Which newt is for me? (lomg...)

Hi all. My name is Alicia and I live in Stockton, CA. Please forgive me if you've had this question a million times but I'm trying to do all my homework before bringing a newt into my home.

A little background...My tank will be app. 24x11x21"high and will have filtration. The entire bottom of the tank will be water with a floating platform. I would like a pair of smaller, mostly aquatic newts that are suitable for an experienced beginner. (I had Axolotls and lizards years ago.) Breeding potential doesn't matter, I'm just looking for pets. I would like to try and keep the cost under $50-75 for the pair. I know what I'll get may be WC but I'm not willing to go capture one for myself.

I haven't found any newts for sale in my area and it looks like I'm going to have to buy over the internet. I haven't found a lot of options there either and I hate to buy from an unknown source :-(

Any suggestions on what might be a good newt for me? (I have narrowed it down somewhat but want to her your opinions!)

Any suggestions for a store/breeder in the central CA area or any safe source over the internet? Or better yet, anyone here have something suitable for an excited newbie? (I've been checking the sale list here but figured a little extra pleading couldn't hurt )

Sorry this is a long introduction, thanks for reading this far!
Alicia

http://www.caudata.org/forum/messages/24563/24566.html?1176784557

This link should be helpful for you in finding out the available captive bred newts in the us.

For starter pets, pleurotles walts are pretty good, and so are japanese firebellies.

if the above link doesnt work, there is always kingsnake.com.

you set up sounds good for chinese fire bellies, pleurodles are maybe a little large for that tank but you could try sword tails (cynops ensicauda) or depending on how warm it gets Apine newts are small and can be kept in that sort of set up but don't like too high temps..maybe a single paddle tail..

Thanks for the suggestions. I particularly appreciate you listing both names Ian I like Waltls but they are a bit bigger than I'd like for the tank. I'm considering Fire Bellies and I'm glad you mentioned Alpines, they're on top of my list. I haven't looked into Sword Tails yet, so I'll go read up on them!