Newt Newbie

[TheAdmira1]

Hi all! Ive been keeping tropical fish for a decent amount of time now, but I recently dove head first into a newt/paradise fish tank. The tank is a 29 gal long, it has 2 sponge filters, an ebo heater, and is currently planted with wisteria clippings, hygrophila clippings, and a couple nana's. my tank is nice and cycled and the temp is running at 70 degrees currently.

The stock is:

2 Black Paradise juvies
6 zebra danio
4 chinese fire bellies
2 ADFs
toooo many snails

At the moment I have 1 floating rock stucture and a large peice of driftwood that sticks out a decent amount. They are basically joined together to create about 20in of basking room on the surface.

My hope is to add some bamboo, remove the wisteria and nana's, and then slowly build up a true vivarium. I have absolutely 0 exp with vivariums, but the pics and info I have found on here have me itching for one desperately!

My first real question is, how easy is it to build an extension on the tank specifically for plants. Since it will not need to hold water, is this doable? I want to extend the tank upward about 1ft. If I get 3 sections of plexi glass, use them for the back 3 walls, and then make a screen set of doors for the front and a screen for the top, will this hold up? TIA!!

Here are some shots of the tanks progression so far. any suggestions advice or criticisms are much appreciated! sorry for the tinypic urls, messageboard wont let me upload

[stormhawk]

The back walls you intend to craft from plexiglass to extend the tank upwards by 1 feet may not hold up, especially if you intend to mount corkbark or some other DIY background piece to hold your plants and stuff. This is because acrylic does not bond very well to glass if you use silicone sealant. Furthermore, acrylic aka plexiglass, will warp depending on environmental conditions. This will be exacerbated if you hang heavy stuff like a DIY wall on the plexiglass.

I'd suggest that you get a ready made vivarium-type tank like the Exo-Terra or get a glass or tank maker near where you live, to craft one for you at a reasonable price.

That or cut your water level to half and DIY a hanging type of platform off the back and side glass so that you can do some minor planting or to create a basking area for the newts. There's this adjustable height turtle ramp sold by a US company (brand I forgot), which should suit your purposes, minus the plants and all. Since you have the floating rock thingy, get a few more and place them close to each other. You can mount some plastic plants on these fake rocks with silicone sealant or hot glue with a glue gun. Make sure the glue is aquarium/fish safe, since newts have sensitive skin so any chemicals present may cause some major irritation to them.

I see you have a Cryptocoryne on the driftwood. It's not a ephiphytic plant so you must plant it in the substrate. Take the Anubias out of the substrate or the rhizome will rot, and tie it to the driftwood where the Cryptocoryne is located now. With some moss and ferns, it will make that driftwood look pretty cool.

For now, the tank seems fine so if the newts are happy foraging, feeding and doing their business in the tank, along with the fishes and snails, then you shouldn't do anything to mess with the happy critters. Like they say, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it".

[TheAdmira1]

Thanks for the response!! Sadly, thats kid of whats I was expecting to hear in regards to the arcylic extension. thanks for the info and reasoning though! I think I will prepare and get a plan together looking at some of the premade vivariums.

My newts dont really bask that often. I made another floating rock last night. It adds about 25 square inches and they havent gone near it. Should I be worried about them not coming up that much?

Ill definitely swap the cryptocoryne and the anubias.

Thanks again

[stormhawk]

They're more aquatic than terrestrial in behavior. Mine used to spend most of the time in the water looking for food. So the current layout is fairly sufficient for these critters. Those Exo Terra tanks are nice and can be customised to suit your purposes if you're good with DIY etc. They also have additional equipment meant for use with these amphibians too, so if anything, these setups are great for first timers.

I should not have said basking, but rather a rest area for these newts to "chill out" on. If you made a platform like the floating rock, they will eventually come up and move around abit more.

Another thing you have to look out for is the water quality. Since these newts have very sensitive skin, they should not be handled with bare hands, and the water must be tested regularly, at least once a week. You made a sensible choice not to overstock this tank and that is great. Luckily you chose Zebra Danios and those Paradisefish as tank mates, or they would be eaten had they been any slower.

[TheAdmira1]

I do biweekly 40% changes on all of my tanks smaller than 40gal, Sunday and Wednesday. Ive been testing, so far Ive been nice and zereod out

Are there certain TDS that I need to add for the newts for their skin? Will dosing hurt them at all? Since the tank is planted I dose Flourish Excel daily, potassium and iron every other day, and flourish trace once a week. I have never had an issue with a single fish, but Ive never owned amphibs so I wasnt sure.

Thanks again!

[stormhawk]

Not sure if TDS affects them. I kept mine in a sparse tank with only a single java fern and he was fairly happy so to speak. If your fish are fine I figure the newts should be too. They're not showing any signs of stress from the pics. You might want to visit this forum page on Caudata.org for a better idea on newt care:

http://www.caudata.org/forum/f1173-a...-newts-cynops/

[cdckjn]

in my setup in the office, I have several branches of driftwood so that these form the "land" area and my newts likes to go up and "bask" although I think the temperature is still cool. I have a cover on the top of tank. The other paddletail stays in the water more.