Illness/Sickness: Japanese fbn's with yellow spots

Hi guys, my new friends came home from the pet store with these yellow spots. I noticed them right away but wasn't really concerned at first because they looked kind of like markings they might have naturally... and then I noticed that they were appearing in areas that they wouldn't normally have such obvious markings. Anyone help me to get a diagnoses? The tank has been established for about 3 weeks. They are removed from their house to eat. I have kept the water temp low, about 60-65F. Doesn't seem to bother one of the newts but the other one is very sluggish and spends most of its time out of the water. They both eat frozen bloodworms.

Those are Paramesotriton chinensis and the yellow spots are their normal coluration.

azhael said:

Those are Paramesotriton chinensis and the yellow spots are their normal coluration.

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Really? I'm relieved to hear that. Thank you for the reply I've been very worried. I've had these before. Never seen those spots. Maybe a different variety of newt than what I had before? So these spots can appear on their backs too? They seem to have gotten more of them since I've had them.

Paramesotriton is a complicated genus, and very frequently the species are misidentified. It´s likely you had a different species, or maybe just individuals with no yellow spots.
Anyway you have nothing to worry about, it´s normal. I would worry more about their health....Paramesotriton usually arrive to the petshops in a bad shape, so take good care of them hehe.

Just to clarify, you do not have Japanese Fire-belly Newts (Cynops Pyrrhogaster), you have Chinese Warty Newts (Paramesotriton chinensis). As Azhael already said, that's their normal coloration.

Good Luck!

I really appreciate all of the info. So far everything the pet store has told me has been wrong. I'm so happy to have found you guys! I plan on separating the frogs from the newts as soon as possible. I dropped the temp in the tank significantly and both of the newts seem soooo much happier. I'm going to get some real plants in both tanks too. Any info on using stones found from the ocean in their tanks?

Glad to hear the temps are lower and they are happier.
A little piece of advice...i see in the first picture there is a significant gravel slope. That is not a good thing...gravel traps lots of waste and after some time, pockets of anaerobic conditions might appear, which is bad for the tank. Gravel needs to be syphoned on a regular basis to avoid accumulation of debris, and that´s imposible with and slope like yours. I would recomend taking the excess gravel out, and leaving just a thin layer of aprox 2-3cm. You can also switch to sand or no substrate which will make cleaning a lot easier and pose no danger of ingestion.
Less gravel also means more water volume for the newts, and since they are territorial, they need quite a bit of space.

Good luck with the newts, and if you have more doubts we are here to help. On the mean time, keep reading and learning, this forum is full of great quality info.

Thanks! As I've said, I am going to set up another tank and separate the newts and toads. Any suggestions are more than welcome as to how to do this. I feel like my biggest problem is going to be keeping the temperature steady. Our classroom gets HOT! They only have natural light but nothing like direct sunlight. I have been using ice cubes on top of their screen to keep the temp down but I would hope there might be some inventive way to have a consistently low temp other than 12 hour (de-chlorinated) ice cubes, hahaha