Something wrong in my FBN tank?

[TSN]

Hi,
I have a problem with my aquaterrarium.. I dont know what is wrong with it, but there must be something since I've already lost one fbn. I got my fbn's about a year ago, about january/february of this year.

My smaller fbn spent last couple of weeks completely on ground, didnt eat anything I tried to feed him and always crawled out from water if I for example cleaned aquarium and after cleaning put him in water.. He did move around on ground, but not much.

And since last week I havent found him from anywhere, I guess its possible he got out from aquarium somehow and got lost in apartment somewhere. But havent found anything.

And now this week I've noticed my other fbn to get on ground which he never did before. He has been completely aquatic and active before. Always eating whatever I put in front of him.

I even wasnt so worried about my other lizard since he has always been little bit more reclusive than other one.

But now there must be something wrong in aquarium or something..

I did move from different apartment about three months ago, but both fbn's were normal about month after I moved.

Could stress or maybe different water quality symptoms start affecting this late? I dont know what to do.. Wouldnt want to lose my other fbn

 

[Shadow]

Have you tested the water quality yet? That could be why your amphibian (not lizard) is coming out of the water. However though I'm sure this species is pretty much aquatic and I do not know if they come onto land. I doubt the stress from moving would be coming this late aswell.

Also there have been many cases where amphibians seem to disappear, but then somehow turn up again. I hope that is your case.

It's best waiting for the FBN experts to answer this question though.

 

[TSN]

Have you tested the water quality yet? That could be why your amphibian (not lizard) is coming out of the water. However though I'm sure this species is pretty much aquatic and I do not know if they come onto land. I doubt the stress from moving would be coming this late aswell.

Also there have been many cases where amphibians seem to disappear, but then somehow turn up again. I hope that is your case.

It's best waiting for the FBN experts to answer this question though.

I havent tested water quality, and i really wouldnt know where to compare results since i never tested water quality in my previous apartment. And water quality shouldnt really have changed that much since I moved less than 1km away.

I already had once thatkind disappearance case before, but I've looked everywhere, he must have climbed out somehow. Why now and not for example six months ago, I dont know.

And yeah, I know they arent lizards.. Just difficult to remember when in finnish they are called fire lizards

 

[Shadow]

http://newt150.tripod.com/waterchem.shtml

That should help you a bit.

How many times do you do a water change? Six months ago, the water could of been good for them and because the ammonia builds up and right now it could be bad. Do you have a filter, remove uneaten food?

How big is your land part and what is it made out of? I think theres a type of moss that's harmful to newts.

 

[oregon newt]

Do you dechlorinate your water? And when you clean your tank, do you completely change all of the water or just some of it?

 

[TSN]

I change water about every 1-2 weeks and I most of the water at once. And I havent really added any new plants or moss, or anything else in a while.
Land area is made of cork bark and its big enough.

And I dont dechlorinate water..

I'll need to buy that water test kit and start testing water quality. Cant really be anything else than that since nothing else changed..


Btw. When I now came home, my newt was again in water walking around at the bottom, so it cant be completely toxic for them.

 

[oregon newt]

I change water about every 1-2 weeks and I most of the water at once.And I dont dechlorinate water..

That's your problem. First of all, when you change the water, you should only do a portion of it. Maybe like 25-30% every two weeks or so. And second of all, you need to get some kind of conditioner that removes chlorine and chloramines. I'm not sure, though, what the water is like over there, but better safe than sorry.

 

[TSN]

That's your problem. First of all, when you change the water, you should only do a portion of it. Maybe like 25-30% every two weeks or so. And second of all, you need to get some kind of conditioner that removes chlorine and chloramines. I'm not sure, though, what the water is like over there, but better safe than sorry.

Of course I dont completely dry the tank during water change, but maybe i should start leaving little bit more water when i next time change it..

I dont know about removing chlorine.. none of the finnish amphibian/aquarium sites or finnish petshops recommend it.. I dont think that there is that much chlorine in normal finnish tap water.

 

[Shadow]

Well it might of been a good idea reading the caresheets on this site? How big is your tank and do you have a filter? How about posting pics of your tank.

Please always remember to remove chlorine from the water as I think the chemicals can burn a newts skin.

EDIT: Just read you said that there isn't much chlorine in Finnish water. Might aswell condition still, better to be safe than sorry.

 

[Sazbob]

I find that some of my newts spend alot of time on land not really moving about or eating much but the land area in my tank is very humid so i wasn't worried about them drying out or anything and they always ate sooner or later. I've found that sometimes they just have odd "mood swings" where they don't eat for a while but it doesn't damage their health unless it's for a long time because they would have to do this naturally in the wild sometimes. If you think they've been escaping then i would recomend making sure there are no gaps in your tank lid or anything. And definitely dechlorinate water as chlorine is added to all water no matter where in the world you live because it makes it safe for human consumption but not for amphibians.

 

[Kaysie]

And definitely dechlorinate water as chlorine is added to all water no matter where in the world you live because it makes it safe for human consumption but not for amphibians.

While chlorine is added to some municipal water supplies (either as straight chlorine, or chloramines) to improve flavor and bacterial counts, it's not necessarily added to EVERY municipal water supply (for example, it's added to Lansing city water as chloramine, but is not added to Michigan State University water, which is on a different system), and if you have well-water, it's not treated at all.

 

[spoons]

de chlorinate your water , that is almost certainly your problem, most dechlorinators also bind any heavy metals such as coppers and so on so its not just the chloramines its detoxifying.
you'll probably have noticed your newt shedding its skin.. and not eating it... this is also a sign of chlorine, it is literally burning your newt's skin off ..

 

[Kaysie]

I beg to differ. Excess shedding is probably more likely due to ammonia than chlorine.