Fire belly newts..?

WinterWind said:
Emg, I was reading about newts on the web, and it said that newts usually go through an "eft" stage when they are largely terrestrial. Usually right after they finish metamorphises , they will spend most all of their time on land. This stage last for about a year, and they will become aquatic. Maybe your newt is now in the eft stage and when it grows older and matures, it will be mostly aquatic.

Just some info if you didn't know before.
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From the eastern newt info above.

The Eft stage may last anywhere from 1-7 years. Sometimes the eft stage is skipped completely and they go directly from the larval to the adult aquatic stage. This is particularly common in the southern subspecies, the Central Newt, N. v. louisianensis, and the Peninsula Newt, N. v. piaropicola, and in populations that live in xeric (dry) environments such as the pine barrens and sand hills found in the eastern coastal plain. The skin of the Eft is toxic and their bright coloration serves as a warning - it is not so rare to find an Eft wandering about in broad daylight after rain. When Efts transform into adults the red background color changes to olive green or brown, but the red spots remain. They also develop a more compressed tail that helps them swim in the aquatic environment into which they move.
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Best way to treat efts as salamanders, while they become newts, they are more aquatic.
 
I knew about the toxic skin....I seldom handle them and it's always a good idea to wash hands ANY time you touch or handle reptiles/amphibians and the like anyway..so we haven't had any issues or problems with that aspect of these newts.

I did not know about the "eft" stage of newts though...very interesting..thanks for the info WW. :)
 
Yeah, newts are not a holdable pet as it goes. Our oils in our hands are harmful to their skin so If you hold your newts, best thing to use are rubber gloves. There is no need to harm your pets with a touch.
 
Just got my tank made with the shelf i will try to get some pics up later tonight. now i have to wait 2 days before i can fill it, so it can dry. And then i have to wait 14 days b/c the pet store has to order the newts for me.
 
Pics

Here are the pics. its a 10 gallon tank i am going to have a small corner filter in there. i folded the edge of the plexy glass up so that the dirt wouldn't fall into the water. let me know what you guys think. Click on the pic to enlarge


 
That's a good idea about having the edge there, but is there some way for water to drain off of the platorm? Any plants you put on there are going to need to be watered..and there has to be a way for excess water to drain off so the plants don't get saturated and mold starts to grow.
 
That looks very good, 04cobratorchered. I probably won't be doing that with my tank though. I'm not very good at DIY stuff at all. Will tupperware silicon-glued like that work? (Is silocone glue good for such purposes? Silicone doesn't really stick; I can peel it off.)

Also, if you do drill holes for it to drain, and you water the plants, won't the water go into the aquarium, and the soil with it? Will the water that go through carry bits of soil and muddy the water?
 
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WinterWind said:
That looks very good, 04cobratorchered. I probably won't be doing that with my tank though. I'm not very good at DIY stuff at all. Will tupperware silicon-glued like that work? (Is silocone glue good for such purposes? Silicone doesn't really stick; I can peel it off.)

Also, if you do drill holes for it to drain, and you water the plants, won't the water go into the aquarium, and the soil with it? Will the water that go through carry bits of soil and muddy the water?
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On the bottom of the shelf i am thinking about putting a layer of charcoal and then gravel and then dirt on top of that. do you think that will work? WW it was very easy to do. i just got a tube of aquarium sealant and some plexy glass cut it to the size and then sealed it in place i used a radial arm saw to cut it and a heat gun to bend the glass. it took my dad and i about 15 mins to do it.
 
What you could use is just moss in the lip and then add your plants into small pots. This way you will not get the moisture to high in this area and have a mold and mildew issue. This way with the moss, you can do weekly cleanings. Just pull out the plants and old moss and add new moss. Should be pretty easy and no fret, no mess.

8in_potted.jpg


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Cobra, the only concern I would have is the wieght of all that stuff on the plexiglass...and whether or not the silicon will hold it. You could cut some stands from the plexiglass and place them underneath the shelf at the four corners and that should help to insure that it stays put.
 
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