help with paddle tail

escapednewt · Nov 21, 2008

hi,

i have recently bought apaddle tailed newt. He is currently kept in a tank wth tropical fish, he seems to be doing very well. however i went back to the shop in which i bought him today and they said i was very lucky that he had not eaten the fish? is this going to be a problem?? he currently has no obviouse problem with the fish and visa versa. The man also told me that he is poisonous, is this true? he always trys to get on my hand in when i feed the fish and so i 'hold' him. obiously if he is poisonous i will stop doing this. i just want to know if i should be worried about my fish, the newt is about 6 inches at the min so he wont get much bigger so i would have thought that if there was going to be a problem it would have occured already.

please get back to me and help! thanks!

Jake · Nov 21, 2008

First I must say that I'm glad there is a pet store that will tell you some truth. It is really not a good idea to house the newt with tropical fish. The fish need warm temps and the newt will need it rather cool (63-68 sounds good). That newt will eventually eat some of your fish. All newts are poisonous to an extent. Handling it is not so much a problem for you as it is the newt. They're 'eyes only pets', handling them more than absolutely necessary will cause stress.

You'd be best to give the fish and the newt separate tanks.

keechoo · Nov 23, 2008

Here is a good reason not to keep a paddletail with tropical fish. It's found in this forum and called: Beware the Catfish! by mweaver_87. It has the yellow triangle with the exclamation point next to it. I would post a direct link to it but I don't know how. Just call me "Miss Computer Illiterate". The post is on the second page as of this posting.

Abrahm · Nov 24, 2008

This is the disaster story Nicole was talking about.

If your fish are small enough you will probably lose one eventually to your newt. You will also end up losing your newt if you don't find a way to keep him cool. Paddle tail newts, like most newts, do best under 70F which is not a good temperature for your fish.

spoons · Nov 26, 2008

dont keep paddletails with anything ! they are very aggressive feeders ! and yes cold water only , mine seem happiest in uk winter in a rather cold room ! even the mild summers here get too warm for them

Zcasc · Dec 15, 2008

I would have to concur...

My Paddletail has done fine on its own for over 5 years, now. Shortly after I had first purchased him, I thought that I could defy the rules and toss in a school of zebra danios with him.

Sure enough, I woke up (no joke) to a tank devoid of any life, except algae and Senor Paddletail.

That's what happens when you break the rules. Luckily they are cheap fish...

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help with paddle tail

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