Need some fire boy newt help

Akari_32

Member
Messages
454
Location
Florida
Need some fire belly newt help

Hey guys! I bought two young, and rather sickly (didn't realize it), fire belly newts two days ago. They're only about the size of my pinky, and I can see all their ribs. Thankfully their little tummies aren't sucked in yet.

The biggest problem they have is limb rot. I've read that it spreads quickly, and if not taken care of, it can be deadly. Being amphibians, I know they are sensitive to just about everything, and I was even worried about using Prime in their tank, until I remembered it's all I used for my ADFs and they were always fine.

I set their tank with cycles gravel and a cycles sponge stolen from another tank. I did have a slight mishap with the sponge releasing all kinds of junk into the water even though I squeezed it out in a bucket of water, but the use of Prime and daily water changes should keep any risk from that to a minimum.

Right now they are in a 10 gallon with about 3 gallons of water, and a Tom Mini internal filter. They have plenty of open space for swimming, plus plenty of plants (silk at the moment) to hide in, and a plastic tree stump and a piece of drift wood for getting out of the water. I'm going to get something taller, or like a turtle dock or something, so I can get them in a larger volume of water, but for now, especially with them sick and needing to be treated, this should do (right?). This picture was taken right after the filter incident lol



Now about that limb rot. One does not appear to be showing any signs yet, but has got itself wedged up a spot that's pretty wet, but not submerged, in the driftwood. The other stays mostly out of the water, but is an active swimmer, and very curious about what's going on outside of the tank. This one has a large open sore on the bottom of its tail that appears to be down to the bone. He's also partially missing several toes, and their may be a another wound starting on his face ( thought I saw one, then checked again when he was facing me, but didn't see it, so it may have just been the lights). I've read from povidone iodine swabs of the wounds, to that's too toxic and to never do it, to salt baths, to that's not effective, to peroxide swabs, but it also damages the healthy tissue, to moving them to a fully terrestrial environment to dry out the nasties causing the rot, to no ones really sure if that's exactly how that works or not. I pretty much just want to bash my face into a wall at this point @.@

Neither eat, but they are still new, so I'm not too overly worried just yet. I've tried some gelled bloodworms on a tooth pick, and some 1/2 inch mealworms wiggling around in front of them, which I eventually just dropped into the water. I've got some baby brine shrimp in the freezer that I'll try a few hours before a water change today. Here's a pic of the little guys. You can see how skinny they are, and you can see the huge indent on the bottom of the one on the lefts tail-- that's his "boo-boo."



If anyone has any idea on what to do with this limb rot, please let me know! Also tips on getting them to eat would be great, as well.
 
Last edited:

Visit our friends

Top