Concern for CFBN eft

[AngieD]

My Fire-bellied newt hatched at the end of July 2011, and he morphed into an eft the following january.
Since then, I have been housing him on wet paper towels and feeding him live bloodworms (he flatly refuses dead ones).
He has been absolutely fine until a few weeks ago, but now he is really listless, and doesn't seem to be eating as much, his skin seems to be a bit more dry too.
I had to remove the small stone from his tank, as he dried himself onto it on 2 occasions.
Also, I tried putting him in water to see how he responded to it, and he didn't react at all; below the water level, his skin looked silvery, as though there was a fine air bubble over the surface.
The temperature in the room overall is pretty much constantly around the 6 degree mark (I have no heating on in that room)

Is this a sign of him changing over to his aquatic stage, or could something be wrong with him?

Thanks in advance

 

[wargar]

Hi,

how long did you leave him aquatic, as they all have that silvery look from the trapped air, some have it for nearly a day. My morphs have a couple of days on the cork bark before I re-introduce them to an aquatic setup. Some take to it straight away others it can take 3 or 4 days before they accept it. Shallow water, stacks of plants that break the surface, so they can res,t and live blood worm do the trick for mine.
Yours is over a year old and I wonder if as he has been kept terrestrial and the temps are around the 6 degree mark if he is trying to hibernate, hence his loss of appertite.

Dave

 

[jewett]

I have given my sister several efts in the past ( C.pyrrho not H. orientalis) and she fed them bloodworm exlusively. None of hers lived passed a year or so. I suspect the reason was poor diet as bloodworms are not nutritionally complete. Try feeding tiny bits of earth worm. Hope your little one can rally.
Heather

 

[AngieD]

Thanks for the replies, I'm going to move him to a slightly warmer room, and give him an aquatic setup with cork. I will also try chopped earthworm, but he usually ignores anything that isn't wiggling.
Can anyone suggest ideal small plants for him? The only place I can easily get to is PetsatHome and Strikes Garden Centre, and I usually refrained from buying plants from there as they appeared to have a lot of snails on them

 

[AngieD]

Just a quick update:

After moving him to a warmer room, he has perked up quite a lot, and has resumed eating as normal. When I have the free time to devote to keeping an eye on him, I will be attempting to change him over to a semi aquatic setup, as well as giving him more food variety

 

[Azhael]

The bloodworm diet is definitely a big concern. Long term it can lead to severe deficiencies that won´t go away. I would start trying to feed it exclusively on calcium rich foods (eartworms and crustaceans) right away.
The silvery skin underwater and the dry look on land just means that the animal is fully adapted to land. The skin becomes granular, with no shine and hydrophobic. In order to go back to being aquatic it will have to shed the skin (usually a couple of times) to re-adapt it to the properties necessary for live underwater.
In my experience, once efts go fully terrestrial it takes time to reverse it. Some refuse to until they acquire a certain size at which point it becomes easy.
Keep the water shallow and stuff it with java moss. Also, make sure to allow for good ventilation or the high humidity could become a problem.

If your water is on the soft side, i would add a piece of limestone to the water.

Efts are best kept at 18-20ºC.