Hi im new here but earlier this year i caught some wild alpine newts in the uk, i took them back into my garden (very near where i found them both) and setup a tank for them to chill in my garden as my parents have a strict no animals thing, so i just left the lid off and would do water changes once a week until both vanished from their enclosure so i just left the tank to fill with rain water and left the plants to thrive.
now today i was in the garden with my dog and i noticed 3 little black somethings sticking to the glass (i have no idea how pond snails made their way in there) but yeah as i approached i noticed 2 tiny newts chilling on a pile of weeds in the tank (its mostly filled with water with a small island from fish decor) they just barely had any feather gills and both sets of legs are in, they look really marbled and one had a distinct yellowish line down its back
so here i am hours later typing this, of course i wanna keep them as i did accidentally raise them to this point so now i have some questions , have i created an artifical pond ? how have they survived since april? whats the best way to keep alpine newt efts? how did they eat ? what subspecies will it be if its found in the uk ? im really confused and overjoyed about all this