Question: Keeping Diff. Species Together

[Bloodysamflint]

Hey guys, the hive mind of knowledge here is so helpful and I really appreciate it.

Anyway, I know in general you should not keep different species together, usually because of territorial-ism or predation. However I was thinking of getting a fire bellied newt or two (since they are pretty cool) and I was wondering if i could house them in the same tank as my Eastern Red Spotted newt.
The red spotted is very passive, but fire bellies seem very active and might be too aggressive. The fire bellies at full size would be maybe slightly larger (1cm at the most) than my red spotted. Does anyone think there would be any issues of aggressive behavior or toxicity between the species.

This is just a convenience issue so I will probably house them separately either way, just wondering if anyone has experience for future knowledge.

Thanks a lot for the comments.

 

[John]

No, they should not be kept together.

 

[Jennewt]

I temporarily kept some adult eastern newts together with Japanese firebellies for a couple of months. The easterns were unusually large (about 4.5 inches) and the JFB were young, so there was no significant size difference. I saw some odd behavior. The easterns acted surprisingly aggressively toward the JFB. I have never seen this behavior in 20+ years of keeping easterns in single-species tanks. Nothing "terrible" happened as a result of this. But I do believe that, long-term, interspecies interactions are probably more stressful for both species, and it's best to avoid anything that stresses amphibians in captivity.

 

[Otterwoman]

I kept some together for a while too and the Easterns tried to mate with the firebellies, and they (firebellies) didn't seem very happy about getting squeezed (amplexed) that way. I don't think firebellies mate quite the same way Easterns do.

 

[Jennewt]

That's a good point, Dawn. A male eastern newt could actually strangle an FBN during breeding season (see photo). The temporary co-housing I did was outside of the breeding season.