Housing a Newt
When housing a newt it is important to determine its age. The maturity of the animal will determine what type of setup your newt requires.
Required Items for all Newts:
- At least a 10 gallon glass aquarium (No more than three newts per 10 gal tank please!)
-A backdrop of your choice
- 4-5 bags of coarse gravel (larger than the animal's head)
- Screen lid (Aquarium lids WILL NOT WORK. The animal WILL escape!)
- Thermometer
- Ammonia & pH test kits
- pH plus and minus
- Plastic or live plants
- Air powered corner filter
- Carbon and wool for the filter
- Full spectrum light and bulb of appropriate sizes. The brand Reptisun is the top quality of full spec lights
- Spray bottle
Setup for Young Newts:
Young newts need a setup that is about half water and half land. The water should be about four to five inches deep and should gently slope up to the land so the animals can enter and escape the water easily. If the animal starts to look a bit dry they should be sprayed with water, and if they are climbing the walls they should be sprayed until they are forced to return to the ground. This should break the bad habit of young newts, which is to slide into a dry space and slowly desiccate. The water area should be thickly planted and the filter should be in the corner of the tank. The lid should be very secure (I hold mine down with packaging tape.) The backdrop should be secured on with tape as well. The backdrop lowers the stress of the animal and makes the aquarium more visually pleasing.
Setup for Adult Newts:
Adults need much less land mass as they are almost fully aquatic. Once they begin spending about 90% of their time in the water section of their aquaterrium it is time to rearrange the setup. Personally, my setup has the gravel molded at the bottom of the tank to create small hills and interesting valleys for them to explore. Most of the tank, from the halfway point to the back, is densely planted to give them cover and places to climb on. There are two rock formations on opposite sides of the tank.. Two cloth lily pads act as a bridge if the animals wish to move from one end of the tank to the other. The depth of the water may stay the same or deepen depending on your preference. The deepest part of my aquarium is probably 7 inches, though it still slopes up to as low as 3 inches in areas.
Notes:
-The tank should be rinsed and wiped out, the backdrop should be placed on it, then the filter should be assembled and put in. Next, the gravel should be placed around it and sculpted as you desire. The plants should be placed in afterwards and weighed down by the gravel. Once you are ready to add water, pour it into the filter first to saturate it so that it does not float to the top when it is submerged. After the tank is ready, the lid should be secured on.
-The full spec light needs to be changed every six months if your animal is to benefit from it.
-Be careful to make sure rock structures are stable and will not topple when the newts are crawling on them.
-The water temperature must remain between 55 and 70 degrees Fahrenheit and the pH must be between 6.8 to 7.0 while the ammonia must remain at level zero
-DO NOT use tap water if you are on a 'city water' system because chlorine kills newts. You can either leave some tap water in a bucket for at least 48 hours or buy bottled water for your newt.
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