Adult Notophthalmus viridescens injured tail?

[jbaker8484]

One of my adult eastern newts appears to have an injured tail. It's just the tip, about 1/4th of it's total tail length.
There is a type of fuzzy moss/fungus growing on the tail, the same stuff that appears very quickly on bloodworms that don't get eaten which makes me think it's tail is starting to decay.
The tail has a lighter shade of color than the rest of it's tail.
Also, when it swims around, the end of it's tail seems to not move right with the rest of the tail, like it's all limp.
This same newt has been floating near the surface of the water for extended periods of time. The other newts need to hold onto plants to stay near the surface. I don't know if that means anything but I figured I should mention it.

I've owned them for about 7 months.
I have 3 of them housed in a 29 gallon long, planted tank with medium light, temp is usually around 68 fahrenheit.

How serious is this? Is there anything I can be doing to help?

 

[Lertsch]

You should quarantine that newt immediately. That fuzz might be a fungal infection that the other newts might get infected by.

I had a noto that injured it's leg and it started to look fuzzy. Since newts can regenerate body parts I cut the leg off with a sharp pait of scissors, refrigerated him for a few days, and kept him quarantined until the leg started growing back.

I'm not saying that's what you should do (maybe I just got lucky ), but it worked out well for me. I'm sure some more experienced people will chime in with helpful guidance, but you should a the very least quarantine immediately.

 

[jbaker8484]

update: when i came home tonight, the injured section of the tail was almost completely decomposed. i was able to remove it easily by hand. he seems to be doing ok now, just swimming a bit weird.

 

[slowfoot]

I would also add a bunch of dried oak leaves to the tank, or order Indian almond leaves if you can't find anything appropriate. The tannins will help protect them against further infection.

 

[jbaker8484]

Thanks!
Will any oak leaves do? I have a coastal live oak (quercus agrifolia) in front of my house. I also have access to valley oak (quercus lobota)
I also have some wood in there, it's probably still leeching tanins.

 

[slowfoot]

Yep, those are fine as long as they're dry and crispy. Just give them a rinse and let them float in there. They should sink in a day or so. I like to add them until the water is colored like weak tea. Just check the pH every so often to make sure it does not get too acidic.

Good luck with them - these little wild caught guys are tricky.

 

[mitchelljs]

Even if the tail came off, you should still quarantine the individual to make sure there's no internal infection.

 

[slowfoot]

Even if the tail came off, you should still quarantine the individual to make sure there's no internal infection.

I would actually not quarantine. Usually, these types of fungal infections are not contagious, but are opportunistic infections that occur after injury. Moving the animal out of its home tank will probably just cause more stress which can be deadly in this species.

 

[jbaker8484]

The newt is currently not quarantined.

He seems to be accumulating a while substance on it's body. He keeps trying to pull it off and gets tangled in it a bit. At first I thought he was shedding skin but it's been going on for several days.

 

[jbaker8484]

Unfortunately the newt passed away yesterday. He was looking pretty thin before the tail accident and after his tail fell off he was acting pretty weird, not swimming right and floating around a lot.

 

[slowfoot]

Sorry to hear he didn't make it. There's probably not much you could've done once he started to show signs of illness.

 

[otolith]

I've had the same heartbreak with Notos in the past, sorry to hear he didn't make it. I put valley and black oak leaves in my tanks, the live oak leaves are pretty sharp and take longer to soften up.