A good beginner salamander or newt

[caudatadude28]

What would you consider a good beginner salamander or newt. I dont have one yet but I plan on having a Tiger Salamader and I was wondering about good beginner newts.

 

[Otterwoman]

This question is asked fairly often, and I am going to refer you to some threads where this has been discussed in the past. Reading these threads, you will see that people have strong opinions on issues of captive bred vs. wild-caught animals, pet shops and their sometimes questionable advice, and the conditions newts endure before they make it to your glass-walled paradise.

http://www.caudata.org/forum/showthread.php?t=51679


http://www.caudata.org/forum/showthread.php?t=51760

Mostly you will see that people are passionate and care deeply about these animals and their issues.
Please read and consider the variety of opinions in these threads, and read about the different species and their requirements in these areas:

http://www.caudata.org/cc/species/species.shtml

http://www.caudata.org/cc/articles/articles.shtml

This forum is a wonderful source of information. Happy reading, and Happy Newting!

 

[Nathan050793]

For new keepers, A tiger salamander is actually a pretty good choice. For newts, some easy to keep species are listed here at a source not listed above- http://www.caudata.org/cc/faq/FAQcar.shtml

Good Luck!

 

[marco]

id say paddle tails, or fire bellied newts make good first time aquatic species, as for terrestrial tiger and fire salamanders are the best choices for a beginner. theres some great care sheets on this site the the culture home page would be your best bet.

 

[freves]

Just as long as you can provide the cool temperatures required and a proper environment most any commonly available CB species should do fine. Also, it is very common for many new keepers to want to mix caudates with anything from a few fish to half the livestock at the local petstore. It would be best to keep the animals by themselves first and gain husbandry experience before attempting any mixes.
Chip

 

[herpsrcool]

tiger salamanders are easy and cool to watch

 

[taapua]

From the sounds of it I think you would benefit from some good reading material. I highly recommend a Barron's book called Newts and Salamanders by Indiviglio. I think it's the best all-round resource for the keeping of caudates, it's easy to read and not expensive, $7.99 (?) new, less used on Amazon. It's also reviewed in the book review section of this site, with comparable opinion.

 

[Plethodonae]

I agree with Paul. I have that book and provides so much information on a whole bunch of different salamander, newt, Siren, Mudpuppy and even some cave salamander species. I suggest a P. Cinereus as a good salamander to start with. Frederick(my red back) is my first salamander and he is very easy to keep. A good beginner newt would be a N. Viridescens. They are supposedly very hardy and don't destroy elaborate set ups like bigger species. Back to the book, I think I'm going to go see him(Frank Indiviglio)at one of his presentations this saturday. Anyway, good luck on whatever you choose to keep.

 

[taapua]

Pletho, you're going to see Frank at one of his presentations? What kind of topics does he cover? Where is the presentation being held?

 

[krk11]

Wow! I got to see one of my old threads up there. I got C. pyrrhogasters and they are great. Easy to care for, great personality, and not picky eaters. Good luck in whatever species you choose.

 

[Raylan]

Wow! Now I know exactly what to get, Thanks guys!:blob:

 

[vistajpdf]

I only have experience with C. Orientalis, Chinese fire-bellied newts, and they have thrived and are currently reproducing at an alarming rate despite being separated awhile ago! If they make it through metamorph, I will be donating them to a loving home if you're interested! I have four 3 mo. old larvae, then about 30 others at varying ages including newly hatched yesterday. I also have eggs and donated some to a friend here this week. It's an amazing process to watch the egg develop and the larva emerge, grow front legs, then back, etc.

I've found they do well with a low flow filter (I only use mine a little each day) which is optional and cool water. Our house is cool as we live in S. Florida. I can't help you with other species but my sons and I have really enjoyed our newts. I fed the adults only frozen and thawed bloodworms until the larvae appeared and I joined this group. Now they have a variety of white and blackworms in addition to their regular diet.

Good luck on this exciting journey. I think I'll check out that book the others recommend, too!

Dana

 

[Azhael]

Sadly, Cynops orientalis morphs are on the harder side, and are not a good begginer option.
The WC adults are also hardly advisable because although some do very well, others die shortly after purchase.

VERY good choices for begginers are Pleurodeles waltl, axolotls, any Triturus species, Tylototriton verrucosus...you just can´t go wrong with CB animals of those species, they are dead easy.

 

[vistajpdf]

Sadly, Cynops orientalis morphs are on the harder side, and are not a good begginer option.
The WC adults are also hardly advisable because although some do very well, others die shortly after purchase.


I believe this must be true as the pet store where we purchased our Chinese FBNs claim only two buyers still have living animals, us being one of them. As I've said, I live in S. Florida and it's hot all year long, so I wonder if they just don't realize the animals need cooler temps or if they were just unhealthy WC animals to begin with and we got lucky with our pair.

Dana

 

[Azhael]

It´s both. A lot of people buy these newts without having a clue of their requirements(which is reasonable since information on caudates is scarce, and most are impulse buys). It´s also very true that imports are treated poorly, and that pet-shops generally house them very inadecuatly. The result is that a lot of animals die because of the combination of these two factors.

Cynops orientalis is incredibly easy to care for and breed when you deal with healthy animals. The problem are the imports and their crashed inmune system, and the juveniles because of their very small size and shyness.