Opinions needed on enclosure design

For the past year and a half I have kept both my T. kweichowensis group and my T. taliangensis group in aquatic enclosures with large land areas. In both groups I could say that the vast majority of the animals' time has been spent on land. I rarely see individuals from either group swimming. I am thinking about redoing both enclosures to make them land based with a large water area instead. I am curious as to how other keepers set up their enclosures.
Chip

Here's how I do mine...It's easy to clean and you can control humidity levels easily. You can piece it together in under 20 minutes, and aesthetically it isn't too bad either. GO to your LFS or a pond centre and buy a piece of the black coarse filter sponge .


Buy it in a sheet the size of your aquarium floor (or as close as possible), at least 4" + thick. Then cut it slightly bigger than the tank and wedge it at the bottom. Fill the tank with water, so it looks like this:

The black area is all the sponge, and the water goes all the way through it, but it serves as a land area. The plants are at the edge, squeezed between the sponge and the glass, and roots into sponge.


There is a slope for the animals to enter/exit the water. The sponge can be cut so you can sort of do some scaping...I hope this helps! If you are interested in this method, I can tell you more...unfortunately a lot of people think this is ugly. There is a major con, though - it doesn't really feel like any surface an animal would crawl on. However, this works well for my chelonians, caudatans and anurans.

That is actually not a bad idea at all and it looks more natural than the big sections of styrofoam that I am currently using. My biggest concern however is I have all of this water that the newts are rarely using. I regularly test the water quality and all of the parameters are fine. Each group is housed in 65 gallon aquariums (app 3 ft x 22 inches tall x 18 inches wide - sorry for not using the metric system). I am seriously considering draining the tanks and using a soil substrate with a fairly large (proportionally), sponge filtered plastic tub as a water source. I am interested in anyone's advice however I would particularly like to hear from some of those folks that have bred both of these species (cough, cough Europeans).
Chip

I use a bit different system with mine that does include filtration.
I have a 55 gal tank and I prop one end up. Then there is a layer of gravel and rocks through the whole bottom of the tank - which is important so that it does not get soggy. Then the low end I fill with water and I have a small filter in there as well. I mound the higher side with dirt and rocks and such so that they have quite a variety of dampness as well. The water level can also be raised and lowered this way too so as to accommodate for the times when they are more aquatic to when they are less.

@Audrey: Nice tank! I especially like how you built the large mound of soil that makes up the main land area...

@freves: Maybe you should consider using a glass divider with soil on one side and water on the other? It looks unslightly though...but if water quality is your concern, add lots of fast growing semi-aquatic plants...they help ammonia conversion alot. (Semi aquatic as in submerged roots but non-submerged leaves, like peace lillys.)

Maybe you should consider getting the black filter medium, and cutting a big rectangular depression into it and place a plastic tub in the depression, filled with soil. Then you don't have to see the ugly plastic because it is wrapped in the filter medium, but the soil is easy to clean and change. Or maybe you could do this with the water...or you could fill the whole terrarium with soil and have a plastic tub of water sunk into the soil. A downside of the latter is that you would only be able to see your newts in the water by looking down from above.

My T. kweichowensis are in a 50:50 setup and visit the water frequently, e.g. the second half of this video: http://frogroom-podcast.blogspot.com/2008/12/winter-dormancy.html

Most European breeders I am aware of keep them in this sort of setup. What air/water temperatures are your animals at?

I appreciate the input.

Audrey - That is a very good idea however I have my tanks on one large iron wrought stand and I'm afraid that it would be too structurally unsound.

Micstarz - Again I appreciate the suggestion but glass dividers are a real pain IMO, the soil saturates easily, the water stays dirty, etc.

AJC - Depending on the weather outside (which has been variable lately to say the least) the temperatures run from around 64 f to the low 70's f.

After further consideration I have been thinking that before I dismantle both setups and convert them to terrestrial enclosures I may just try lowering the water levels more (maybe even using the sponge idea if I can find some). When I first started keeping both of these species around 4 or five years ago I kept them in 50/50 setups with fairly shallow water. I remember then that many of the animals would enter the water quite frequently.
Chip

Alan is on to something here. Your temperatures are a little low I think. Many Tylototriton species won't become more than very occasionally semi-aquatic at temperatures below about 72 F (about 22 degrees Celcius). Tylototriton kweichowensis truly is a semi-aquatic newt in my limited experience, closer to T. verrucosus than T. shanjing in its regard for aquatic conditions when warm enough.

freves said:

I appreciate the input.

Audrey - That is a very good idea however I have my tanks on one large iron wrought stand and I'm afraid that it would be too structurally unsound.

Micstarz - Again I appreciate the suggestion but glass dividers are a real pain IMO, the soil saturates easily, the water stays dirty, etc.

AJC - Depending on the weather outside (which has been variable lately to say the least) the temperatures run from around 64 f to the low 70's f.

After further consideration I have been thinking that before I dismantle both setups and convert them to terrestrial enclosures I may just try lowering the water levels more (maybe even using the sponge idea if I can find some). When I first started keeping both of these species around 4 or five years ago I kept them in 50/50 setups with fairly shallow water. I remember then that many of the animals would enter the water quite frequently.
Chip

Click to expand...

freves said:

I appreciate the input.

Audrey - That is a very good idea however I have my tanks on one large iron wrought stand and I'm afraid that it would be too structurally unsound.

Micstarz - Again I appreciate the suggestion but glass dividers are a real pain IMO, the soil saturates easily, the water stays dirty, etc.

AJC - Depending on the weather outside (which has been variable lately to say the least) the temperatures run from around 64 f to the low 70's f.

After further consideration I have been thinking that before I dismantle both setups and convert them to terrestrial enclosures I may just try lowering the water levels more (maybe even using the sponge idea if I can find some). When I first started keeping both of these species around 4 or five years ago I kept them in 50/50 setups with fairly shallow water. I remember then that many of the animals would enter the water quite frequently.
Chip

Click to expand...

:happy: Well I know nothing about Tylotriton...but I hope I helped! Please keep updating on the process and good luck finding the perfect solution

I agree. My T. kweichowensis have just spent a, well, dormant period is too strong, let's just say "had a rest" at 12-15C (53-59F) with just a water dish for a several weeks. They remained active, although less so than "normal". On returning them to their regular semi-aquatic setup, currently at ~21C (70F), they are now approximately 50:50 terrestrial:aquatic. No mating behavior yet, but I'm confident they will when the weather warms up. What I need to do now is feed them well - these guys can really eat!

I never considered that they may be too cool. It has actually been a small struggle lately to keep the temperatures below 70 f because of the crazy weather that we have been having (without turning the AC on). Maybe I'll just let the room warm up a bit and see what happens. The kweichows did breed summer before last when they were housed in an aquatic enclosure with cork floats. They were kept in a basement at the time that had very little temperature fluctuation (high 60's to low 70's). When I transferred them to their current enclosure (new tank, new room - not a basement) they stopped entering the water for the most part. Again thank you all for the input.
Chip