Identify Sid

Ok, here's a couple pictures of my dear Sid, whom i suspect to be a Japanese firebelly (C. pyrroghaster). Sid has so far eaten every newt or fish placed in his tank. He is adorable.

Sid swimming

Sid trying to eat the camera

sid is a jap firebelly...but he may not be a HE..for his age he should have pretty large glands on the side of his head if hes a he-some get this and others dont-it may be a sub species trait.....got a picture of sids tail??

I'll try again to get a good picture of his tail. For this photo shoot he was primarily interested in eating the camera. He has 3 nice little bites out of his tail too.

Well as starved as he looks I get he would like to bite in everything ... you'll have a nice job to get him or her back on her feet since this guy surely has not been offered foud as frequently as it should. I'm guessing this is the state you found him/her in the shop ?

No wonder he's eaten anything placed in his tank, that newt needs to fatten up big time. Maybe he's so hungry he's even reverted to cannibalism.

I got him a from a coworker who's husband has had him for the last 5 years. I'm currently feeding him 4 small crickets a day. What can you recommend to fatten him up? I have some frozen bloodworms for my bettas, will he eat those? How do I feed them so they don't just sink and disappear into the gravel?

Hi Rachel,

My C.o. (Chinese Fire Belly) LOVE frozen bloodworms. I thaw them out in a mesh (very fine) strainer, and rinse them well. I handfeed some of the newts (for the fun of it) with a tweezers. But all my tanks are equipped with a "feeding dish". I use tweezers to drop clumps of bloodworms directly on the plate. That way they don't whoosh all over the tank. You will be surprised how fast your newt will learn that the dish is the dinner table. They will hang out in it when they want to be fed. Staring at you with those little eyes....

So cute! The fish store around the corner sells live bloodworms, so I got him a clump of those to snack on. I may try to find some wax worms as well, since I hear those are fattening. I'll pick up some newt pellets to supplement him with too.

I definetely need to get him a food dish too.

pet stores very often sell what they call live 'blood worms'-this misnaming makes them sell better...i doubt however they are -they are probably live black worms-these are easier to ship and keep alive. black worms are real worms and blood worms are a larvae of a mosquito like creature- true blood worms are far more nutritious, i'd feed frozen blood worms over live black worms. if you can-go to wally world (wal mart) and buy a container of 'pan fish trout worms'-these are european night crawlers-they are favourites of many a hungry newt and can be cut into small enough pieces to be easily consumed-i actually hold them from the head and let them stretch down and cut sections off the end with a pair of scissors-this is a very nutritious food item and heartily consumed by most newts around.

[Janice]

I read you should get the uneaten bloodworms out of the tank but they are so teeny I can't seem to manage it. I have tried with a net, a plastic spoon and a medicine dropper and they are still in there. They sold them to me frozen in little cubes maybe 1.25 cm and i have fed my Taricha just about a quarter of the little cube twice a day. It's amazing how many worms are there when that teeny little bit, way too many to have to retrieve the untouched ones.