72
GALLON AQUARIUM
Currently houses my male Chinese and Japanese fire belly newts
Newt Paradise. Side and front view of my 72 gallon aquarium.
Stand, cap and lighting system
beautifully designed and built from Red Oak courtesy of
my Uncle Leonard.
MY
MALE CHINESE FIRE BELLY NEWTS
CASEY
Born August of 1999. (Cynops orientalis)
Parents unknown. Shy newt who doesn't socialize with the others often
but prefers to hide out under anything he can find.
BRYAN
Born August of 1999. (Cynops
orientalis) Parents unknown.
L'IL BUDDY
(Cynops orientalis) Adopted September
4, 1998. One of my active fathers. I am sure he misses the days chasing
the females around the tank!
BABE
(Cynops orientalis) Adopted September 4, 1998. Liked to compete with L'il Buddy for the females attention, often resulting in fights. But
even after having part of his tail bitten off by a jealous Darien, still
didn't stop him.
MY MALE JAPANESE FIRE BELLY NEWT
DARIEN
(Cynops pyrrhogaster) Adopted February 8, 1999.
Darien is the boss of the aquarium. He
likes to play rough at times, but has a soft spot
for his sweetie Serena. Don't you love his long toes? Quite unique!
36 GALLON AQUARIUM
Currently houses my female Chinese and Japanese fire belly newts
Divided 72 gallon tank. The waterfall
was a long process to build but my newts love it and that is all that
matters. It is a very basic set up using a Fluval 104 external canister
filter. The tank is populated with live plants including java ferns and
various anubius specie.
MY FEMALE CHINESE FIRE
BELLY NEWTS
LILY
(Cynops orientalis) Adopted September 4,
1998. Going in for a closer look. Lily inspects her favorite plant.
BIG
MAMA
(Cynops orientalis) Adopted September 4, 1998. Her name describes her
to a T, as she is the largest of my Chinese newts, and the first to
begin laying eggs.
DANA
Born August of 1999. (Cynops orientalis)
Distinguised by her small birthmark beside her one eye.
APRIL
Born August of 1999. (Cynops orientalis)
The runt of the litter. Regardless of her large appetite she always
remains thin.
MY FEMALE JAPANESE FIRE
BELLY NEWT
SERENA
(Cynops pyrrhogaster) Adopted February 8, 1999.
Darien kept Serena active at
times, but she always eluded him. She loved to float
around the aquarium on her favorite lily pad and now hiding in the
rocks of the waterfall.
Why did I
separate the males and females you ask? As many of you are probably
aware, or may soon be, the Chinese fire belly specie is a common
newt found in the pet trade as they are easily bred. Breeding often
occurs with simple changes in the habitat and often with no outside
interference. As a result, I could no longer keep up with the
continuous breeding of this specie, producing hundreds of eggs a
year. Thus it was time for the males and females to part ways. Now,
having said that I do wish to attempt breeding of my Japanese fire
belly newts as I have been unsuccessful in past. However, if Serena
was to remain with the males she would be subject to too much stress
from 5 males. Even though each specie has their courtship moves, and
pheromones to prevent cross breeding, the Chinese and Japanese newts
reside in the same genus and therefore may be able to cross breed.
Thus Serena may not mate with Darien. This will have to be attempted
in a controlled tank, just the two of them.
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