Firebellied Newt ID and a few questions...

[Gatito]

Hi guys, if anyone can help me ID my firebelly it would be fantastic. 99% sure I have a little chinese because of his size, but i just don't have enough experience with their growth speeds and other differences to be sure. Am i right in thinking those wee bulges on his neck are the parotid glands? And would i be able to sex him at this age by the cloaca?

Frederick is about 5cm, and is a couple of years old (just went mostly aquatic a couple of months ago).

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Also, could anyone that knows these guys put their 2cents in - i'm going to chuck him in a smaller aquarium for a while (he has a big 60 x 45 x 45cm exo terra that i'm going to silicone a divider into and put plants in a small land area) - what kind of water depth and volume would be a minimum for him? Not that i'm planning on giving him his mimimum requirements but i have quite a few spare tanks and i want to choose one that isn't too small for him. As he has been mostly land-based up until a couple of months ago, i haven't really thought about what water depth and total water volume he needs. Have had a look online and it looks like for volume about 5 gallon per chinese newt is ideal???

And last of all, can the japs and chinese co-exist, or am i right in assuming that the japs will eat the chinese once they (the japs) get big enough? I'm going to hook Frederick up with some buddies asap, so any breeders that have some juveniles or adults available, please flick me a PM or let me know via this thread (livingart I know you had japanese juveniles when i was enquiring before the wedding, do you breed your chinese as well?).

And.... end ramble . Thanks everyone!

[herperjosh]

Buy his size and age i would say he is a chinese japanese usually become browner. As for the tank size i reckon smaller would be a bit more ideal maybe 25% land 75% water. oh and why don't you just get a decent size log for the divider more grip than glass so he can get in and out of the water 8) .

[Gatito]

Buy his size and age i would say he is a chinese japanese usually become browner. As for the tank size i reckon smaller would be a bit more ideal maybe 25% land 75% water. oh and why don't you just get a decent size log for the divider more grip than glass so he can get in and out of the water 8) .

thanks herperjosh. The divider will have to be about 9cm high, but I was thinking about cutting a slot into a long log so it fits over the edge of the glass. Failing that there will be forked bits of driftwood leading up onto the land area. He really doesn't look like he'll be wanting to use the land much so it will be minimal, just enough to keep some juveniles on if need be.

He's always had a generous amount of land AND water, about 50-50, or 25% land. Now that he's decided he likes swimming i've been giving him mosquito larvae, which he LOVES. Do you think he'll still take fruit flies? Maybe snatch them from the water surface?

[herperjosh]

Well for the fruit flies unless they decide to drown themselves i don't think hell be eating the try blood worms,white worm or earthworms but misquote larvae is good. Maybe just give him a turtle dock that is a good size and then put moss on it?

[Insect Direct]

chinese on colour but bumps hint jap....did it use to have orange above tail? Pattern and colour of belly may indicate which it is also but i cant memba which is which now ive sold my breeders.

Hard to sex but possible to make a good guess if others to compare to. Need others cos females have a bit of a bulge there aswel, males just bigger. More obvious with age as males get bigger and more defined 2 bumps. Males tail will also go to a point when mature and may get colouration and or stripes on tail when in season.

only need a small tank, i keep 5 that size in a small plastic tank with vented lid. guess 30cm long 20cm wide. I almost need to upsize the tank but thats give you some idea how little room they need. 1 to 2 inch water and bit of driftwood in middle which has a little bit of java growing on. feeding pinhead to small crickets, they eat on land and in the water, just started them on frozen bloodworms, use tweezers to get them use to it, doesnt take much encouragement and soon just drop a cube in.

can co exist but i wouldnt do it, wouldnt want to risk them breeding, not sure if possible tbh.

[Gatito]

Well for the fruit flies unless they decide to drown themselves i don't think hell be eating

Lol, as soon as the fruitflies are hatching in earnest they start drowning themselves - that's what i mean, i'm wondering if i tap them onto the water surface if the newt will grab them

[Gatito]

chinese on colour but bumps hint jap....did it use to have orange above tail? Pattern and colour of belly may indicate which it is also but i cant memba which is which now ive sold my breeders.

Hard to sex but possible to make a good guess if others to compare to. Need others cos females have a bit of a bulge there aswel, males just bigger. More obvious with age as males get bigger and more defined 2 bumps. Males tail will also go to a point when mature and may get colouration and or stripes on tail when in season.

only need a small tank, i keep 5 that size in a small plastic tank with vented lid. guess 30cm long 20cm wide. I almost need to upsize the tank but thats give you some idea how little room they need. 1 to 2 inch water and bit of driftwood in middle which has a little bit of java growing on. feeding pinhead to small crickets, they eat on land and in the water, just started them on frozen bloodworms, use tweezers to get them use to it, doesnt take much encouragement and soon just drop a cube in.

can co exist but i wouldnt do it, wouldnt want to risk them breeding, not sure if possible tbh.

Thank you, the bumps may stand out because of the camera flash - i'll take another without it tonight. i used to have more 2-3 years ago (didn't know what escapists they were back then and lost a couple in the first day or two, and another died who-knows-why about a year ago) and some had the orange stripe on them (were sold to me as juvenile japanese), and some didn't (think i bought them as chinese), so i can't remember whether he had the tail stripe or not. If he was japanese i thought he would have been bigger by now...????

He doesn't seem to want to come onto land to feed - giving him some more fruitflies tonight to see if he's keen, otherwise will use mosquito larvae til i get another whiteworm culture up and roaring. Tried bloodworm yesterday but he wasn't having a bar of it - i'll keep trying, may have to do a deal with the devil for more patience!!!!

i used to want to keep them together but i think it would be less hassle not to. then again i could always separate them when they got bigger.

[Insect Direct]

this is my setdown

I feed pinhead crickets, just drop on the driftwood, the newts are eating in and out of the water. Duckweed helps to give the crickets somethign to walk/cling on when they end up in the water. Works a treat, fruitflies would be much the same id imagine.

Ive only just upt the water level, following sneaky's advice from another thread. They seem sweet as. I keep it simple like that because anything more and you never see the little blighters. Fits nicely on my work bench to

Once they get abit more size on ill upgrade the tank or just move them on. Could almost keep an adult pair in there, but would really need to keep up with the wc's.