Keeping Paddle tails newts and chinese firebelly's together

[mike]

Ok i was at the pet store looking for newts and i saw they had a tank with paddle tails and chinese firebelly's together i couldn't tell the diffrence untill i brought one home and got on the internet and found out the guy sold me a paddle tail newt. so now i want to get another newt but i don't know if i should go with the paddle tail or chinese fire belly? would something happend if i housed them together because at the pet store that's how they were? i have african dwarf frogs in my tank and the paddle tail doesn't seem to mind them? another thing that's cool about my paddle tail is that it stay's underwater most of the time and hides under rocks unlike fire belly's that want land to float on. has there ever been a case of cross breeding diffrent species of newts?

 

[ian]

its not a good idea to keep paddle tails and chinese fire bellies together at all. Paddle tails tend to be very aggressive and grow much larger than the fire bellies. I also don't fancy the chances of the dwarf frogs once he settles in.

 

[roy]

Even a second paddle tail is not a good idea, these are very territorial.

 

[coen]

There are various cross breedings possible between some newt species, I don't know about the FB and the Paddle Tail though.

 

[ian]

Roy is right but this is not always the case. i keep five paddle tails in a 3 foot tank with no bother.I think plenty of hiding places and heavily planted is the trick.

 

[mike]

Well i went and bought another paddle tail newt and once i put it in the water it tried to bite one of my dwarf frogs then my other paddle tail newt came out of his cave and tried to bite my new newt but after an hour they all settled down and left each other alone. now i'm thinking of adding a chinese firebelly and see how it goes? i have a ten gallon tank with 2 paddle tails and 3 african dwarf frogs.

 

[audrey]

I don't think you should add the chinese firebelly. He will get picked on pretty bad by the paddletails. He's much to small. They will probably kill him.

 

[jim]

Paddletails must be kept alone. They will kill and/or eat anything else in their tank. Go look at the species page on caudata culture, there is a picture of a paddletail eating a dwarf african clawed frog. They can be kept with other paddletails but they need hides that they can easily defend to claim as their own territory. I use overturned flowerpots with some holes knocked in them and the edges sanded down so they are not sharp.

 

[pamela]

Follow Jim's (Socorn) advice. DO NOT add any more creatures w/your paddletail, esp. Chinese Firebellies - they are a passive newt compared to the paddletail, and will only get killed by the paddletail. Even paddletails often have to be kept singly due to their aggressive, territorial behavior. I have both species, but they are kept in their own "species tanks".

 

[mike]

People at the pet store are stupid. they told me the opposite of what you guys are telling me. they were saying yeah you can put dwarf frogs and paddletail newts together and add chinese firebelly's too. is it possible for african dwarf frogs to bite the newts fingers off? i remember a long time ago i had chinese firebelly's and guppies and ADF's in a tank and the firebelly's were getting there legs bitten off but i always thought it was the guppies?

 

[pamela]

African Dwarf frogs will more than likely be lunch for the paddletail. Also, AFD need warm water, where the paddletail likes cool (cold) water. If you really want to put another animal with your paddletails, or chinese, compliment their tank with Whiteclouds (Chinese Mountain Minnows). These are beautiful, hardy, little fish. They are quick swimmers also and will not fall prey to the newts. Otherwise, please just keep a "species tank" set-up. You and your animals will be much happier for it.

 

[jennifer]

When newly-purchased CFB lose their toes/legs, it is usually caused by infection, this is common. I agree with the others' comments: mixing paddletails and ADF won't work for long. ADF=paddletail snack.

Please read these:
http://www.caudata.org/cc/articles/Mixing_disasters.shtml
http://www.caudata.org/cc/species/Pachytriton/Pachytriton.shtml

 

[mike]

since these paddle tails like to stay underwater can i fill the 10 gallon tank all the way full? intresting what Jennifer said about CFB losing there toes and arms? i always thought it was either my ADF or my guppies biting there legs off but since that's not the case i'm thinking about adding my guppies back into the tank.

 

[john]

If the pet store folks knew anything about animal husbandry they would look dramaticaly different. All of the tanks would not dump into a single filter (of any size) and all animals would be quaranteened by species for a significant period of time before sale. Boards like this would also not likely have the devoted following that they currently do. Just my observations.

 

[mike]

on the species mixing disasters article it has a picture of this newt what appears to be trying to mate with the firebelly newt and i was wondering why is this dangerous? is this newt trying to take advantage of the other one lol!

 

[jim]

This is dangerous because C Orientalis does not mate through amlexus. Being amplexed would be highly stressful to this species. On filling your paddletail tank all the way up, that is fine as long as they have at least one area to climb out should they become too sick/weak to swim. Mine is full almost all the way to the top.

 

[jennifer]

Yeah, eastern newt amplexus is basically a "strangle-hold", as you can see in the picture. I don't think any newt would tolerate this for long, except a female eastern.

 

[mike]

<blockquote><hr size=0><!-quote-!><font size=1>Quoting Jim McGurr on Friday 03 November 2006 - 00:30 (#POST110221):</font>

<!-/quote-!><hr size=0></blockquote>

i had a rock sticking out of the water just in case they wanted land but it seems like paddletails just like to be underwater unlike CFB that like to grab onto land. do paddle tails escape easily like CFB?