Japanese and Chinese Firebellies together?

Hello
I was at this little hole-in-the-wall pet store the other day and they had a bunch of little baby firebellies all in one tank. I was trying to figure out if they were Chinese or Japanese... but it looked like they might have had both. I was looking specifically at the tail to see if it was rounded or pointed and some of them were very obviously rounded and some definitely looked pointy. It made me very curious because I would have assumed they would all be the same... and they all looked the same size and none of them really looked like they had rougher skin or bigger glands. It was just the tails that were very different and made me think they had both kinds in there. The sign on the tank just said "Newts $3". So I guess my question is: do petshops often have both types mixed up like that? Or do you think they were all Chinese (do Chinese sometimes have pointy tails?)
Thanks for any input!
PS I am not buying any (don't want to support taking them out of the wild)... But it just really made me curious!

They may all be chinese, males have rounder tails than females. So maybe the ones you thought were pointy were just chinese females, whose tails seemed pointy compared to the males you saw.

I second Stansley´s opinion.
Also, it appears that C.pyrrhogaster, which used to be very common in pet-shops, is nowadays almost a rarity, so it´s unlikely they had both (possible, though).

I´m glad to hear you are not supporting the WC market! That´s music to my ears xD

You know, I don't understand you guys. Not taking a poor, wild pet from the petshop into your home. I don't see how they are any different. It was an hour of a drive to the petshop (just bought another CFBN a couple of days ago, his name is Milo and straight when I got home they were already up for a feed.

I personally think it´s a terrible thing to do because everytime someone buys a wild-caught C.orientalis (or any other species) he/she is validating the WC market and thus promoting further capture of more and more and more animals...
I understand very well that it´s sometimes hard not to rescue this animals from the paws of the dark ones (aka petshops), but for every animal rescued, there are a few more being collected to occupy the space it has left. Since many die during the importation and many many more die in the pet-shops, it can take several newt lifes for every single newt that makes it to a good home.

It´s specially ridiculous when we consider that the species is VERY easy to breed in captivity. Ok, juveniles are bit of a pain.....but that doesn´t justify going for cheap adults at the petshops.

Bare in mind that petshop bought newts apart from being a curse on the wild populations, are never the best option for the hobbyists. Yes, they are cheap. Yes, they are easily available. BUT they are awfully stressed, very often ill. You only have to take a quick glance at the Newt and Salamander Help section of this forum, to se that the majority of problems that bring people to this forum are caused by petshop bought WC animals.

If we, the caudate freaks who love this creatures don´t make anything to stop this WC market (which is completely unnecessary and exists only because human beings are whimsical and lazy) then nobody is going to....

Azhael said:

I personally think it´s a terrible thing to do because everytime someone buys a wild-caught C.orientalis (or any other species) he/she is validating the WC market and thus promoting further capture of more and more and more animals....

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I agree. Every purchase we make has a feedback effect. Every newt purchased condemns others to die because the pet shop sees that "people are buying these" and then they buy more. There are circumstances when it's justified to get WC animals, but adding to one's collection simply in order to "save them" from the pet shop isn't a good one.

Zac said:

You know, I don't understand you guys. Not taking a poor, wild pet from the petshop into your home. I don't see how they are any different. It was an hour of a drive to the petshop (just bought another CFBN a couple of days ago, his name is Milo and straight when I got home they were already up for a feed.

Click to expand...

When you look at the situation like that you are exactly right. When you look at the newt in the pet store, the logical solution is to bring it home and make its life better.

Unfortunately the case isn't nearly that simple and the newt in the pet store took many steps to get there. Newts are not magically plucked from the wild and deposited gently into pet stores. They are collected by people, often devastating populations, and sold to wholesalers who then ship the animals across the ocean where they are then stored in wholesale facilities in the country of sale. From there pet stores contact these wholesalers who then ship out the required number of animals to the pet stores.

This whole process can take a month or more and mostly these animals are not fed at all during that time. They are kept in suboptimal conditions and many, many of the animals die. The wholesalers are fine with this because they buy the animals for mere pennies or less and mark up the prices greatly for the pet shop (who then marks up prices again for the consumer.)

We are not against the newt in the petstore. We are speaking out against the exploitative system that leads to newts in petstores.