Giant fire bellies???

OK, I am an only critter keeper, (as a kid before my army days) well the army moved me and I decided 2 days ago to make my old 55 gallon marine reef tank into a newt tank.

So I got 3 chineese firebellies and today I saw and Instnatly loved these "giant fire bellies"

Now ive come to understand these are not giant firebellies and what they 2 of them resemble the most is the Honk Kong Warty newt, Ive got a nice active and chubby male that was eating soon as I fed him an hour after he went in the tank and a skinny female that looks a little too skinny maybe.

I tried to give her an earthworm but she was not interested, also she does not like being underwater and hangs out on the big floating island ive for in there for them, the male doesnt like being out of the water.

Now when i had put in some frozen bloodworms they 3 chineese firebellies begun to eat them and so did the big "mysterious newt" and he got close to a little guy and sucked up his foot and began to try and ingest my little guy!

I stopped him immediatle and the little guy got away intanct, and later on ran into biggie again foraging and the large newt paid him no attention, as has he with the others he's been standing on and moving around.

I just want to make sure it was a feeding frenzy accident not a "these cool big newts like to also eat your nice little guys"

Please Help me!

Here are the pics of the slim female and the larger male

Ok, looks like a Paramesotriton sp. to me but I can't get anymore specific than that. There are others on here that could help you with that. Sorry I couldn't help you any further than there.

Judging from you pictures there is a considerable size difference which will definitely be causing problems in the future. If they are seperate species then you'll need to set up another tank to avoiding the smaller ones becoming prey. Actually I would recommend you go ahead and seperate them until you can figure out which species you have and if they are the same species then you'll have to wait until they get roughly the same size as they larger one.

I've heard many times that bigger salamanders and newts WILL eat smaller ones, even of their own species.

On the second picture I see 2 totally differend species. The big one is a Paramesotriton, the smaller one is a Cynops oriëntalis. Newts are cannibals that will eat smaller individuals. Even if it is the same species. I strongly recommend you to separate them and keep only one kind of species in each tank, and it might be smart to read following article:
http://www.caudata.org/cc/articles/Mixing_disasters.shtml


Kind Regards,

Steven

Newts aren´t cannibals. That´s an unfair generalization. SOME species of newts can be cannibal.
You´ve got two different species as was mentioned above. The bigger one, Paramesotriton sp(hard to say the exact species) is a territorial, agressive newt, and the other one is a Cynops orientalis, a very passive, non-agressive species.
Mixing both will cause problems!!!!
So you really should separate them ASAP.

I see they are both out of the water(both species are highly aquaitc and rarely leave the water) which possibly means the water is not suitable. It kind of looks dirty. Read the articles on Caudata Culture, including the ones about water quality, and cycling aquariums, they have everything you need to know.

well, They are all still here, no fatalities, i do have a 10 gallon tank I can put the little guys in, the bog ones seem to be leaving them alone and i did get the female to eat a half a cube of worms herself so things are looking up! I assure you that the water is not bad quality, im imagining its just the PH 7.0 stabilizer i put in there causing the haze, its quite clearer now all the newts were in the water when i came home. I will still seperate the smaller guys being that I would feel aweful if one got eaten. I just didnt think that newts would consider eating something that may kill them. But thanks for the help and I better get started on that 10 gallon

newts are cannibals they will eat smaller newts if they get a chance:supercool:

Please don't keep them together - either use a tank divider or better yet, the smaller tank for the C. Orientalis. Also, be sure your pH stablizer contains no sulfuric acid as amphibians will absorb that leading to disaster.

Good luck,
Dana

What's the pH of your tap water Paratrooper? I would suggest against using the pH stabilizer. I'm not sure what exactly is in that stuff but your newts are better off without it. As long as your tap water is between 7.0 to 8.0 or so you should be ok. It's unnecessary and a waste of money.


ps. It may or may not be the case with the stuff you bought but I remember reading on the label of some pH altering products that they are harmful to live plants and should not be used in a tank housing them.