Newt Will not eat

[Chrispy]

Ok, so i have a 10 gallon with some fish and a bunch of floating stuff for my newts. I have 2 fire bellies. I have had them for about a month and they are still alive, but one will never eat. he is pretty skinny, more so then when i got him. I put those cruddy newt sticks in the tank everyone once in a while and even break them in half, and i dont think they ever even look at them. so when i do feed them i take them out and put them in another small holding tank with a little water and fill it with some black worms. Now one newt just loves them and eats them up and the other just wants to escape and never eats a thing. Is this normal. is he just not liking the tank or what. Also how to people get them to eat out of thier hands and get them to be real friendly. Mine are both real small only about thee inches long with the tail.

[ikermalli]

Try feeding it tubifex worms or some other type of live worm. Try the Pellets. Crickets maybe? Make sure your water parameters are suitable for your newt, maybe you should keep him alone

[fishbguy]

My newt never had a problem eating....I suggest feeding anything that is smaller then them, and stoopider than them, and worms fit that bill perfectly...Mine loves earth worms, of course, I ave an rough skinned newt, which is a great deal larger than firebellies, but if the eathworms are too big for your newt, then you can vut them in half or something. They also love blackworms, and the good thing about blackworms, is they will often ball up together, so when the newt eats some, he gets more than he thought...lol I've never had good luck with those newt sticks. another good food are frozen bloodworms, I sometimes feed mine pieces of frozen krill. Mine will sometimes eat crickets, but normally only the ones that have drowned in his tank. He doesn't have the greatest luck catching live ones...lol Feeder guppies are another idea. But you have to hold them in place with something, I held the ones I fed to my newt by their tails with a pair of tweezers so my newt could catch them.

[Clerk]

Crickets and Red wiggers = happiness.

They will not eat pellets or sticks IME

[fishbguy]

I've never tried to feed mine pellets or sticks....

Just make sure the food item is moving....If it's moving, IME, they'll hit it faster than they will any frozen foods. So like it was said earlier, live worms, crickets, even small fish, are the best foods, espacially the worms.

[Sunaynire]

Are you sure he isn't eating, or you just haven't seen him eat? Many of the firebelllies i have encountered eat at night.

[Chrispy]

well i am sure he is eating as he is still alive, however he is a lot skinnier then when i got him and i prefer plump then skinny. I drop the little sticks in at night and he might be eating those or the fish get to them, but i dont think the fish go after the sticks.

--isolating the newt in another tank isnt a possability right now. lack of room and tank.