Need help with my Paddle tail newt tank!!!

Hey I recently got a paddle tail newt and I really want to make his/her tank ideal
so I need your guys help to fix it's tank up so that it's super happy

Basically just tell me what I need to add to the tank. I have a sweet piece of
driftwood in there right now and I'm pretty sure it's an oriental sword plant
but not sure cause it didn't have a tag at the pet store. I know he needs more plants.
and I might need to upgrade his filter cause I read they like a nice heavy current.

What substrate is best? I have some pebbles in there now but I don't want to risk
using these too long cause I know he'll try to swallow some eventually.

Any information would be so appreciated! Thanks.

It's in a 10 gallon tank by itself right now he's hiding under the driftwood but I took
a picture of the tank and he popped his head out to see what was going on so
I snapped a good picture of him.

He's about 3-5 inches long. but very skinny. I don't think the pet store was taking
very good care of him :-( so I had to save him. He was only $4! I want to give him
a happy home so please help

Hey,the driftwood should be fine in there.They also like small cave like structures and like to hide in small space's.They need really cool water(the temp should never go higher then 70 F).Them being fully aquatic they don't need a land area.If your going to get plants make sure that the plants can survive in water temp as low 70 F.And for the rocks,just make sure that they are not smaller then his head.You could even go bare bottom.Also since you said he's skinny fatten him up with some live black worms,frozen bloodworms,and red wigglers(chop them up into bite size peices if needed).For the current just use a powerhead.

Thanks for the reply and suggestions! He's a neat little guy :] He's been exploring more instead of just hiding so it's nice to see him out and about. Anyway, I think I'm going to use sand substrate. Most of the plants I have in my other tank for my axolotl root very well in sand. I think I will just staple his diet to red worms cause that's what I have for my axolotl.

Yeah I really have to watch temperatures in my tanks cause it gets super hot in jacksonville. I have to equip all of my tanks with fans blowing inside. Anyway, more suggestions or ideas for his/her tank would be great!

I'd really like to see some good tank set ups that are housing paddle tail newts so if you have a tank
link me a picture or post it on here. Thanks! I really want to just go natural themed.

Yor welcome.Well that sounds just about it,don't see what else you need.And yeaa with that diet he should get fatter soon.I understand the condition paddle tailed newts are kept in at petstore's.

Bloodworms are not sufficient and shouldn´t be the staple. Bloodworms are a very nice addition but are not nutritionally complete in any way, neither for the paddletail nor your axolotl.
Variety is always better but nothing beats earthworms as the ideal staple.

Yes that's true,variet is the key to a good deit in most animals.

I think you misunderstood, when I said red worms I was talking about red wigglers not blood worms. For some reason I am kinda not keen on blood worms, they look messy and I don't even know if my axolotl would be able to find them to eat . Unless it was like a big one. Most I have seen are very tiny. Anyway I agree, I like to throw in a different thing for my axolotl to eat here and there but it's mostly just red worms.

And I got rid of the driftwood, it mucked up the water too much. I wish I could keep it but it just makes the water nasty and I don't think it's healthy for it to be in there ha so just in case I removed it. Will pick up a few more plants and switch to sand substrate and i'll be building little rock huts out of flat rocks for hides in the next few days. Thanks for all the help :] I've been looking up people's paddle tail tanks up on here. Finally found a few that I liked so I think I'll just mimic their tanks. If you'd like to share your paddle tail tank please leave a picture or link to a picture! I'd love to see. Thanks!

Just to note that the most common torrent newt in the pet trade is the slender torrent newt, Pachytriton granulosus. It's a very slender and small animal compared to some of the other species. The Mount Huang torrent newt, P.feii, is very similar and is quite likely mixed in among other animals in the pet trade. While they ARE sometimes quite thin, a slender appearance is normal in both species.

Hmmm very interesting! It's hard to tell for sure, there's so many sub species I get kinda confused.

He is not very dark, very pale peach color. He has the orange circular marks under his belly and
very stubby toes. his tail is definitely rounded at the tip. His skin is very smooth. I'll just have to upload
some more pictures so we all can have a good look at him/her. It's very slender compared to how long
it is. Thanks for the info :]

Color won't help much. The different species differ mainly in body proportions. P.feii and P.granulosus are small and slender, and usually dark brown above. However P.granulosus at least can be ANY combination of color and pattern. All other species [except perhaps one unnamed one] are larger and more robust.

Yeah I don't really know how to tell then lol. Anyway here are some pictures of a newer setup with a new plant and got rid of the driftwood and replaced with a piece of petrified wood I had. He can go under the petrified wood for hiding. Oh and I added sand substrate and ditched the gravel. Needs some more work but it will due for now. The last picture is an aerial view. He has got a lot more plump already since I started feeding him worms chunks. I think he was just malnourished :-(