Nursery for underwater animals

A vivarium is a kind of artificial world made by humans to simulate the natural environment of a particular animal kept in captivity. While this may initially seem like not much of a hobby for such a fancy name; The truth is that many people derive great joy from building nurseries – it allows them a measure of great artistic expression and freedom; not so different from a painting of a natural setting.

The first thing to do when setting out to build such an environment is to have the animal it is intended for in mind. Fire salamanders, for example, will have different environmental requirements (if only for comfort, though it’s usually more than that) than paddle-tailed newts. Since this is an article for paddle-tailed newt enclosures, we’ll focus on these for now.

The paddle-tailed newt is a somewhat rare amphibian that sometimes passes for the highly praised fire-bellied newt, even though they are derived from different species (which basically means they can’t interbreed). Its average size is half a foot, which means that the environment you choose cannot be too small; in fact, there is a recommended minimum of fifteen gallons for each paddletail newt you choose to house. You can expect these wonderful creatures, native to south-central China, to last a decade; they will definitely become a constant for a considerable part of your life.

Beyond the fact that paddle-tailed newts may look like their distant fiery-bellied brethren, the ones you’ll get here in the United States for your home nursery will have brown to black skin, with a burnt cinnamon underside. with hints of red scattered around. Other than that, they look a lot like… salamanders. As for their temperament, it’s a good idea to house them alone or house them together only with similarly sized paddletails; otherwise, you’ll find the smaller one missing bits of its body from time to time while the larger one nibbles at it. They are extremely regenerative creatures, but I can assure you that they do not enjoy being nibbled very much.

Also, you need to provide plenty of housing places, even if you choose to house only one newt per vivarium; there is something in their natural temperament that means having a place out of sight and light makes them happy creatures. Note that they do not need lighting; So if you want a solar lamp for your nursery plants, or just for your own viewing pleasure, dark patches with overhanging branches and rocks and caves will make newts much happier, especially if you expect them to breed, like unhappy newts and salamanders and snakes they tend to avoid reproducing if they are distressed.

As for food: Newts will eat a wide variety of worms, from bloodworms to earthworms and much more. Crickets and other terrestrial insects may be favorites, although paddletails have hibernation periods that seem to come on suddenly and can seem strange to humans. They don’t do much according to human determination anyway; often eating only one day each week. Make sure the food is in small pieces before placing it inside your vivarium.

Lastly, try to clean the vivarium or terrarium once a week by simply picking up and scraping up debris; A complete cleanup should be done every month, which involves removing newts from the environment and washing away rocks and other items. Change their drinking water too, and you should be able to provide them with a solid ten-year occupation in your home nursery.