and it looks like whatever is clouding the eye is internal. There's nothing protruding, like shed skin or a fungus. He doesn't seem stressed or in pain, but I don't know what's wrong with the eye or what caused it (especially so suddenly) to get this way. I'm worried that he's somehow gone blind in his left eye.
Here are two pictures, they were the best I could get:
http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j144/DinoHunterV2/128.jpg
http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j144/DinoHunterV2/130.jpg

Any and all help on telling what's wrong with him and how (or if) it can be treated would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Some more information would be helpful. How long have you had the newt, is he/she eating well and if so what are you feeding him, and what kind of conditions is he being kept in (size of aquarium, other occupants, and water condition)?
Your answers to these questions may help us to understand better what is the trouble with his eye and what kind of treatment is needed.

Hi,

I would recommend getting your newt checked out by a vet if at all possible. While assessment of the husbandry as described will be an important part of the clinical history, and may suggest favouring one or more of the possible causes, there is no substitute for professional direct examination to properly assess the lesion in the eye itself.

Corneal lipidosis, cataract, conjunctivitis, uveitis, keratitis, panophthalmitis are some possibilities, that would need the assessment of an experienced vet, and possibly further tests, to distinguish.

I hope you can get him sorted.

Best wishes,

Bruce.

audrey said:

Some more information would be helpful. How long have you had the newt, is he/she eating well and if so what are you feeding him, and what kind of conditions is he being kept in (size of aquarium, other occupants, and water condition)?
Your answers to these questions may help us to understand better what is the trouble with his eye and what kind of treatment is needed.

Click to expand...

I've had him for about two years. He wasn't much smaller than he is now (six inches long) when I got him at the petstore, though. I don't know how old he was when I got him. I don't think he's been eating quite as much as he used to, but he is feeding, and his weight appears to be normal. He doesn't have any trouble finding the food, though I imagine that's probably because he can smell it. I feed him freeze-dried cubes of tubifex worms and occasionally fresh earthworms. He also shares the tank with a number of small guppies, which he eats from time to time. Besides the guppies, some small water snails, and a small Pleca, the only other occupant is Akka. Akka is of the same species and general size, though she's female and (I'm pretty sure) gravid. They get along very well and he does a lot of tail-fanning and nudging, so I think he's eager for her to lay eggs. They've never had any fights before.
The aquarium itself is 20 inches wide, 10 inches deep, and a foot high. I usually keep it at or a little less than 3/4 full. The water temperature is cool, less than room temperature, and during the winter I have an underwater heater that keeps it from getting cold. When I change his water I never replace more than a half, because I know that removing too much of the original water will get rid of beneficial bacteria and can be harmful. The tank has a medium-sized filter in it, and is almost always crystal-clear (but not devoid of slime/algae). I have AquaSafe, and I always make sure to mix a few drops of it into new water before I put it in his aquarium. He's never had any health problems before, at least not while I've had him.

I've been thinking of taking him to the vet, but I don't know if the one here takes amphibians. I'll have to call and find out.

Larvaman said:

I've had him for about two years. He wasn't much smaller than he is now (six inches long) when I got him at the petstore, though. I don't know how old he was when I got him. I don't think he's been eating quite as much as he used to, but he is feeding, and his weight appears to be normal. He doesn't have any trouble finding the food, though I imagine that's probably because he can smell it. I feed him freeze-dried cubes of tubifex worms and occasionally fresh earthworms. He also shares the tank with a number of small guppies, which he eats from time to time. Besides the guppies, some small water snails, and a small Pleca, the only other occupant is Akka. Akka is of the same species and general size, though she's female and (I'm pretty sure) gravid. They get along very well and he does a lot of tail-fanning and nudging, so I think he's eager for her to lay eggs. They've never had any fights before.
The aquarium itself is 20 inches wide, 10 inches deep, and a foot high. I usually keep it at or a little less than 3/4 full. The water temperature is cool, less than room temperature, and during the winter I have an underwater heater that keeps it from getting cold. When I change his water I never replace more than a half, because I know that removing too much of the original water will get rid of beneficial bacteria and can be harmful. The tank has a medium-sized filter in it, and is almost always crystal-clear (but not devoid of slime/algae). I have AquaSafe, and I always make sure to mix a few drops of it into new water before I put it in his aquarium. He's never had any health problems before, at least not while I've had him.

