Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I need some recommendations for my current situation.

I have 4 newts, all about the same size give or take a cm, in a 35 gallon tall aquarium. I have two fairly nice sized pieces of cork wood on top and secured, a great filtration system and a couple of real plants/fake plants and aquarium decor on the bottom (great for hiding).

Some of the CFBNs don't go in the water much, but would rather stay up on the cork wood. I put frozen blood worms in the water, which a couple of them eat. Others like to hang out on top, where the meal worms/wax worms often drown in the cork wood or go off. I tried a dish, but the newts don't react until the prey crawls out of it. Any suggestions would be great!

Chris

This is certainly not expert advice, since I'm new to CFBN's, but my guy can't decide whether he wants to be terrestrial or aquatic. Since he was accustomed to eating blackworms at the store I purchased him from, I'm trying to start out with blackworms...but they don't work on the land portion of my tank. Basically, I nudge him back into the water; it doesn't seem to upset him too much, since he eats the minute he sees me drop the worms in. But I'll be interested to hear what other folks do, especially if my CFBN stays terrestrial for a while!

What is the temperature?
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Mike.
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http://mike-edwardes.members.beeb.net/Amphibiary

I'm in Tampa, FL, so this time of the year it is really hard to get it colder than 72. From November (hopefully once the cold front comes through) through March it'll be 70 at highest during the day and in the upper 50's to mid 60's at night.

Also, some are younger than others. I think this may have something to do with it. They all go into the water from time to time, but some are 80/20 water to land, and others are 20/80.

cdp

It's a chicken or the egg problem - are the smaller ones terrestrial because they are smaller, or are they smaller because they are terrestrial? Could be either, in my experience. Ones that stay on land grow more slowly.

As long as you are sure that all of them are eating, you're OK. If you aren't sure, though, you have several things you can try. One is to make the tank setup more aquatic. Reduce the land area, and increase the shallow water areas available. Another thing you can try is hand-feeding with a tweezers, either frozen/thawed bloodworm or chopped earthworm. If they won't go for that, you can get a shallow feeding dish and keep live blackworms in it (they will often be willing to wade, even if they don't like to swim). Or put a pile of blackworms or chopped earthworm on the land area near them and they might go for it. Earthworms are absolutely the best "growth food" for newts.