Reptile & Amphibian Forums

We got my son a couple of little Fire bellied newts and added them to his 20 gal fish aquarium. I had read on some sites that they could co-exist. We dropped the water level down and added a turtle basking dock on one end for the newts which they loved. But they keep dying. We just lost the 3rd set! Some seem to quit eating, some we just find dead. All usually after about 1 week.

I have kept fish for many many years, and understand water quality, filters, etc. This tank has both a whisper canister type filter and a powerhead which I put a timer on now so there's not so much constant water flow. Lots of fake plants, a few real ones. Some rocks, etc. Light is on a timer.

What are we doing wrong? Should I put a tank divider in to seperate the fish from newts? (kind of defeats the purpose of keeping them together) and cuts out swimming room for both if we do this though. I've never seen the fish picking on them, he has 2 little Africans (yellow labs) and 1 new green puffer in his tank.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Not going to buy anymore until I figure out what's wrong.

How warm is the tank? You may want to review
the following

http://www.caudata.org/cc/species/Cynops/C_orientalis.shtml

http://www.caudata.org/cc/articles/Mixing_disasters.shtml

http://www.caudata.org/cc/articles/tempEDK.shtml

Yes, I've read all the articles. Thanks. I forgot to put on the first post about temps. I'm having difficulty getting the tank temps down. It is not in the sun or anywhere near it. Water temps and air temps are about 78-80. Heater is off. We are in a warm climate, and the house stays around 78 at the lowest. I don't know how to cool it down any further.

Could the warm temps be what's stressing them and killing them?

Yep the temps could easily be the problem particuarly when combined with the condition when the newts are imported..

Ed

there's another problem, newts don't like the water temperature above 70, it should be in the 60's. obviously you didn't read ALL the articles because water temperature is BASIC. read the articles and LISTEN to them.

The fish you have like a higher Ph and tolerate high levels of salt. Both of these would stress the newts if this was the case in your tank. Lower temps would be better. Also, smaller newts will never compete well for food with fish, especially the fiesty types like yours. Puffers can be savage biters as well but that sort of damage would be obvious. Lastly, many newts are simply half dead by the time they reach their final destination as their treatment along the way is often less than optimal. They'd do better in a tank of their own.

Actually, the ph is not very high, around 7.8, and I don't salt their tank. I have been leaving the hood open today for air circulation and measuring the temps with a glass thermometer to see how cool I can actually get it. Water was 70 this am, up to 74 around 11 am with the light on constantly, air temps so far are about 74 also with the light on and hood open. I may get a tank divider to partition a small area and only get one newt, and some screen to put over the opening so the hood can stay open during the summer months to keep it cool enough. How small of an area could the newt live in? (It's a 20 gal tank) I want to leave as much room for the fish as possible also. I realize this may not be feasible for the well being of either fish or newt--that's why I'm asking. Thanks.

i don't know much about fish, but arn't puffers brackish water? and if they keep dying then stop buying them! obviously you are doing something wrong. they shold have half land half water, so a dock isn't nearly enough land. they like to be partially submerged and a dock doesn't allow them to do that. in general no amphibians (except african clawed and dwarf) can be kept with fish. if you want newts do more reserch next time because the animals are suffering from it. newts and fish are very different and have different dietary and habitat needs, you need to adress those issues instead of just going out and buying them because they like water.