Hello Caudata :) I have a 20 year old JFB Newt called Issac

Hello Everyone,

I'm new to this forum but have had a japanese fire bellied newt called Isacc who is now just over 20 years old.

I've attempted the odd bit of research over the years and never really found much information on him, then tried again recently & been bowled over by everything that is now out there.

After reading online there's a good chance he could make 30 years old!?! I felt maybe it was time to get my butt into gear & build him the enriched aquatic terrarium he deserves.

I must have been doing ok to get him so far, he's only ever eaten blood worm as everything else I give him he leaves. He's had a 20 gallon tank with pebbles, a large rock in the middle & a small one propped up against it so he has an underwater cave to hide in, or a big rock to bask on, not that he spends that much time on it these days, he used to bask loads. I just moved house recently and got him a small heat mat because the house I'm temporarily in is very cold & he's had a new lease of life. These days he's at the front of his tank seeming to prefer to sit looking out at me.

I'm building the tank up now after having a tank donated to me by a friend & have been collecting the things I need to make his new home as lovely as possible.

My main area of concern is getting the substrate right. I'd really like to have a 30/70 land/water split, with a nice deep pool for him to swim in & was hoping to use a piece of perspex & silicone to do this. So then the soil is kept at bay from the water without having to slope the substrate up to much. After researching & consideration i realise I still need to allow a small amount of flow of water from the land section. I'm hoping to achieve this by leaving a 1cm ish gap at the bottom & silicone just at the sides. Does anyone think this will work.

I've got 2 perspex dishes that I'm going to plant up with aquatic plants, and then they'll be easy to clean & replace whilst leaving the aquatic section bare bottom with his favourite pebbles, again making it easier to keep clean.

For the land section I've got some tree fern panels & a small coconut cave. I'm hoping to grow mosses & air plants along the walls and maybe a fern and/or a peace lilly for him also.

If anyone has any tips I'd love your input.

I look forward to using this site & chatting to you all

Welcome! I keep ribbed newts and am new to the hobby. This is a great resource, lots of experts on here!

You're not going to want a heat mat, newts prefer cooler temps rather than warmer.
Having a split terrestrial/aquatic section will probably end up being a waste of space, under adequate conditions the newts will spend most of their time in the water only requiring a floating land mass for land.
Reading this caresheet might be worth something:
Caudata Culture Species Entry - Cynops pyrrhogaster - Japanese firebelly

You know what, I've just looked at the species page link you've put up & I think he's a warty newt

Will review my plans, thank you

The care for warty newts is similar to paddletail newts so this might help you out:
Caudata Culture Species Entry - Pachytriton - Paddletail

Thank you so much for the info. Now I know what I'm looking for its going to have to be a paludarium I'm getting very excited about the prospect.

I'll start a new thread in the other section to show you all the development of Issacs new home.

In the meantime here's some pictures of Issac, they're a little old & taken with a phone camera so please excuse the blurryness.

From my understanding, a paludarium is something that has a dedicated land and water area, which would still be a waste of space in the long run. A healthy stress-free newt of this specie will not leave the water very often, making a large dedicated land area a waste of space which would be filled with water.
I personally would just fill the tank to nearly the top, fill it with lots of live plants and hides, and throw in a floating turtle dock or piece of floating cork bark for land.
Also, your pictures aren't showing up

Thanks Araon, I think the tank is still going to be 80% water, but I really like the idea of doing a shelf along the back & sides with egg crate & terracotta pots. It will probably only be a few inches wide where I can plant up some greenery & mosses etc. Issac will then have a deep pool stretching from each end & back to front underneath all the plants roots & some fully aquatic plants to swim & explore. For the last 20 years he's lived in a tank with just 1 big rock breaking the surface to bask on & another rock balanced against it to act as a cave & then lots of pebbles & an air stone to keep the water oxygenated. The planting will be more for me than Issac. I do like my greenery, so it's an experiment for me as much as it is for him.

This is an example of the beginning of the set-up I'd like to do:

https://landlockedexotics.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/may-29-093.jpg

I'm planning on setting it up & letting it circulate well & test it before I put him in. A good month or 2. He's so old I don't want to upset him too much and/or shock him.

Here's those pics a different way, hopefullly they'll work this time:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/26966149/Public Forum Pictures/Issac/issac2.JPG

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/26966149/Public%20Forum%20Pictures/Issac/Issac1.JPG

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/26966149/Public%20Forum%20Pictures/Issac/Issac3.JPG

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/26966149/Public%20Forum%20Pictures/Issac/Issac.jpg