Newt emergency! Urgent, need help.

[Gr8Reptile]

Ok just today I noticed there was all of this weird foam developing in the water. One of my fire bellied newts was dead. Now I completely cleaned it out 100%. But once I put everything back in including the remaining newt, the strange foam started enveloping the cages water surface.
It is a 20 gallon with two water filters and brand new filtered water. The only thing I didn't change was the filter cartridge on one of the two underwater filters. Could that be it? Or could it be that my newt just got upset and secreted some more of the foam? Or are they even responsible for the foam?
I really need to know how to get rid of this.
P.S.
If you are worried that a twenty gallon is too big for a single newt then no worries. I'm going out to buy two more tomorrow.

 

[Mushroom Spore]

If you are worried that a twenty gallon is too big for a single newt then no worries. I'm going out to buy two more tomorrow.

If your tank is doing weird things that may or may not have killed one of your newts, I'd say this is the worst possible idea you could ever come up with. Plus I don't think a tank can be "too big" for a single newt, pretty sure they (like most herps) don't really care about friends.

You should worry about fixing whatever this is before you bring more animals into it.

 

[JohnEDove]

When you did your 100% clean out did you wash/soak everything, tank decorations etc, with a 10% bleach solution with no soap?
How long after you set it back up did the foam appear?

 

[scottyk]

Foam is usually caused by excess proteins, which is a sign of too much untreated organic waste in the water. Simply stated, you are either overfeeding, underfiltering or have yet to let your filters "cycle" properly.

Remember that you are essentially maintaining a shallow aquarium, so if you don't know what I mean by "cycle", get onto some aquarium sites and do some reading. If your tank is newly set up, hold off on new additions, get a starter bacteria product from the local petstore and give the tank a month to settle in.

Another thing that I always do for aquatic herps and amphibians is to maintain some aquatic plants in the water. This is very effective at keeping the water clean, especially considering that your newts are going to be messier than the fish most of those filters are designed for. It's easy to do and really makes the enclosure look great. Just get a regular or CF flourescent strip with a full spectum bulb, and add some Java Moss and/or floaters like Duckweed..

Good luck!
Scott