T. verrucosus anorexia

[jennifer]

Background: I raised a group of 9 T. verrucosus morphs ("light" variety) in a large tank. Last winter, I lost 6 of them to starvation. Basically, they just stopped eating and, despite every effort, died. The 3 remaining were excellent eaters, though, so I assumed that they had caused the problem by hogging all the food. They are now young adults.

Now I have problems again with the one male. A couple of months ago I noticed that he was eating less. I found that if I put the worms right in front of him, he would eat. (He acted like he couldn't find the food.) Then a few weeks later, this didn't work. I found that if I offered a different kind of worm, handfed, he would eat well. Then a couple of weeks later, he was eating less. Then less. Now he will not eat any kind of worms, regardless of presentation. I'm completely mystified, as he looks healthy otherwise.

I now have the newt isolated in a cooler environment (21C) in 2-cm water with lots of java moss. He just sits on the java moss, and still will not eat. He is beginning to look slim. I'm thinking about starting force feeding. However, this did not save the previous anorexia victims, so I'm not too optimistic.

Any ideas?

 

[paris]

just my own experience is that tylos eat better at warmer temps, the cooler ones are fine for those of good weight, but the thin ones really dont want to eat when its in the mid 60's(thats how i think i lost my tylo verr. morphs-they just had less and less of an appetite), of course you will have to feed them more, but it is worth it if it gets them back to a safe weight

 

[jesper]

Were these raised terrestrially post-metamorphosis?

 

[jennifer]

They were raised semi-aquatic. Until they reached near-adult size, they spent most time on the land areas, though.

With the previous 6 that I lost to this sort of anorexia, I tried moving a couple of them to a warmer tank, but they just lost weight faster.

 

[ester]

After struggling with mine for about 3 weeks now I finally figured out what's on top of their preferred menu card. Maggots.. So I went to an anglers supply shop and bought a box of the smallest maggots they sold (pinky maggots). I prick a hole in the maggot with a toothpick before serving. They'll still move but much less quickly (and hopefully a missed maggot wont turn into a fly this way).

I've tried worms, chopped worms, red mosquito larvae (fresh and thawed), wood lice, fruit flies but maggots is the one thing I see them go after. I have no access to wax worms.

 

[jennifer]

I found they ate maggots readily when on land, but wouldn't touch them under the water. Go figure.

By the way, the anorexic male I wrote about in this thread has died.

 

[jesper]

Sorry to hear about the male Jen. Did you raise this group from eggs?
It's kind of difficult to think of something that you haven't thought about already. Probably some kind of infection, what do you think? Parasites?

I have a difficult time imagining that it would be the environment or temperature.

I haven't heard much about virus infections in newts, have someone else heard something about this?

 

[jennifer]

Yes, I raised them from eggs. It could be disease, but I have another explanation. I was feeding them on the same schedule as my other full-sized newts - about twice per week. I think perhaps if one of them missed a feeding or two, they somehow headed into an inescapable downward spiral - eating less, then able to eat less, then finally not able to eat enough to sustain themself. If this is the case, it's odd, as most newts seem to recover from a brief period of underfeeding just fine. Or perhaps it was some combination of factors, as is often the case.