Fire belly newt still not settled

[Benny2k1]

Hey all!!!

following on from my origional post:

http://www.caudata.org/forum/showthread.php?t=49553


i have had the newts 2 weeks and 2 days and they have still had no interest in any food and dont seem to be venturing into the water much, just sat on the basking rock,

Tried submerging the food in a dish and also tried daphnia, is this a common problem?

have done water changes, and also added plants and places for them to hide, any help appreaciated!!

 

[CarlNJen]

Hi Benny,

Im new to taking care of Newts myself. Im sure your aware that fire bellies are aquatic newts and from what you have said above you have some land for them to rest on out of the water.

From my readings on how to settle newts in, you might want to try raise the water level a bit so it is actually slightly higher than your land area so the newts are partially in the water where ever they move. this will encourage them to move into the water and with the food moving about hopefully get them to start eating.

Im sure others will chime in with any further advice.

Carl

 

[Azhael]

I wouldn´t do that...if your newts are not eating and keep themselves terrestrial, then forcing them to become aquatic will only stress them even more. Be patient, if you acquired them from a petshop then they are most certainly wild caught animals. These species is known for suffering a lot from the bad care they are given during the shipping, distribution, and even in the petshops. Also your water may not be suitable for them. Water may look clean, but that doesn´t mean it´s safe. Maybe your water has some level of amonia...the newts may perceive it and therefore avoid entering the water.
My pair of orientalis refused water for some time, it´s just normal, offer earthworms to them at land, if you get them to eat at land they´ll be fine until they decide to go back to water.

Best of lucks

 

[CarlNJen]

Sorry Benny,

As i said, Im new to this and still have much to learn!

Thanks Rodrigo!

 

[rigsby]

as Rodrigo says try small earth worms or pieces of earth worm if as i suspect you newts are as, rodrigo says wild caught they will want to see the food moving a newt will normally only eat frozen food when aquatic. From your photo's the newts look to be plump enough so i wouldn't worry too much just now. A thing to look out for in newly imported cfb newts are sores developing anywhere on the body they show up as little white ulcers and quickly spread.

 

[Azhael]

I remember how nervous and stressed i was when i got my pair of C.orientalis. I made a post just like this one. They didn´t want to go into the water and that sounded like a sure dead to me :S
Just don´t panic, i´d go read nearly every article in Caudata Culture, and then search through this forum, try to learn as much as possible, there are tones of posts about this in the forum, just find them and read all the good advice. Also, cycle your tank even if you have to keep your newts on paper towels while the tank gets ready. They do fine on land, they are hardy and as Ian said, they react to moving preys, so chopped earthworms are great for that matter.

 

[Benny2k1]

Thanks every one,


I dug up an earthworm, cut it up and the larger newt gobbled it up!!

The smaller newt didnt seem interested however, it is progress!!

Just going to be patient, will keep offering her(i think) a worm til she bites

 

[taper]

I have 2 C.orientalis that stayed on land for 6 months before they finally entered the water. Now they hardly ever come on land. I just fed them from tweezers and didnt disturb them alot so as not to stress them out. I also gave them places to hide with cork bark and plants to help them feel more safe.