Well, I took them out of the water, I've got them on damp towels, yet all of them but one (the least symptomatic one), try to avoid even the wet part of the towels being dangerously dry. I dechlorinated my water, but I don't think it could be a problem relating to that anyway. They put up with that water for many changes before this happened. I'm not ruling water quality out as a possible cause of the disease, but now after they've been removed for several hours, the symptoms still persist. Also, one of the newts had died by the time I got back to the tank, I had gone away for a week and returned to find the following scene:
1. The water was clear, but it didn't have an daphnia in it (it had some living in it before)
2. My largest and seemingly healthiest newt (prior to my departure) was dead, floating, bloated from decay, but from it's condition I'ld guess it died fairly recently (this would alter any tests I did on the water). The only potential sign of illness was a large blackened piece of partially shed skin on the back, the underside was also slightly reddenned (only very slightly)
3. The other four newts were huddled onto the turtle dock, one was bleeding quite heavily (thankfully it's stopped). I immediately removed them and set them up in their own dry tanks with paper towels. I put one in water (new water), and it immediately tried to leave, when it was in the water I could tell that it had large patches of loose black skin on it (all of the newts show this feature). As it stands now all of the newts are seemingly stabilised: they're still fairly strong, they're breathing, their eyes are no longer cloudy, and the ones that were bleeding have stopped.
4. The timer which regulated the tanks lighting had failed, causing the tank to be in constant darkness, possibly for the whole of a week, I think that this combined with the warm temperatures may have played a role in fouling the water (the tank is heavily planted), if not infecting the newts.
My current theories:
1. Bad water quality: possibly as a result of lighting failure and warm temperatures creating a good environment for anaerobic bacteria. This weakened the immune systems of the animals and they were opportunistically infected.
2. Newt no.1 dies and fouls water/spreads disease: The first newt dies for what ever reason, fouling the water/spreading its disease and harming the others.
3. Infection gets into the tank: Somewhere along the line an infection gets into the tank.
4. Warm temperature and darkness promote growth of pathogens.
So, That's pretty much all I have to say about their status, and the situation I found them in. I would like to know how to go about treating them, and avoiding future situations like this one. I will hopefully have pictures soon.