I've been thinking of taking him to the vet, but I don't know if the one here takes amphibians. I'll have to call and find out.

Click to expand...

Was the female newly introduced? Your husbandry seems great! Maybe the other post about cataracts is on to something...

Well I would say that in general your paddletail is on the slim size. I find them to be rather aggressive feeders that will become nicely rounded when fed well. I think that earthworm is a more appropriate regular food for a newt of that size rather than tubifex worms. Guppies and plecos are not recommended species to keep with newts. Here is an article on it if you want to check it out. http://caudata.org/cc/articles/Mixing_disasters.shtml
There are just a few fish that are ok with your newts - I believe white cloud minnows are one.
The heater is most definately not needed and a bad idea for newts all around. Your temps can get down to the 40's without any harm to your paddletails, in fact it may even be good for them since it would be a more natural climate change.
From your intro it seems like you have just added a new newt to the set up. Newts can carry diseases and parasites, ect. Usually a quaranteen period is recommended before adding new newts to tanks with more established newts in them. This gives you time to find out if they are healthy.
It also seems that you are familiar with the aggressive personalities of the paddletails, just because you haven't seen arms ripped off yet between these new two doesn't mean that they are getting along. It may be stress that is causing your male this problem or something the female has carried into the tank.
You can find out if there is a registered amphibian vet in your area using this link. http://timssnet2.allenpress.com/ECOMARAV/timssnet/common/tnt_frontpage.cfm
In the mean time I would separate your newt from the fish and other newt and try to give him a cool stress free environment - such as a tub with a hide and cool water doing small water changes every other day - and see if this helps his own immune system to kick in and help him heal.

audrey said:

Well I would say that in general your paddletail is on the slim size. I find them to be rather aggressive feeders that will become nicely rounded when fed well. I think that earthworm is a more appropriate regular food for a newt of that size rather than tubifex worms. Guppies and plecos are not recommended species to keep with newts. Here is an article on it if you want to check it out. http://caudata.org/cc/articles/Mixing_disasters.shtml
There are just a few fish that are ok with your newts - I believe white cloud minnows are one.
The heater is most definately not needed and a bad idea for newts all around. Your temps can get down to the 40's without any harm to your paddletails, in fact it may even be good for them since it would be a more natural climate change.
From your intro it seems like you have just added a new newt to the set up. Newts can carry diseases and parasites, ect. Usually a quaranteen period is recommended before adding new newts to tanks with more established newts in them. This gives you time to find out if they are healthy.
It also seems that you are familiar with the aggressive personalities of the paddletails, just because you haven't seen arms ripped off yet between these new two doesn't mean that they are getting along. It may be stress that is causing your male this problem or something the female has carried into the tank.
You can find out if there is a registered amphibian vet in your area using this link. http://timssnet2.allenpress.com/ECOMARAV/timssnet/common/tnt_frontpage.cfm
In the mean time I would separate your newt from the fish and other newt and try to give him a cool stress free environment - such as a tub with a hide and cool water doing small water changes every other day - and see if this helps his own immune system to kick in and help him heal.

Click to expand...

Okay. I'll try and get more earthworms, then. I checked out the link about bad combinations, but I didn't see anything about guppies and paddletails. Why is it that they shouldn't be kept together?
As for Akka, I'd consider her fairly new, but she has been in the tank with Rojo for around two months. They both seemed healthy until now. If she brought something with her that caused this, could it really have taken this long for it to affect him? (Not questioning your opinion, I'm just curious!)
I'll be sure not to use the heater this winter. I think I'll leave it in, though (turned off, of course). Rojo is fond of using it as a platform to rest on.
As for stress, to be honest, I'd be more worried about Akka than Rojo in that regard. She's recently gotten very plump, I think gravid- and Rojo seems very "insistent". He follows her around a lot (not chasing, though) and nuzzles and nudges her often. He'll frequently get in front of her and rapdidly tail-fan, like he's trying to get her attention. She doesn't seem to mind, though. They often rest next to or on top of each other in the same cave and generally don't seem to mind being near one another. I havn't seen any chasing or biting, and the tail-fanning doesn't seem to be to ward Akka off, as he usually follows her if she turns away. Are there any other signs of aggression I need to be watching for, though?
In the mean time, I've taken your advice and moved Rojo out of the tank. I have him in a seperate container with cool water and cover. He wasn't too happy about the move at first, but he seems to have calmed down.
I noticed just now, though, that he does seem to be able to move the pupil after all. Before it seemed fixed in a looking-down position, but I just checked in on him and both pupils moved upwards to look at me. I don't know if him having control over the movement of the eye helps at all with distinguishing the specific cause, but I guess it can't hurt to mention it regardless.

