How well prepared are you for sudden heat?

[Jennewt]

The question is: in what ways have you prepared to protect your captive newts, salamanders, or axolotls in the event a sudden increase in the temperature of the room where they are living?

There are a variety of possible ways in which sudden heat could affect you:

• failure of an air conditioning unit
• failure of a chiller
• prolonged electrical outage
• reliance on a cool climate (i.e., living in a climate that normally stays cool, but an unusual heat wave could occur).

Whichever of these is relevant to you, how well prepared are you for this to happen?

[Note: this poll is anonymous. Your reply is not linked to your name.]

 

[Saspotato]

I have frozen bottles in the freezer always and my partner works from home. So he checks on the temperature and if it gets hot he starts using frozen bottles to cool it down.

 

[freves]

In case my AC unit fails I would put them in the fridge (if I had to) while I run across the street to either Lowes or Walmart and replace it. In the event of a prolonged power failure I have a neighbor with a basement.
Chip

 

[t_summ]

After losing a few newts due to the nasty heat wave we had here last month, I feel that I am ready to prevent loss in the future.

The first thing I did was buy a portable air conditioner, that was the easy part. The next step was insulating the newt room. Once I accomplished this I tracked the temperature in the room over the course of 6 hours and found that it only gained 5 degrees. In the event of total power loss for longer than 6 hours, I have a portable generator that my dad used for some remodeling in the garage and ready to fire up. If that fails, there is a store 2 blocks away that stocks a large amount of dry ice.

Hopefully this will protect my little ones from the nasty heat.

 

[blueberlin]

The occurence of a sudden temperature increase does not threaten us at this point as we do not have A/C or chillers that could fail. In the event of a more gradual increase (i.e., heat wave), I have found the method of closing windows/curtains during the late morning through afternoon, opening evenings through mornings, to be extremely effective. We also have fans and ice bottles on standby, but I have not found these as effective as cooling the entire house.

-Eva

 

[oregon newt]

I would probably keep replacing the warm water in my tank with cold, dechlorinated water from the sink.

 

[michael]

Most of my salamanders are in the basement. I have ice packs in the fridge and lots of styro boxes. Temperature is only a threat in the basement for a couple weeks a year. I installed an air conditioner in the basement after one gruelling August when I did daily water changes on the axolotls due to hot weather. I have Cynops cyanurus, Pleurodeles waltl, and Cynops pyrrhogaster in my computer room where it does get warmer. These animals can take a little heat.
Last year I got rid of all of the dart frogs to save on utility bills and lessen my energy foot print. I insulated all of the heat ducts in the basement to keep it cooler in the basement. During the winter. I run window unit air conditioners that are economical and easier to use in an old house. Most days I don't air condition the room where the "warmer" species are except when I'm home.
My emergency plan for the salamanders is a lot better than the one I had for the dart frogs. The way I keep salamanders is a little less energy dependent than the way I used to keep dart frogs.

 

[Blackhawk IV]

Like Sarah, I have frozen bottles of water in the freezer in case of a heat wave. If my water temp. in the tank got too high I would just put the bottles in the tank and let them cool the water down.

 

[freves]

I wish that I had a basement in my new house (like I did in the old one) if for no other reason than peace of mind. One advantage that I have found to using an air conditioned room however is that I can control the temperatures better than when I had everything in a basement, which almost always stayed in the 66-68 F range. The one exception was a heat wave that we had several years back that killed most of the Salamandra adults that I had at the time in very short order.
Chip

 

[Jennewt]

I wish that I had a basement in my new house (like I did in the old one) if for no other reason than peace of mind. One advantage that I have found to using an air conditioned room however is that I can control the temperatures better than when I had everything in a basement, which almost always stayed in the 66-68 F range. The one exception was a heat wave that we had several years back that killed most of the Salamandra adults that I had at the time in very short order.
Chip

So the heat wave raised the temp of your basement enough to kill them? This is something to consider for people who think their animals are safe because of a basement. Including me.

 

[freves]

I cannot be absolutely certain that it was the heat but I am not sure what else it could have been. They were all WC adult S. s. terrestris that I had for about six months. They all seemed to be doing well and had even dropped some larvae several times (although I suspect that this was from previous matings). The temperature outside was close to 100 f for a few days and this raised the basement temperature to the mid 70's. One day when I checked on them one had died. The rest seemed OK (no restlessness). The next day two more were dead. All of the tylo's seemed fine. Again I suppose that it could have been some other factor but I am not sure what. After that I began the process of moving anyway and traded out the remaining adult or adults (I cannot remember if there was one or two left) as well as the larvae.
Chip

 

[Jake]

I keep all of my animals in the basement. Last year I lost a few newts in the hottest part of the summer because the newt room reached 78 degrees for a week or so. During the heat last year I used ice packs and frozen bottles of water in most of the tanks to keep them cool, but the supply was a bit short because I had about 40 tanks at the time (now even more). This year I've been using a window air conditioner in the room and if that fails I can use the ice packs and just buy another a/c unit.

 

[Otterwoman]

I rearranged my basment just so I could keep the newts down there. It was hard, because I wanted them on the first floor where I spend most of my time, but it was better for the newts. On the plus side, the re-arrangement included making it into my 'craft studio' with a TV, so I actually DO spend more time there now!

 

[Jacquie]

I have each of my tanks postioned in the coolest rooms in the house.

Last summer though during one of our nasty prolonged heatwaves of 42C a power grid blew rendering our fridge, freezer and all electric devices such as fans useless - we don't have airconditioning in our house.

I had by luck the previous day purchased a box of mangoes from the market; by luck I mean the box was made of polystyrene, its sides were an inch thick and the mangoes were delicious.

I placed each axolotl in separate 5 litre plastic containers, placed the containers in the box and stowed it in the coolest part of the house, my wardrobe. The water stayed quite cool - I was very surprised.

As I live in Australia (..I love a sunburnt country...) I try to think of as many contingency plans that I can just in case technology lets me down...some of these ideas are even practical!

Cheers Jacq.

 

[benw]

As i keep fire salamanders which hate heat, i have got some extractor fans that come on when the temperature sarts to rise, and just in case of a pwer cut i have a generator too.
Have an occilating fan on standby too.
Hopefully will be ok

Ben

 

[MRIGUY]

I thought I was well prepared. I keep coolers and instant ice packs on hand and I have my home alarm tied into the thermostat so if the temp rises over 75 the alarm pages me. Several weeks back when we lost power I put it all into play and I still lost some of my boys. Preparation is good but sometimes the cards play out differently.

 

[Endemico]

I have an air conditioner, and in case of real emergency i have a showcase refrigerator for wines.

 

[Lemonberry]

Luckily hot summer days are infrequent here, but when the odd one pops up i have frozen bottles on standby, which i recently made room for by eating all the ice cream... it had to be done

 

[Daym]

ive got a air con on all the time for both me and the newts/sals lol dont have electrical probs much touch wood and this air con is the BEST everyone whom inhabits my room are all alot happier its in place. also have ice bottles and if worse comes to worse i have a supermarket across the road from me so bags of ice it would have to be. i have to huge aquariums in my room also and if cool they help mantain the room temp at approx 17c. trust me guys its great and i live in england for god sake its always raining lol

 

[Vicster1979]

We have various cool packs (the picnic basket ones) and bottles of water in the freezer. Is this good enough? Our tank temp has gone up to 23, if it goes past 23 we will be extremely concerned. It was 25 the other day but we have got it down using this method. Hope we're doing the right thing. WE LOVE STUMPY!! XXXX