Hong Kong Newts

I'm going to be purchasing 2 hong kong newts from a good exotic pet shop here in Toronto. I do however already have an aquarium set up for fish. I have 4 ballon mollies with 9 babies, 4 lyretailed mollies and a Rio de Para Pleco. I am planning on also getting some guppies this weekend. I was just wondering if any of these fish are not compatable with the HK newts? If you have any sujestions I'd really appreciate it!

Thanks

the temps required for tropical fish are far too high for the newts ,it will cause stress and eventual death. If the pet shop is keeping them in with tropical fish then its just another case of a pet shop cashing in and selling animals they don't know anything about .

No i don't think that thier being kept with any fish at the store. i have fish now and just wanted to know if mollies are going to harm them. Mollys can be kept at temperatures as low as 68F and guppies as low as 64F and the pleco as low as 72F (i might return him to the store and get shrimp instead). I have been researching many sites on both the fish and HK newts and have found that temperatures and water conditions should be fine its just aggression that i'm concerned about. Thier supposed to be very peaceful fish but also have a very hardy appetite. Any clue? Can they go together?

68 is still slightly on the high side but they may be okay. If you really intend to keep them with fish i would get rid of the plec as they are covered in spines and could cause damage to the newts it may also try to suck on the newts which could harm both. Another problem would be the other fish feed from the surface or just below so you would have to make sure enough food reached the bottom to feed the newts. The newts would also eat the young of the fish so if you wanted to bring any young fish on you would need a fish trap which catches the live young as the fish gives birth which will stop the newts and other fish getting to them...

ok so i'll return the pleco. the good thing is that balloon mollies are such hungry guys that they bottom feed constantly. Now i've been trying to get the temperature down with frozen bottles of water its going down slowly but temperatures have been so high this year. any sujestions? also what temperature is ideal? I have read that temperatures can get as high as 95F in the wild for these guys and as low as 55F what ideal though?

Also found the info how acurate is it?

"P. hongkongensis and P. fuzhongensis have been bred in captivity by keeping a temperature schedule around 68°F - 74°F during the summer months, and 59°F - 65°F during the winter months, however, the actual temperatures encountered in the wild are debatable. P. hongkongensis in particular are known to prefer warmer temperatures, and should not be kept lower than 55°F for long periods of time."
http://www.livingunderworld.org/caudata/database/salamandridae/paramesotriton/

idealy you would want the temp not to go over 65 but that is rarely possible. We don't get too high temps very often where i am and anyway i keep the outside in the garage which is usually cool. When it gets too hot i freeze a couple of 2ltr plastic bottles which i fill with water and use one against the other but that would be no good for your fish..

Knowing the site the information is from I would guess that it is most likely correct.

As for your fish living with Paramesotriton I would have to say that it would be a bad idea. Mollies, especially the more delicate balloon mollies should be kept at far warmer temperatures than newts, including Hong Kong newts, should ever be exposed to. Mollies do best at 76-80F and when they are kept at lower temperatures tend to become sickly and "shimmy."

Cherubim said:

Mollys can be kept at temperatures as low as 68F and guppies as low as 64F...

Click to expand...

I just wanted to comment on this specifically. I've never heard of Mollies being kept at such low temperatures. It may be true that a short exposure to such temperatures may be fine, but keeping them long term at those temperatures will assuredly be fatal. Mollies tend to best in medium-hard to hard water at warm temperatures.

Plecos, especially some of the less common ones are very sensitive about their water quality and quite possibly their temperature also. I would not want to put one in with newts. There are also known instances of Plecos sucking on newts and causing a good deal of damage. If the pleco is still small the newt could try to eat it and be injured by the fishes defensive rays in the pectoral, dorsal and anal fins. This article gives a lot of anecdotal evidence to the problems with mixing species of amphibians and amphibians with fish.

Mixing newts and fish is usually not a good idea as the one of the animals will be exposed to suboptimal conditions. Most fish need warmer temperatures and newts need cooler temperatures. To provide the best care for each of your animals they really should be separated.
Also, I believe that I have heard that Hong Kong newts, Paramesotriton can be quite territorial.

snip "Mollys can be kept at temperatures as low as 68F and guppies as low as 64F "endsnip


While mollies (species dependent) can survive these temperatures it is recommended that when keeping mollies that salt be added to the water for thier health. Unless there is some underlying medical issue, typically the addition of extra salt is not indicated for caudate tanks.

In addition, you want to keep the levels of nitrates, nitrite and ammonia as low as possible which means keeping the bioload on the tank as low as possible. The addition of additional animals above and beyond the newts will increase the bioload which will increase nitrates.

Ed

The temperatures you quoted from the Livingunderworld site are a good general guide for Paramesotriton. Ideally, the temps for most newts should be room temp in summer, and colder in winter. It may be possible to keep them at a single steady temperature, but it's not very practical, and probably not ideal. If I had to pick a single year-round temperature, it would be something like 68F. Newts and tropical fish are simply not compatible temperature-wise, in my opinion.