Japanese Firebelly questions

So about two months ago, I got a Japanese Firebelly Newt at a local petshop. He's a really personable and playful little guy, but when I got him, one of his front legs was really stumpy. He'd been being kept in a tank with a Firebelly Toad at the store - so I tend to think it got a bite out of him fairly early on.

He seemed fine minus the stumpy little leg, and so I figured it'd grow back, no big deal. When it did start to grow back, it seemed as though it wasn't ever growing quite right. Or perhaps I'm insane - but it seemed as though it never really got a joint where it was supposed to. Then, fairly recently, it started swelling up really badly, and I noticed a sore with white fuzzy stuff occasionally coming out of it.

I got him some Melafix, and have been using a very low dosage, and he seems to be getting a little better, but I'm just curious as to what this was. He never stopped eating, and is still just as happy and playful as ever, so I presume he's not actually FEELING bad - but it was enough to worry me.

And another question on basic tank setup. I've got a 10 gallon tank that has a little hill built up with gravel onto a fairly small bit of dry area. The only problem is that because of his little front leg, he seems to have a lot of trouble going up onto the land, and because of all the space taken up by the hill, I feel like he really doesn't have enough water (there are probably only about 4 gallons in the tank, alltogether.) I tend to think that a little floating island, or a plexiglass seperator is a better solution, but I'm afraid that I couldn't have anything that's actually OUT of the water, because so far as I can tell, he can't really climb at all due to his tiny front leg. Any suggestions?

Thanks!

Swelling is usual when a limb is re growing. Its my understanding that cells gather behind the wound and revert to a sort of stem cell state before developing into cartilage, muscle and skin. I've observed some really odd/worrying swellings, deformitys and such with fire bellys re growing limbs and toes, in time everything returns to normal.

On the other hand it may be some kind of infection.

Can you post a picture?

Re yor setup you could try a cork bark curl, it'll float and as its not flat part should be submerged to give a gradient your newt should be able to grab itself out on.

I don't like the 'gravel slope' type of setup for the reason you have already noticed - the gravel takes up a lot of space leaving not enough water volume. Also, the water under the gravel stagnates and traps dirt. There are some other types of islands that would be equally easy to climb up on, such as a flat sloped rock, supported by bricks or other rocks.

White fuzzy stuff sounds abnormal. Have you tested the water for ammonia? Most pet stores will test a water sample for free for you.

By the way, a lot of pet shops sell "japanese" firebellies that turn out to be C. orientalis (chinese). See:
http://www.caudata.org/cc/articles/firebelly.shtml

Hmm. Upon looking at that article - I think he might actually be a Paddletail. Though he also looks very similar to one of the Japanese firebelly pictures. He looks almost exactly like this -


But his tail looks like this -



Any notions as to which he probably is? Is care for a Paddletail any different than a Japanese?

Without a picture we can only venture guesses as to the true species of your animal. However, as Jen already pointed out, Japanese Fire bellies (Cynops pyrrhogaster) are only rarely offered in the commercial pet trade these days while Paddle tails (Pachytriton sp) are offered pretty frequently. I would guess you have a Pachytriton. Here is a link for their care sheet: http://www.caudata.org/cc/species/Pachytriton/Pachytriton.shtml