Newt unexpectedly dying?!

[em]

Hey everyone,

I've had this firebelly newt for several years now, and I would guess she's about 8-9 years old. She's always been relatively small, but never seemed emaciated. She's always had normal behavior, and ate well (frozen bloodworms).

Recently, she had stopped eating and seemed to be getting very thin, and stopped going into the water. I hadn't changed her tank setup or tank, the water quality was good (I checked it), and I hadn't changed really anything significant. The only even barely traumatic thing I can imagine is that when I was sucking up waste, I uprooted a fake plant and had to reach back in to recover it with gravel.

I tried to ease her back into the water, but no good - she just climbed the tank walls. I tried giving her all different foods - frozen bloodworms, live bloodworms, dead mealworms, live mealworms, live earthworms, dead earthworms, live earthworm pieces, dead earthworm pieces, and I was planning on moving to waxworms and maybe brine shrimp tomorrow, but later today when I went to check on her in her small quarantine tank, she was floating on the water. I quickly emptied the water (there was barely an inch to begin with) so there was only a few centimeters (enough to keep her wet, but not enough to allow her to float) and clean rocks, and placed her on the rocks. I tried to offer her everything I had for food, but she was just so weak and unable to move significantly.

This is curious, because earlier today, while still not eating completely, she didn't appear to be weak or compromised in any other way. She didn't seem overly active or overly lethargic; she had started lounging in the water pool I had in her quarantine tank a little bit, and even nipping at small bits of earthworm I chopped up for her. I had originally seen this as a small improvement, but just tonight, she went from what I thought was improvement to practically dead.

I don't know if this is due to illness, a parasite, an infection (no open wounds/sores were observed), stress, or anything else. I had dug the earthworm out of the yard earlier today, but as far as I know, it should have been pesticide-free. Could a change this fast be from a poisoned worm? (though I washed it in cold water thoroughly before chopping it up)

And what should I do about my other newts? I actually just picked them up today (same species - C.O.), but am afraid that whatever my first newt had/has, might be spread to the others. They're currently in their own tank I set up just for them to get acclimated in, but at one time, it *had* been a tank for the newt now currently in medical crisis. I know I cleaned everything to the best of my ability with newt-safe supplies, but what if it wasn't good enough, and now these new newts might have the same fate? Like I said, the only contact my new newts and old newt have had together is sharing a cleaned tank at different times. Is there any way to know if what happened to my newt is contagious or not? What might I do in the meantime? Any suggestions for my poor newt?

Any advice is greatly appreciated, and thank you in advance!

 

[vicki]

I have the exact same problem with my newt. I can't get him to show interest in any type of food and like you am afraid he is going to die.

 

[karen]

Hi Em, If there is no visible injury it's hard to tell what may be wrong. I doubt stress was caused by your uprooting that plant, and if the water conditions are good, then how about the temperature? Is that ok? Sometimes my newts seem to go on a "fast" as well, one recently did for about a week and one did for a month....both ended up fine and just resumed eating when they wanted. They also go land-bound at times, which can indicate a problem, but not necessarily. I would say just keep an eye on it to observe any new or unusual behaviors.

 

[jennifer]

As the newt was sick (or maybe just too old?) to begin with, I would not blame the worm. It's not unusual for a newt to seem to improve, then die. It sounds to me like you've done everything right, but sometimes we cannot know what went wrong.

I would not worry about using that newt's former tank for the new newts. There is no way to know if the problem was something contagious or not, but as I understand it, the tank had not been the home of the dead newt for a while, perhaps since before it was sick? If you are really concerned, you can sterilize everything (except gravel) with diluted bleach, but this will take some time for complete rinsing and dechlorination. In the meantime, you'd need some kind of temporary setup.

 

[em]

The water temp is about 65-70 degrees, and has been ever since I can remember. I keep my house pretty cold year round for them.

As for the tank I have the new newts in, it was the tank of my old newt. But once my old newt (Mitra) showed signs of not eating, I promptly moved her to a quarantine tank and washed out the old tank as well as I could, so theoretically, the new newts should be fine. I'm just paranoid - I love my little guys, and would hate to inadvertently cause them illness and death.

Thanks for the advice everyone! Mitra seems to be feeling a little stronger today (she's not floating upside down anymore - phew - and is able to move her limbs) and ate a little bit of bloodworms I provided. I hope she pulls through this!

 

[al]

If the old newts symptoms started after the new newts were obtained and introduced into the setup, it is likely the new newts could have passed something on. This appears to be the only significant change in the husbandry and care of the newt. It is good you quarantined the sick newt. It is possible to aquire a new newt and everything appears to okay, then they die. We pull our hair out thinking it was something we've done wrong, but in fact it could have come with the newt.
Quarantines setups for new tank mates for several weeks prevents this from happening.
Keep us posted and I hope your older newt gets better.
Al

 

[em]

Ahh, I don't think I was too clear on the last post I wrote: the newts never had the chance to mix with each other.

I had my old newt, and she originally was all fine and dandy. Because she seemed healthy and I had no problems with her previously, I bought new newts and had them shipped to me.

Out of the blue, my old newt stopped eating and seemed to get sick, so I quarantined her and put her in another cage, and washed out her old cage (and everything in it) best I could.

Unfortunately, timing worked so that I got new newts around the time my old newt REALLY seemed to be getting worse (still in her quarantine tank setup)

The new newts needed a place to go (I hadn't anticipated the old newt getting sick, and so my designated 'new newt quarantine tank' had been converted to my 'sick newt quarantine tank' out of necessity), so I put them in my old newt's cleaned (regular) cage, which had been cleaned and emptied and reset (new water, removal of chlorine, chloramines, good temp, no ammonia, good pH, let the filter run for 4 days, new gravel, what could be boiled was boiled, etc) after I noticed my old newt getting ill. But now I'm afraid I didn't clean the old cage out enough before putting my new newts in, and that my new newts will catch something from the old newt. I'm sure everything will be fine, but right now, I guess I'm just paranoid.

I'm hoping that if my old newt doesn't recover, then it was just old age, or something else not contagious that could have survived my cleaning and will rampage and kill my new newts. If she does, then I know whatever might affect my new newts, I can help them pull through it.

I guess a lesson from all this is: get lots and lots and lots of tanks. I have my regular tank, and a 'new newt quarantine' tank, and never had the need for a 'sick newt quarantine tank' so I've never had one. And just because of timing, I needed a place for my new newts to go, and because I had already converted my 'new newt quarantine tank' into my 'sick newt quarantine tank,' the only option was the regular tank. I could have kept my sick newt in her original tank, so I would have a guaranteed clean tank for my new newts, but my original tank is just so big, she would never get the proper attention there, and needed a smaller tank so I could keep an eye on her. I just hope I cleaned the regular tank well enough after I quarantined my sick newt so the new ones don't get sick.

(gah...did that make any sense? I hope it gives a better idea of the sequence of events that happened here)

 

[em]

Small update:

Mitra's back in the water more now, avoiding land more and more, and today, took several bites out of a cube of bloodworms and a cube of brine shrimp. She looks better too - still too thin for my liking, but definitely not as emaciated as before. I'll continue to keep her isolated until this clears up.

She seems much more active now, and of course, is NOT floating!

I'll keep you posted.

 

[em]

Final update:

After what I deemed to be a long hard battle, Mitra has passed away. I have had her in my care for a total of 7 years.

She seemed to get better, eating bloodworms, brine shrimp, and waxworms, but just today, I checked in on her, and she definitely has passed away.

Nen, Kaelin, and Misu; however, are eating fine, swimming, and looking very healthy. I pray they remain this way.

*sigh*