Raising Mandarin Salamander and Verrucosus in soil.Am I the only one?

[flavia]

Well, almost one year ago a friend of mine gave me a Mandarin Salamander.A tiny baby one.I didnt know ANYTHING about salamanders, havent seen any one until that day. So i did what he told me to do.I put it in a plastic cage with soil, a small bowl of water and some mealworms.I put it in my living room on the top of a closet.The temp in my living room varies from 76-84F.The baby survived and became gorgeous! A few months later i bought several verrucosus and i did the same thing.All of them survived and became so fat they seem they will explode! Then i started giving them superworms and earthworms.They became still fatter!
Then i bought a few Chinese fire belly Salamanders
and did the same thing!All of them survived and are becoming fat and shiny.Even the weaker one that i thought it would die survived!
Another day i was reading a Mandarin Salamander care sheet where it is said you must keep them at 50/60F, in the water!!??!! Well, ive done the opposite and mine is OK!
Well, but im writing here for another reason.Although all my sallies are ok now i noticed that the Mandarin Salamander is smaller than the others.The others (Verrucosus and Fire Belly) are becoming fat and big, almost like lizards, and the Mandarin, although has a round belly and a brilliant skin, is smaller and thinner.Thats normal or its just because its younger?
Here is the photo of my babies.It was taken before i bought the Fire Bellies.

http://gallery.pethobbyist.com/data/3042Mysalamanderscage.jpg

 

[john]

Hello Flavia, welcome to the site. Your newts look very healthy

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As a general rule I would recommend that you don't keep different species in the same vivarium, in your case Tylototriton shanjing (Mandarin newts) with Tylototriton verrucosus (Himalayan Crocodile newts). They do have differing requirements, though they may do ok together. T. verrucosus is very forgiving of the conditions in which it's kept. It is considerably more aquatic than T. shanjing but will remain terrestrial all year if there is no choice.

Where is this care sheet that gives that temperature for Mandarin newts? I hope it's not on Caudata Culture. They're quite tolerant of high temperatures, even up to about 30 degrees C (that's 86 degrees F for those of you living in the past *grin*), though I would not advise keeping them at that temperature for more than a day or two.

Your T. verrucosus appear to be of the dark form (see the updated info sheet on this newt at http://www.caudata.org/cc/species/Tylototriton/T_verrucosus.shtml). T. verrucosus seems to have the ability to blow up like a balloon with food. T. shanjing is of a much slighter build and though they can become quite rounded, I've never seen one approach the shape of a female T. verrucosus. They are different species after all and therefore they have different traits, though they are capable of hybridisation.

As a final note, I hope you're not keeping the fire bellies with the Tylototriton newts...

Good luck with your lovely animals and thank you for sharing the photo with us

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