Ill or trying to breed?

I have two paddletails in a 30 gallon tank. They are eating well and seem full of energy. I was starting to worry because one developed some white on his (?) tail and I was considering a salt bath. The white looks like morse code, dot dash, dot.....I thought it was odd that it was uniform. Today however, he's been following the other newt and fanning his tail like crazy. I didn't read too deeply about sexing when I got them because I had no interest in breeding. From descriptions, I always imagined small spots and that's not how this looks.
I may be able to post a picture when my son gets home but I hate to pick up the newts, they're SO strong that keeping them still is literally a battle. Could someone point me in the direction of a good picture of what the normals white spots look like? It doesn't really seem like this would be a good time to mate, it's awfully cold in Massachusetts!

Sounds normal. A quick search didn't turn up any pictures for me, but I'm sure someone can post a picture for you.

I remember a thread about otterwoman's newts http://www.caudata.org/forum/showthread.php?t=55597

The white spots seem very normal. Male paddletails develop anywhere from one to three or four white spots in a row in the center of the tail on the end. Sometimes there is only one spot on one side and multiplies on the other side. Their cloaca also gets larger at this time and you can see "hairs" coming from the end of it. They will follow the females around and fan them persistantly. They may even deposit spermaphores. It seems that level of mating occurs frequently however, paddletail are rarely bred in captivity.
Aggression can occur during the mating activity if other males are present in the tank - usually one male will end up being dominant, so watch them closely to make sure one is not being picked on. You can see marks of injury such as bites on the body - which are not always very obvious or dangerous, but usually just impact the surface skin, also nips in the tail are not infrequent and between mating couples are not usually problematic, repeated attacks on a lesser male -or female- will end up causing considerable stress and possibly serious injuries. - watch for patches of white fuzz which would be a sign of an infected wound.

I've decided to separate the two newts. Despite the tank having lots of room and hiding places the female has disappeared into her filter twice. Obviously she'd prefer to be away from him. I'll be making two 10 gallon habitats, one for each this weekend. I appreciate everyone's help.