Just got two Rough Skinned NEwts this morning.

Tindomul1of9 · #1 (**permalink**) 04-26-2006, 10:35 AM

Thought this would be a good first post.
I just recieved two, what I think are wild caught, Taricha granulosa. A pair, one is heavliy gravid with egss,and the other is male.
I'm gonna put them in a thirty tall, fill it up with about 5-8 inches of water, and invent some way of making a descent land area for them.
I know there aren't many here in the forum yet, but is there any advice out there for me. This would be my first time caring for Taricha granulosa.

Thanks.

s1ren · #2 (**permalink**) 05-10-2006, 11:45 AM

Congrats! I have a pair of Taricha as well. 30-tall sounds great, they love thier swimming room - a lot of folks say longer is better than tall, because of that, but from what I've observed with my own Tarichas, as long as they have plenty of plants and decorations to climb on, they're happy

Tindomul1of9 · #3 (**permalink**) 05-10-2006, 02:07 PM

I ended up getting a 20 long, which they like. I gave them a good 5 inches of water, and lots of plants. The deal I had with the 30 fell through.

s1ren · #4 (**permalink**) 05-10-2006, 02:18 PM

Cool. Mine are in a 46g bowfront right now, but I'm going to be moving them back into thier 20-long this summer, because that's too much space, and I don't really want to get any more of the same thing...there's a major tank-shuffle that needs to happen so I can get some new critters

Tindomul1of9 · #5 (**permalink**) 05-10-2006, 02:22 PM

What are you feeding them? I'm trying to feed them earthworms, but they take so long to decide whether or not to bite the worm, that by the time they go after it, its too hard to pull the earthworm out of the gravel. Should I switch to a sand substrate rather than gravel?

s1ren · #6 (**permalink**) 05-10-2006, 02:27 PM

I feed them small earthworms, reg wigglers, frozen beefheart and bloodworms - and I've recently switched to live blackworms, since the place I got my other live worms started selling me moldy and dead ones (ew).

As far as the substrate goes: my Tarichas eat out of my hand, but my other newts eat out of a feeding dish - it's harder for the worms to get out of the dish, and they usually get eaten before they get away to get lost. You might try that and see if it helps

I'm going to be switching to sand, too, this summer, when I rearrange all my tanks. I'm sick of cleaning gravel, hehe.

Tindomul1of9 · #7 (**permalink**) 05-10-2006, 02:42 PM

I've heard that sand might cuase an anaerobic environment(no oxygen for those who don't know) therefore cuasing an increase of sulfur or other noxious chemicals in the substrate. I'm not to sure, it sort of makes sense, but then how do salt water aquarium keepers do it?

s1ren · #8 (**permalink**) 05-10-2006, 02:45 PM

There was a discussion about that on caudata.org recently - from what I read, as long as you keep your sand to a depth of 1/2 to 1" deep, it should be fine; especially if you vacuum it regularly, or at least stir it up from time to time. Apparently the anaerobic thing happens when the sand is too deep and gets too compacted.

Tindomul1of9 · #9 (**permalink**) 05-10-2006, 03:02 PM

Ok, thats what I was thinking too. I'm currently using about 1/4 inch riverbed sand in my 55 gallon tank. I have not detected anything bad in the last 5 1/2 months.

Tindomul1of9 · #10 (**permalink**) 05-22-2006, 01:05 PM

So I go check my Rough skinned newts this morning. I find one of them dead!!

It really sucks!
I changed the water in the enclosure to see what was up, and boy did that water stink. Then I remembered that even though I had ment to change the water last week, its been a good 3 weeks since I last changed the water. This is all my fualt.

I hope the female isnt too affected, and that she will live on.
I've had such bad luck with newts.
I changed the setup too. Now instead of gravel I got about 3/4" of river bed sand, by exoterra. Hopefully this will keep the tank cleaner. Well it definitly looks better.
God I hope the other one doesn't die.