Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have to Chinese Fire Belly Newts, and they both don't eat, I have tried tubifex worms, blood worms, and meal worms, they are fairly small, am I doing something wrong? Also, when seems quite bloated, what are the symptoms when one is bloated?

One can not judge what you are doing wrong if we dont know what exactly you are doing now can we...: )

First...the bloat dont sound good, I would quarantine him for his own sake in a another bare tank with a piece of pvc or somathing for him to hide in so the water can be changed more offten and left a bit more clean.

Second, we need a idea of what your setup is like, IE...size, decor, temps, a few more that may help us,.. How long ago you purchased them, and where?

pics would help as well.

The tank is about 3 to 4 gallons, they have a nice long branched out log for basking, there is gravel at the bottom, water temp is about 65-70, two healthy plants, and a low current filter.

I purchased them from a local pet store, and they are both very healty, my bloated is bloated no more. any advice on feeding??

How long have you had them?

Id say give them more space, a 20L should do with half that in water.

Try live brine and some frozen bloodworms, mine eat everything from fish fry to frozen blood worms. Try that it may help try some live brine, bloodworms, and mysis shrimp, and live bearer fry if accesable. Maybe even pellets depending on how the shop that you got em from kept them, that might be all they are used to.

And how do I get them to go in the water more often??

Some just dont, was that the temp of the water or the terrarium?

Some stay out for the winter, mine went in and out but mostly stayed on land till it got warmer out.

I had one that barely went into the water and I have one that dont leave the water, I also had one that lasted for 5 years and stayed out of the water all together for a year in total.

how long can they survive without eating??

When did you buy them? How long ago?

It all depends on how long they will live, I had one live for a year without eating anything at all.

I have had them both for about a week now.
How do you tell the sex, and how old they are?

Age and sex are tuff, the sex I am not good at with firebellies.

The age, I dont know if you will eve be acurate with that unless you raise them from the begining.

At about a week they should have acclimated to the new home but I would try to raise the water temperature just a bit more and see how they do.

Honestly try some of the frozen foods like bloodworms.

do they prefer live food over frozen??

I have no trouble with frozen but if you can get live blood worms or black worms try em out.

I have a complex with live brine, I believe they should be rinsed well before feeding them to most animals like newts. Something just bothers me about salt content.

After a good rinse the live brine might not be live and deemed pointless but thats just my opinion.

If you can trust the place you purchased them telling you the truth ask what they are feeding them, some places dont have them long enough in some rare cases or they will lie and tell you what you want to hear cause they werent eating at the shop to begin with.