Another Cynops firebelly confusion thread...

Hey everyone,

Long time reader, first time posting in a while (although my old user disappeared?). I haven't had any caudate news in a while.

I've had a 1.1 pair of C. orientalis for over four years now. A friend of mine, who had a (presumed) C. orientalis male asked me if I could take him, her mother had her get rid of all her herps (terrible, I know!).

She always told me her newt was a big fella, I assumed that he was maybe a bit chunkier and bigger than my two at home, who are about 5-6 cm each.

Here are my two Chinese firebellies:




Here is my friend's old newt:






This one is a moose compared to my little guys! He was eating guppies and f/t bloodworms, whereas mine eat f/t bloods and brine shrimp, live nightcrawlers, live red wigglers and the occasional garden snail (pesticide-free area).

The big guy is smooth-skinned, his parotids are not very obvious, his tail is tall, and he has very large, wide toes compared to my C. orientalis. His face also seems more squared than mine. He was sold as a Chinese, and we all know that pet stores are full of experts

I'm not a Cynops expert, would you guys say he's a pyrrhogaster?

Not a Cynops...that´s a Pachytriton...probably Pachytriton labiatus..though i´m no expert on that genus at all...
Don´t house it with your Cynops....Pachytriton (paddletail newts) are agressive and territorial.

Hey Christina, this might help you http://www.caudata.org/cc/articles/firebelly.shtml

Congrats on the CFB eggs, which I see in the photo. Have you raised any offspring?

Your new newt is a paddletail:
http://www.caudata.org/cc/species/Pachytriton/Pachytriton.shtml
As Rodrigo pointed out, don't house it with your CFB.

The newts certainly won't be housed together- even when I was under the assumption that the new guy was the same species and about the same size as my other two, he needed to pass quarantine first. Once I saw the size of him, the idea went out the window.

I had checked the firebelly ID page, but didn't investigate Pachytriton any further... but looking at that page now I think he looks closest to P. labiatus, like Rodrigo suggested. I'll ask on the Pachytriton forum. Caudate species aren't my forte.

Jennewt, the egg photo is from two winters ago. My larvae made it 1-2 months, but I was consistently having water quality issues and lost them all. I ended up with 73 eggs, 79% hatch rate. Last winter my male was showing breeding behaviour, but the female would have none of it! I blame it on the warm January we had, which is when they were active the previous year. I have my fingers crossed for the coming winter!