B
benjamin
Guest
Yesterday I bought 3 newts at a pet store under the title of paddle tail newts. To my great frustration I found that they were not in any of my amphibian keeping books. I went on the Internet and found out that they were definately not paddle tail newts, but they were probably some type of warty newt . They have very course skin, One's dark green and kind of mottled with a faint red dorsal stripe, another is light brown with a bright red dorsal stripe and to bright red stripes along it's side, and the third is a very dark grey and is relatively plain. They're very large, the largest (the grey one) is about 8 inches long, and the other two are about 7. They all have the same belly pattern and I have not been able to match it with any pictures on the web, each of the large orange blotches on their bellies is fringed with black and is further separated from the others by the newt's dorsal colour which occurs between the blotches. The pet store I bought them from doesn't know anything, when I told the guy at the counter I wanted to buy the newts he didn't know they were even in stock, and its not even a big pet store! What the pet store did know was that they ate blood worms and earthworms (I wouldn't be surprised I they ate fish as well) I also found the newts in an aquarium that had water about 4 inches deep, interrupted by large rocks, no plants, and two small filters (unfortunately I don't know if this is the correct environment for the animals let alone one to breed them in). At first, I thought they might be captive bred, but now I'm pretty sure they're wild caught judging that I haven't come across any guides on how to keep them). What are they, how do I keep them, how do I breed them, are they terratorial (one has a slightly damaged nose), when do they hibernate, and If should ever be so lucky as to breed them successfully how should I treat the eggs and larvae? They also appear to be expert escapers, while was making their aquarium I put them in steep sided bucket with a lid on top, the on that escaped must have stood on the tip of its tail and pushed the lid aside with its head, luckily I found it in the nick of time.