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Is this a Paramesotriton chinensis?

Ohio Papa

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I think this is Paramesotriton chinensis. Is it? Also I'm using evaporative cooling that works a little better than I'd thought, and I haven't been able to find any specific care sheets for P. chinensis. Is 60 f (15.5 C) too chilly?

Thanks a lot.
 

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Chinadog

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Its Paramesotriton of some sort, P. chinensis or maybe P. hongkongensis, maybe someone with more experience of warties will confirm?
The temperature is fine as it is, most Paramesotriton inhabit cold streams and brooks in nature so low temps are no problem and unlike most newts they don't mind moderate water movement.
I'm afraid that particular animal is beyond emaciated and it may be too far gone to save. If its yours you need to provide it with conditions that are perfect in every way for it to stand any chance of recovering. I don't think there is a care sheet available on here, but a set up that's broadly similar to Pachytriton will be ok, I would leave out the water movement until it gains a lot more weight and begins to recover The most important thing is to try and get it feeding on a healthy diet like chopped nightcrawlers or high quality pellets and hope it begins to de-stress and put on some weight.
 

Henry Janssen

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With certainty Paramesotriton chinensis. 15.5°C is fine for this time of the year.
 

velasco13000

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I'm also positive it's p chinensis. I have a group of 2.2 I have had for a while and they are awesome. They look so primative and prehistoric. How big is your group? I would feed them chopped night crawlers to help them gain weight. Here's a pic of my female and male.
 

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Ohio Papa

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I've had it four days, and today it's had its third nightcrawler in four days. It's active and surprisingly (to me as a noob) aggressive as hell. It's going to be the only occupant of this enclosure, except for plants and prey. The first time I saw this little dynamo attack a couple newt food pellets like they were deadly foes, I remembered the line from Jurassic Park- "T Rex doesn't want to be fed, he wants to hunt". And it's been nightcrawlers ever since. I'll still give him the pellets as I see they have a lot of vitamins, calcium, all that good stuff, but fat Ohio nightcrawlers are going to be this lil monster's staple.

So far so good, and thanks so much for the help and advice.
 

Ohio Papa

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Sr Velasco I envy you your group. As aggressive as my little newt is, and mostly, as ignorant and new as I am to amphibians, I would only add others with great attention and trepidation and the close advice of an expert, based on what I've read and seen so far. I haven't any idea how these newts socialise, how to sex them, or how to set up the right ratio of male to female, et-endless-cetera.

I find it very hard to resist anthropomorphizing. I've kept fish and I've kept lizards, and Oscar's cichlids are the only other cold blooded critter I've ever seen with so much, er, 'natural personality'.

To own a small group of them must be a real gas. Good for you!
 

Chinadog

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lol, the pellets are very good for him if he'll eat them, I wish mine would.
Paramesotriton are quite aggressive by nature, males and even females of some species will fight viscously over territory, they are best kept alone or in pairs.
 

Ohio Papa

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One more noob question if I may? Can newts overeat? I know I can overfeed, and haven't left food rotting in water in 25 years. What I mean is, if Gojira-San ( yes I've given into anthropomorphism ) can eat a nighcrawler a day, should he get one? Pachytriton care sheet doesn't specify and when I searched the warty newt forum 'overfeeding' didn't bring any results.

Thanks again :happy:
 

Chinadog

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Most true newts won't over eat, even if given free access to their favourite food. I say true newts because some salamanders like tiger sals can get very overweight, although that may be because they are given the wrong food to a degree, rather than too much of it.
Giving lots of food to a very thin newt can sometimes cause something called re-feeding syndrome. I don't have any experience of it, but as I understand it the animal's body is unable to cope with all the food after a such a long period of starvation killing the newt as a result.
If it's eating one nightcrawler a day I would stick to that for the time being and hopefully it will begin to recover and gain weight, after that you should be able to give him as much as he will eat every two days or so.
At the moment it's vital that you keep a close eye on water quality, a nightcrawler a day will cause ammonia levels to become toxic very quickly and there's no room for error in a small tank. The only way to keep it under control is to test for it daily and do partial water changes when required until the tank cycles.
 

gientki

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could you write a little bit more about evaporative cooling device you are using?

Best wishes,
Daniel
 

velasco13000

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What does this guy look like? I'm here trying to figure out the major differences between chinensis and honkonensis...
 

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velasco13000

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Also I have a story to add about these guys... I ordered these guys from gunpowderAquatics and ordered a group of 5. They sent them in a plastic bag with air and a tiny amount of water. When I got them 3 were dead and 2 made it by some miracle which you guys can see in the picture below :/
 

Ohio Papa

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I don't see the little yellow bumps like on my P. chinensis, and I can't see the rest of its body in your pic so well, but that dorsal stripe looks very similar. This is a pic of mine from a week ago. It's doing great. I wondered the first time I changed the water if the siphon tube would disturb him. Gojira-san attacked it!
 

MarkD

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Chinesis cause of the belly. Honkongesis is brown skinned and orange and brown belly.
 
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