Live food that can just live in the tank with alpine newts?

[thaddeusp]

Are there any live food options that I could just drop in my tank once a week and the two newts there can just eat as they please? Been doing frozen bloodworms but they never seem to eat when I first put them in then I have a hard time getting them out before they rot.

Probably just gonna buy some fishing worms from Walmart and keep them in my fridge if not. I feel like it’d be cool to recreate the wild tho and they just hunt down something when they feel like it. But not that important, i can do Walmart worms if that sort of food doesn’t exist in an easily managed way.

 

[CWhit]

I have blackworm living in the sand. They aerate the sand for me & are an occasional snack for the newts.

I also have cyclops that they'll eat occasionally, and ramshorn and pond snails that breed constantly & the newts eat the babies happily. There are shrimp as well & they'll stalk them but I've only seen one get caught.

Some daphnia are also breeding in there but not quickly so they're probably getting eaten.

White worms live for a few days in water, I culture them & it's really easy. The newts get fed them a couple of times a week, frozen daphnia, bloodworm, brine shrimp the rest of the time.

Their tank is pond style with about 75% plants, so lots of critters are happily living in there they clean up any leftovers so minimal cleaning is needed, just a small water change & top up every few weeks.

 

[CWhit]

I also have gammarus & water louse in there, the newts love them but they're great at hiding so are gradually increasing from what I can tell.

 

[MnGuy]

I'd throw in A LOT of low-grade cherry shrimp and provide a ton of cover, moss, driftwood and piles of rocks for hiding. My newts can catch some but there are always some shrimp that are fast enough to escape. If I could do it over, I'd let a shrimp colony get huge and established and then add newts.

I've never had any luck with daphnia or blackworms surviving in my tank. They get eaten pretty quickly.

This may be controversial for many people here, but I keep my alpine newts with a small school of white cloud mountain minnows, and I see the newts hunting newborn fish all of the time. In 7 or 8 years, I've only had three fry survive into adulthood in the tank. The newts will "crawl" through the floating plants hunting them. I was surprised when I saw it happening.

Good luck.

 

[CWhit]

I'd have no hesitation about white cloud minnows, I don't have them with my newts because I have a 4ft tropical tank as well & for some reason want to keep fish just in that one. Not sure why though!

It's cherry shrimp I have with the newts, I have clear, blue, red & black & they really stand out.

The black worm bury in the sand with an end sticking out, it's great seeing the newts stalking them!