New to newts

C

cosmin

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Hi all!
Great site you have here. I enjoied reading how much I could.

I want to start raising some T. cristatus, but there are some things I want to know before jumping in.

I have a 90 liters aquarium with fish (8 Conchonius punctus and a molly) and plants, but I understand that fish and newts don't mix well. Conchonius likes cooler water and T. cristatus warmer water (for a newt), so they can all be happy at 24-25 C. Should I mix them or it's dangerous?

I have, also, a small tank of 10 liters, with an air stone, that it's already cycled, that I use to quarantine fish. It is this large enough for a (1-one) newt? And if they don't like water currents how can I filter/oxigenate it? Are they social animals? It's better to have more of them or one will be happier?
An aquarium this small will heat fast in the summer months. Will this be dangerous for T. cristatus?

If none of the above works and I must get a new tank should I provide T. cristatus with a large land area like divided tanks have, a small "island" of stone or brunches, or fully aquatic?
How much water should I have for each newt?

The food available to me it's fish food including frozen dried tubifex cubes and fish flakes. Live food will be made of earthworms, Lumbricus terrestris, when available. Will this do?

I made my first post long and full of questions and I hope you will help me have a good start in raising newts.
Thank you.
 
Yes. Thank you. Usefull, but I need more.
This was the page that I found with google, so this is how I got here on this site.
 
In general crested newts are aquatic during the breeding season, during the rest of the year they need a decent land area available to them. 25 C is the upper limit temperature wise, 18-20 C is a more healthy range for them.
As for food, worms would be the best staple food for them together with woodlice (pill bugs). Especially on land. I don't expect them to go for fishflakes or dried food.
 
Can you tell me how much water and land area I need for one newt? I need this so I can decide about the tank I'll use.
 
Cosmin, since you are from Romania I wonder if in fact your question aims at Triturus dobrogicus?
You can find lots of info on crested newts on the page that Ester posted including temperature requirements.
More information regarding the general care, housing, filters, feeding and raising for newts can be found here: http://www.caudata.org/cc/articles/articles.shtml
Some short answers:
1. Don't mix your crested newts with fishes or any other newt species.
2. 25°C is the upper limit for keeping crested newts. As an average water temperature year round it is too high. Especially if you want to get them into breeding condition.
3. A 10 l tank is too small even for one crested newt.
4. Newts are no social animals.
5. The heating up especially of small containers during the summer can/will be fatal for your newt(s).
6. A lot of crested newts leave the water after breeding season, some species however tend to be more aquatic than others (including e.g. Triturus dobrogicus). There is also a lot of individual variation. So you should be prepared to provide a land area in your tank outside breeding season if the animals try to leave the water. You may even transfer them to a terrarium during these times of year. In the case of the more aquatic species floating islands might be sufficient.
7. Earthworms are okay as a staple diet, frozen bloodworms will probably work as well. For the raising of larvae and metamorphs you will need smaller aquatic and terrestrial food organisms as well.
8. Check the legal status of crested newts in your country as they usually are protected and may not be taken from the wild.
 
In Romania you can find: Salamandra salamandra, Triturus alpestris, Triturus montadoni, T. vulgaris and T. cristatus with subspecies T. cristatus cristatus, T. cristatus danubialis, T. cristatus dobrogicus.
This data it's from an online source in romanian language
http://www.eukarya.ro/taxon/364

I will buy them from a pet shop as they are a protected species. I never take animals from the wild. I will check if it's legal to own them. This will be the easiest part.
I think those in the wild have more parasites and might be old.

Will T. dobrogicus be a better option? All will depend on what I can find and buy when everything is ready to house them.

OK
So, it will be a one newt species tank with land area and earthworms as staple food.
I don't want to breed them (for now) as I have no ideea what I can do with lots of them. But, still I plan to let them have a natural cycle with a colder winter.

For fish keepers it's a rule of thumb on how much water a fish will need (6 liters for a neon). This it's great for beginners as they can have an ideea on how big tank/many fish they must have.

From the article it seems that for crested newts I need 10 liters/newt for aquarium, terrarium or both. Actually for terarium it will be a surface something like 340 cm2/newt.
If I make a divided tank the tank must meet both minimum criteria? To have 10 liters of water for each newt and 0,3 m2 of land (with some space above)?
How long will be the land and aquatic periods?

Thank you both for helping me.

(Message edited by kosmo on April 28, 2006)
 
Hi Cosmin, From the viewpoint of ecology, buying a newt from a pet shop is usually worse than taking one from the wild! The people that collect, wholesale, and retail newts usually do not take care of them very well. Thus, for every "alive" newt in a pet shop, several others died during the process. Also, if you take your own newt from the wild, you will get one that is more likely to be healthy, as it has not been abused. As long as you are sure that you are not taking a protected/endangered species, and not breaking any law, I really think it is better to collect your own.

In my experience, a crested newt will stay mostly on land during the summer, and stay mostly in the water during fall/winter/spring. But some individuals will have a general preference for land, or for water.
 
I have no ideea where (specific place) and how I could collect crested newts, so it does not look like an option to me. And collecting it's not legal from what I can tell now (still have some reading to do).
I'll provide them with a mostly aquatic setup, with a bit of land surface, so they can manifest their options.
 
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