The main reason I would discourage you from keeping guppies with paddletails is the temperature issue. There are several reasons why you want the newts' temperature to get cold in winter, one of them being that newts are more able to accumulate fat reserves when they are cold. They normally continue to feed, but burn fewer calories when cold. Another reason is that the general health of the animals may be better if their temperature regime is closer to what they would have in nature. The guppies won't tolerate being that cold, and thus aren't ideal tankmates.

Larvaman said:

If she brought something with her that caused this, could it really have taken this long for it to affect him? (Not questioning your opinion, I'm just curious!)

Click to expand...

This can easily happen. She could be healthy as can be, but carry a parasite or pathogen or etc. that your male has no defense for. Therefore, over time his immunity would weaken and problems then become visible. Yes, even the same species can harbor diff. things. I do wish you luck and can offer something in advice...I've never had to do this, but I have heard of dropping temps into the 45-50 degree range to kill the parasite or what-have-you.

jbherpin said:

but I have heard of dropping temps into the 45-50 degree range to kill the parasite or what-have-you.

Click to expand...

There shouldn't be any harm in doing that but I honestly think that's bogus advice, JBHerpin. I'd hit you with negative reputation but your rep might not recover.

As to the problem, greater minds than mine have offered advice here and I don't have anything new to give. I wish your paddletail a speedy recovery.

Thanks.

Unfortunately the best container I had to keep Rojo in was a bit on the small side, and I don't think he was very happy with being so cramped. I'm told Paddletails don't like being that confined, so I decided not to keep him in there for too long. Still, I didn't want to give up on the advice given, so I kept him seperated overnight. Yesterday when I checked up on him, the eye did seem to have improved. There was still a small, white opaque spot, but it was pointing in a different direction than it had been before, and the rest of his eye was significantly less cloudy; I could see his regular eye and pupil underneath.
I called the pet store where I got him from originally and asked if they had an amphibian specialist, which they did, but unfortunately it was someone I'd spoken to before and gotten incorrect information from. He said that it might be a catarct, which sounds likely enough, but I am a bit wary after hearing it from that individual. Anyway, since I havn't got ahold of a suitable vet yet and the container I was using was too small, I returned Rojo to the aquarium. At first the eye started to cloud up again, but I noticed an hour or two later that it'd already cleared up again. The opaque white spot is smaller than before, but seems now to be split into two seperate spots. Maybe it's just "breaking up" as it goes away, but it's got me a little worried nevertheless.
Also, I got some earthworms today. He ate two big ones right away and had no trouble finding them- though again, I don't know if he saw them or smelled them. Still, I'm glad to see that his apetite is unaffected.

John said:

There shouldn't be any harm in doing that but I honestly think that's bogus advice, JBHerpin. I'd hit you with negative reputation but your rep might not recover.

As to the problem, greater minds than mine have offered advice here and I don't have anything new to give. I wish your paddletail a speedy recovery.

Click to expand...

I feel absolutely embarrassed! I read that in the Barron's Salamander and Newt book. I took it for truth considering the book is sold in every pet shop in my area. I apologize, and retract my comment. I did say I've never done this, it's just people want EVERY bit of info...at least I do. I don't want you to consider me a fool. I feel I have a decent knowledge of many species and their care. I really do want to be taken seriously and want to contribute to the forum.

Here's the awkward question: who is the author of that book?

John said:

Here's the awkward question: who is the author of that book?

Click to expand...

The author is Indiviglio. The author is speaking on bacteria and red-leg, and suggests that condition is "cured or prevented" when refrigerated at 39-40 degrees f for 2 weeks. You can check if you like, it is on pg. 61 under the Health section. Again, I did not want to give bogus info, I had no way to know this was false. Sorry again, I hope my reputation with YOU is not permanently damaged. I value this forum, and think it serves people very well...I'd hate to end up banned or something...

I have a relatively good opinion of that book. I would like to know where Frank got that information though.