Adding a new P waltl

[Ken Worthington]

Hi, I have a young adult male Pleurodeles waltl that lives in a generously-planted 2ft (60cm) x 1ft x 1ft tank. He's around 7" or 17cm.
I've been offered a slightly younger and smaller juvenile waltl and I'm looking for advice on a couple of things.

The newt will be coming (locally!) from a well-established tank that's disease-free, from an experienced keeper and I'll be able to 'meet the parents' as well :happy:. With this in mind, I was thinking that putting the newt in quarantine might be an unnecessary inconvenience to both newt and human.
Any thoughts?

Also, both newts will be well-fed before I introduce them, and there are numerous places to hide; hollow log, plant-pot, lots of plants, etc which can only be a bonus.
Is there anything I should be aware of as far as introducing this new addition to the tank?

Thanks in advance

PS. I've already chosen a name for the newt, so it looks like I'll definately be having it

 

[Mark]

I think the risks of adding 2 healthy CB animals together are probably quite low especially as you have the opportunity to see the new newt prior to purchase and discuss it's general health with the breeder. That said it would be good practice to make your own assessment of it's health prior to adding them together, even for only for a very short quarantine period.

I would advise some caution with regards to significant size differences. P.waltl are eating machines so you have to be sure the smaller newt won't become a tasty protein hit for the larger one. The male newt you currently have ate his way through a fair few siblings to become the newt he is today .

 

[Ken Worthington]

Thanks Mark! I have a good feeling about this one.......

Let it be known that the charges of multiple fratricide allegedly commited by my pet-newt when a directionless young juvenile have yet to 'morph' into actual convictions.
In the newt's defence, I ask the forum to consider the possibility that the short-sighted newt mis-took his siblings to be Daphnia (very large ones) with fatal, but rather tasty in a 'more-ish' kind of way, consequences.

Thanks for the advice, I'll post an update soon :happy: