New to fire bellies

Hello all. I am thinking of purchasing some "Blue Tail Fire Belly Newts" that are for sale locally, advertised as locally bred. They are rather small, maybe 2-3". I have a 20 gallon High tank that I had set up as a mostly terrestrial environment that I repurposed for this. Please take a look and let me know if you think it would work well for the fire bellies. I have 2 Spanish Ribbed Newts, but otherwise I have only kept fish before, although I like to think I'm pretty good at keeping fish at this point. The tank has no internal heater, but the room is "climate controlled" usually at between 72 and 74 F. It has about 17 gallons of water in it. I was thinking I could keep maybe 4 newts in there, but please let me know if I am mistaken. Thanks for any advice you can give me.

Cynops/Hypselotriton cyanurus are a good choice for a couple of reasons compared to other fire bellies. For a start, they are more suited to the temperatures you give, and secondly there is a good chance they are genuinely captive bred, unlike H. orientalis that are almost always wild caught.
The tank you have there should be fine, as long as the gravel is too small to be swallowed, although personally, I like an easy to clean sand or bare bottom set up, but that's just me!
I would suggest putting plenty of live plants in there, Cynops/Hypselotriton seem happiest when they can hang out or hide in dense plant growth, they are also dependent on plants for egg laying, so at least a few bunches are essential in my opinion. They don't seem fussy, so I just use easy to grow stuff like Elodea, Java ferns etc.
If you Already have P. waltl you'll be surprised at the difference in behaviour! As you know, Ribbed newts are big daft things that are always begging to be fed, whereas Hypselotriton or Cynops are much more gentle and relaxing to watch.
I posted a caresheet if you haven't seen it already.

Caudata Culture Species Entry - Cynops cyanurus

I personally think the land area would be a waste of space and water volume. All you'll most likely need is a small floating land mass.

Thank you for your advice. I have added a bunch of guppy grass and some more floating plants. I got 2, a male and a female over the weekend. They actually seem to really like the land area. The female in particular hangs out in the "waterfall" area quite a bit. The male explored the land once, but doesn't seem to be interested. She seems to like the surface area in general, she hang from the floating plants a lot too. They seem to be breeding, he has been doing the "tail dance". As you said about their behavior, it seems they are much "cuter" than the ribbed newts. I think you are right about them probably being truly captive bread. They didn't seem take any time to adjust to the tank. They immediately became active and clearly come up to the glass when I come by the tank. I will try to get some pictures up eventually. Just busy with school work at the moment. Anyway, thank again for the advice.

I'm sure they will startt spending more time in the water once they settle in. They are probably just exploring their new enclosure at the moment.

Hello, again. As promised, here are more photos. I am already planning some changes to the "land" area, since I will have to build a new stand for this tank anyway. The one it is on is fine, but my dogs have a tendency to run into it and shake the hell out of the tank which terrifies the newts and scares me every time that it's going to fall down. So yea, one more project that needs immediate attention. Anyway, the newts are doing very well. Still constantly courting. The female still seems to like the water feature quite a bit, but the vast majority of the time they are clearly on the bottom searching for food. It actually appears to be a 24 hour a day endeavor. As you can see in the photos, they have plenty of hides, but they have not used them to my knowledge. They are basically always where you see them pictured, the male on the bottom, and the female climbing among the floating plants. They are a very active and colorful newt species. Everyone who comes into the room comments on them, even though they might not say anything about the 55 gallon fish tank sitting across the room. No one ever notices the ribbed newts until I point out that something is in their tank. I guess sitting absolutely still really is a good form of camouflage, because usually they are sitting in full view. I read the care sheet, but I have one quick question on the care of the eggs.They have already laid eggs on the floating plants. Should I attempt to remove them and care for them? I have no tanks or anything set up for larva or juveniles at this time. If I attempt to get the eggs now I'm wondering if, since I'm not ready, if it's worth the trouble. Will I end up killing them all anyway? Would I be better off getting ready and waiting for the next batch of eggs? I guess I'm asking what the viability of eggs in small containers of dechlorinated water, since that is where I'd be at at this moment. Anyway, thanks for taking a look.

I keep H. orientalis but I imagine it's relatively similar.
I keep all my eggs in the parent tank where they can eat all the microinvertebrates there are in an established tank, my adults will eat the eggs, but haven't ever touched any larvae. All my adult tank has for land is a floating piece of cork bark and I just take them out as they morph, and they I put them in a shallow aquatic setup.
If you're planning on raising them outside the parent tank, you're going to need either bbs or newly hatched daphnia to feed them, eventually they'll tank frozen and live worm, they won't eat 'dead' food as hatchlings.
It may also be laying duds, mine were laying duds for a year until I started getting viable eggs

I also leave my Cynops eggs in with their parents until they morph. Sure, the adults will eat some of the eggs, but they always miss enough for me to end up with lots of little mouths to feed.
I do add live Daphnia and bloodworms from time to time once the larvae are big enough to eat them, but not that often.
The tank is looking really nice now, it should get better and better as the plants grow.

Thanks again for the advice and compliments. I guess I shall leave the eggs be and see what happens.

Well, none of the eggs have hatched, for want of the little guys trying. They lay a lot, but they never seem to hatch. It looks like they are eating the eggs? Some clearly don't develop, but some look like a larva has begun. I guess the next step is setting up some way of separating them and seeing what happens. Anyway, aside from that the newts seem very happy and active.

Adults will eat eggs, it is to be expected, but often leave the larvae alone. If you try to raise them outside the adult tank, make sure you have a lot of bbs or newly hatched daphnia available, it is very unlikely that they will take any type of dead, or just non-live food in general, food is mostly associated with movement as hatchlings.
I would also be careful with all the crevices and the large gravel, I feel that larvae could potentially get trapped underneath it and suffocate.

ThoseNewtsTho said:

Adults will eat eggs, it is to be expected, but often leave the larvae alone. If you try to raise them outside the adult tank, make sure you have a lot of bbs or newly hatched daphnia available, it is very unlikely that they will take any type of dead, or just non-live food in general, food is mostly associated with movement as hatchlings.
I would also be careful with all the crevices and the large gravel, I feel that larvae could potentially get trapped underneath it and suffocate.

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I'm thinking that I'll remove the "land" area in the tank so that I can fit in a breeder box and it'll probably work out fine that way also.

Fishumms said:

I'm thinking that I'll remove the "land" area in the tank so that I can fit in a breeder box and it'll probably work out fine that way also.

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A piece of floating cork bark should be fine for them. I bet they'll hardly use the land area once settled, but there should be somewhere for them to rest if they want.

They look nice and healthy, I'm quite jealous, I've been wanting some cyanurus myself, but they are quite unusual here in the UK.

Chinadog said:

A piece of floating cork bark should be fine for them. I bet they'll hardly use the land area once settled, but there should be somewhere for them to rest if they want.

They look nice and healthy, I'm quite jealous, I've been wanting some cyanurus myself, but they are quite unusual here in the UK.

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Cool. When I get the time to change the tank, I will post updates. They seem to really like the waterfall area though. Always hear splashing as they climb into it. Maybe I'll limit the land to a small waterfall area and something to climb out of the water on. I never expected them to like the running water, but it seems like they do so I'll try to give them a good area for that in addition to all their swimming space.

Here is some video of the newts. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSf4mnQniiA

Here's the male doing his thing.

Now I'm really jealous! 8)

Btw, in the video at around the 1:10 mark your female is searching the plant for eggs to eat. I see my female Japanese newts doing the exact same thing at this time of year. Strangely none of my males ever seem bothered about egg hunting.

Chinadog said:

Now I'm really jealous! 8)

Btw, in the video at around the 1:10 mark your female is searching the plant for eggs to eat. I see my female Japanese newts doing the exact same thing at this time of year. Strangely none of my males ever seem bothered about egg hunting.

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Haha. Yea, the male does not seem interested, but the female is. I don't know if she eats them because they are not developing since I have not seen any do so, or if she would do so anyway.

Your tank looks really cool. Not gonna lie, I'm pretty jealous of how cute your cyanurus are. Might I suggest you post some pictures of your watls?