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Fire bellies with eastern newts ?

Newtster

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Hey Guys !
I'm new to this cool site, Whats your oppinion housing 4 Eastern Newts ( Notophthalmus viridescens viridescens ) and 4 Jap Fire-Bellied Newts on a 55 gallon take. Safe of Not.. ?
Thanks !
 

SludgeMunkey

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Hey Guys !
I'm new to this cool site, Whats your oppinion housing 4 Eastern Newts ( Notophthalmus viridescens viridescens ) and 4 Jap Fire-Bellied Newts on a 55 gallon take. Safe of Not.. ?
Thanks !


Not safe by any standard. Caudates in general do not mix well with each other. The two species you describe have different needs. The possibility of each species poisoning the other is high.
 

Greatwtehunter

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Not to mention that if you get a male N. v. viridescens he'll try to amplex everything in site. The fire belly newts can't handle that type of courtship and will usually drown.
 

benschaller2

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I'd like to like to add, though it seems this problem seems to be solved, Ive been housing Notophthalmus viridescens with my jap. fire belly newts for some time now. None of which have seemed to hurt each other. I mean they are all still alive. in fact its the cutest thing really, the japanese fire belly newt do a kinda dog pile one the eastern spoted newts when they are just loafing around. not in courtship mind you, they just sleep there. when they were smaller they could get free rides and the eastern spoted newts didnt seem to mind.

Now maybe I am just one of the lucky ones that never had any problems, but its been almost a year. The fire belly newts have gotten a little too fat for piggyback rides but they still seem ok with living with each other.

this is a topic ive been wanting to ask the pro's. ive heard tales on both sides of the argument. I run a Very clean tank, with land, water and an abundance of plants on both. tadpoles swim at the bottom with a small group corys, gold fish, and paradise fish. while the newts share the ground with themselfs [3 eastern spotted newts and 4 japanese fire belly newts]. It got too big but there used to be a bull frog that grew from a tadpole. I am aware of things to consider, like that if i had kept this bull frog in there he would have eaten everything...but with the others Ive found no problems. I also have a dwarf frog that spends most of his time sleeping.

I did have a bigger fish that got to one of each of the newts before I realized it was the fishes doing, we soon departed..

any thoughts?
 

Azhael

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With that set-up...you WILL have problems.
The fact that you haven´t had them yet meand nothing, a year is a very short time really.
If the newts are spending time on land, and there has been no reproductive behaviour, then they know something is wrong.

If you want your newts to thrive, keep them separated by species, and no fish! Very specially not goldfish...

Sorry if i don´t elaborate but this has been discussed to exhaustion. If you take risks, don´t be surprised if one day the outcome is not good....
 

misslyss

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Its generally not safe to mix any newts of different species together.

I had African Clawed Frogs and Cynops in the same tank for quite some time before finding this site. After going through the denial stage, doing all of my research on mixing species helped me realize how many risks there actually are and the amount of stress I was putting on my animals. After finding out what could happen by having two different species together that lack any compatibility on where they come from in the wild and many other ways, I decided to house the two separately because they simply mean too much to me to risk it!

If you're not convinced, heres something to ponder.. Think about where these animals are being harvested from. Eastern Newts come from North America. The firebellies come from Japan. Chances are every one of your newts (depending whether you got them from a breeder vs. a petstore) are wild caught, as previously stated. So basically there is no way either one of these species would ever meet in the wild and in turn shouldn't be housed together.

Also, Eastern Newts are particularly known for the toxicity of chemicals in their skin which is definitely something to consider. If you want both species to stay healthy either separate them, or divide your tank in half using a store bought plastic barrier. Or you could even make your own.

How to Make a Plastic Aquarium Divider | eHow.com
 
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