New member, seeking information.

[kylerc]

Hi. I'm Kyler. I live in Florida and usually only deal with my chickens and leopard geckos. However, about 5 months ago I stumbled upon a youtube video of a few fire belly newts and it's safe to say i'm hooked haha. I'm very interested in getting a newt. I've been trying to read as much as I can but there are some problems i've ran into. Being that i live in Florida it is hot here, all year long. I have a tank set up already because I wanted to see what temperature the water would be at once settled. It's a 10 gallon tank filled about 3/4 of the way up. I've read that they prefer standing water but i do have a very small submergible filter in there. The water temp is sitting at 77F but I know that is way to warm for Cynops Orientalis or any newt/salamander really. I'm not sure what my next step is. I've been doing research on if there is any warm water newts or if there is any way to cool the water temp. While the answer is yes to both. I can't find any newts that can handle warmer temps (i.e. Cynops ensicauda, Tylototriton verrucosus, Pleurodeles poireti) anywhere and most water cooling equipment is quite pricey. Any suggestions? Thank you.

 

[kylerc]

I will also ask this question in the help section but I figured I would make my first post in here.

 

[Otterwoman]

There are no newts that could take those temps long and remain healthy.
Keeping them cool is a challenge. Do you have a basement? Sometimes putting them on a concrete floor helps keep them cooler. I wonder what other warm-area keepers do, besides constantly keep the AC on.

Although even in NY I keep mine in the basement and I needed to put an AC down there for hotter days- my basement is not as cool as it used to be...

 

[kylerc]

No basement unfortunately. I did see people mention aquarium chillers/fans and such but most are either too pricey or have bad reviews. Others say cold water changes or freezing bottles of water and putting them in the tank daily but I feel there is too many variables in those methods. I may just have to hold off on getting a newt until I move somewhere cooler (not a fan of florida). I already have the tank set up because i wanted to see my temps so im not sure what ill do now haha probably a community tank of some sort. I really would love to study a newt in person but i would hate to have it stressed or uncomfortable.

 

[Otterwoman]

If you do a search on here "cooling" you'll find a lot of stuff.