Merviso's Nano Newts Vivarium

[Merviso]

Hey guys,

This is my recently downsized Nano Fire-Bellied Newts Vivarium for my 2 remaining fellows...
Started with 4 on Sep 2007 and 2 more on Jan 2008... Lost 3 to illness and 1 MIA...
Interestingly, they seems to be more active in this small setup...

YouTube - My Nano Newts Vivarium 01

YouTube - My Nano Newts Vivarium 02

[FuEl]

Hi Merviso,

Agree with you on this one. They will chase small crickets and even mealworms on land. Good opportunity to coat their food with calcium powder, something which you cannot do if you keep them 100% submerged.

[wave]

cool tank bro..

[zoothefreak]

U have a cover rite for them? coz the newts i used to keep were commandos lah they escape even from a plastic covered top and I caught one in the act... they can definitely climb the tank walls with ease... watch the water too coz in your setup mozzie might breed...

[Merviso]

Hi Bro FUEL, most of my newts hates to go swimming... hahaha... they will rush out of the water if I put them inside deeper water... But seems like they are ok with being half submerge.... Hopefully they are happy with my current setup...

Hi Bro wave... thanks... this is actually the most simple setup I have for them... setup in less than 10 mins... hahaha

Hi Bro zoothefreak, yes... I had a simple cover make of half acrylic and half plastic mesh... They tried to climb out within mins after I put them inside the tank... hahaha... There's no way mozzie can go inside the tank, so I'm not really worried about them yet...

[saltynay]

How is te water filtered?

[Merviso]

Hi bro saltnay... actually the water will not be filtered...

So far, I actually find my newts bio load to be quite minimum... The water will be replaced when necessary... But I'm throwing in Mosses, Fissidens and Susswassertangs into the water to hopefully act as the biological filter once it start to cover the whole base..

[saltynay]

Shame the water depth isn't a bit more as then elodea would be ideal to oxygenate and remove the toxins.

[Merviso]

hahaha... Elodea will be too big for this small setup. I will be sticking to the carpeting plants to fill up the base.

[saltynay]

I know but it doesn't change the fact it is a god for plant based biological filtration.

[deacon]

cool!

I used to keep chinese salamanders, fire bellies, emperor salamanders and axolotl. that was years back.

however, i decided to check with ACRES and found out that newts and salamanders in Singapore are illegal, most often, wild caught and displaced. Once my little friends died, I decided not to keep them anymore. Didn't not want to be at the tail end of illegal wildlife trade. Not too sure what's the situation now though, if its captive breed now and sustainable, I sure don't mine doing it again!

Yeah, love to see them chase them crickets around. heh.

[FuEl]

Does'nt matter whether they are WC or CB. In Singapore, everything is lumped together for convenience and ease of enforcement. Cynops Orientalis, the common fire bellied newt, is not even CITES listed nor even listed in IUCN red list of endangered species. What "illegal wildlife trade" is there? Only in the local context, but a joke if you look at it from a global view. If you surrender such harmless animals, they will most probably be put down due to the lack of resources to ensure their welfare. Sad but true. Arowanas are CITES 1 species but they can be traded in Singapore, what irony.

Btw ACRES claim that pig nose turtles, Carettochelys insculpta, are illegal to be kept. The reason being such turtles have been put under CITES II since 2004. To import such specimens after 2004, you need CITES papers. You do not need CITES papers to keep something on CITES II, as with hard corals. If you obtained the turtles prior to 2004, they have no basis to ask you to surrender it as they were imported prior to their CITES listing. Pig nosed turtles are not listed in IUCN Red list and thus they are not endangered species. Why the fuss over people keeping them?

Read the old news from ACRES
http://www.acres.org.sg/campaigns_illegalreptiles.html
If you double check against the IUCN red list database, its all a bunch of exagerrated lies. Don't always believe, check it up yourself and you will realize that the illegal wildlife trade here is not so illegal after all. Sorry if I talked too much, just could'nt stand another person being brainwashed.

[deacon]

ACRES didn't contact me and sell me ideas, I just wrote to em to check.

Species don't have to be endangered to be considered to be in an illegal wildlife trade right? Like I said, if I know they're captive breed and its a sustainable model, I sure won't mind having em again.

Anyhow, thanks for your info.

[deacon]

Oh Merviso, one of my sallies MIA last time too.. I found it during spring cleaning one day, all dried up like a chinese medicine behind the wardrobe!

[dkk08]

bro Usual case lar u know how long we've gone on and on about the whole "illegal trade" and "exotic pets" issues

if u look at it from another point, acres became the one of the few groups of people who're able to keep reptiles and amphibian "legally"
now that they've the facilities and resources to setup a wildlife sanctuary for reptiles and amphibians, very soon we'll see a section for small mammals like ferrets and hedgehogs!!?

[zoothefreak]

Yeah a pity I gave up keeping newts too once I realized it was considered illegal here... but I kept them waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayy back during my early primary school days and was probably not well read enough to keep them successfully...

they lasted a few good years 4 years actually before perishing... one like deacon's case, one got mouth rot and bloated up before dying... the others I think of malnutrition eventually as I only fed them on frozen bloodworm and the occassional mealworm (hey I was a kid back then lah)

I kept fire-bellied newts and emperor newts... Emperors were my favourite coz they looked like mini dragons and behaved like miniature crocodiles... Such a pity we have to wait for them to be on the AVA's list... then again look at the GTF even when its on the *@%#@!* list somehow... you still cant get em... "some" are addicted to dangling carrots i guess...