Fire Belly Newt

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Fire Belly Newt

The Fire Belly Newts (Cynops), or Fire Newts, are a genus of newt

Newt

A newt is a salamander that lives in the water as an adult. Newts occur in the Pleurodelinae subfamily , found in North America, Europe and Asia....
s native to Japan

Japan

Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, People's Republic of China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south....
and China

China

China is a Culture of China, an ancient civilization, and, depending on perspective, a national or multinational entity extending over a large area in East Asia....
. All of the species show bright yellow or red bellies, however this feature is not unique to this genus.

Fire Bellied Newts as pets Fire Bellied Newts are sometimes sold at pet stores. They do best in room-temperature freshwater aquariums with a small area of land or wood for them to surface on.

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Encyclopedia

The Fire Belly Newts (Cynops), or Fire Newts, are a genus of newt

Newt

A newt is a salamander that lives in the water as an adult. Newts occur in the Pleurodelinae subfamily , found in North America, Europe and Asia....
s native to Japan

Japan

China

Species

Chenggong Fire Belly Newt
Chenggong Fire Belly Newt

Chenggong Fire Belly Newt is a species of newts of China.The Genus Cynops is due for a split. the China species wil be one genus and the Japanese species another....
(Cynops chenggongensis )
Blue-Tailed Fire Belly Newt (Cynops cyanurus)
Japanese Sword-Tailed Newt (Cynops ensicauda)
Chinese Fire Belly Newt
Chinese Fire Belly Newt

The Chinese Fire Belly Newt is a small black newt, with bright orange aposematic coloration on the ventral side. Cynops orientalis is commonly seen in pet stores, where it is frequently confused with the Japanese Fire Belly Newt due to similarities in size and coloration....
(Cynops orientalis)
Dayang Fire Belly newt (Cynops orphicus)
Japanese Fire Belly Newt
Japanese Fire Belly Newt

The Japanese Fire Belly Newt is a common Asian newt. It is commonly confused with the Chinese Fire Belly Newt due to similarities in coloring and size, and most newts sold as Japanese Fire Bellys are likely to be the more commonly collected Chinese Fire Belly instead....
(Cynops pyrrhogaster)
Wolterstorff's Newt (Cynops wolterstorffi)

Fire Bellied Newts as pets

Fire Bellied Newts are sometimes sold at pet stores. They do best in room-temperature freshwater aquariums with a small area of land or wood for them to surface on. Contrary to the way in which they're often sold at pet stores, Fire Bellied Newts do not require terrariums, and actually thrive in misty aquatic environments. Fire Bellied Newts can be fed blood worm

Blood worm

Blood worm or bloodworm is an ambiguous term and can refer to:*The larva of a non-biting midge containing hemoglobin*The polychaete Glycera , often used for fishing bait...
s, brine shrimp

Brine shrimp

Brine shrimp is the English name of the genus Artemia of aquatic crustaceans. Artemia, the only genus in the family Artemiidae, have evolved little since the Triassic period....
, or chopped-up earthworm

Earthworm

Earthworm is the common name for the largest members of Oligochaeta in the phylum Annelida. The earthworm is the most known worm in America, and other countries....
s. In order to prevent potentially fatal toxins from getting into the water, the newts should not be fed more than once a day. Some newts can go two to three days without food. Or, you can go to your local pet store and purchase mystery snails. They are quite inexpensive and will eat any excess food that the newts don't. They also do well in groups of several newts and aren't aggressive to other fish.

Taxonomic controversy

It has been suggested that the genus cynops is due for a split, the Chinese species being placed in a separate genus from the Japanese ones. The species Cynops cyanurus is at the centre of all this. There is much debate about the validity of Cynops cyanurus and Cynops chenggongensis. All the known captive animals could be something different from cyanurus as they do not entirely match the original description of the species. The only known animals that match that are animals originating from Chemnitz

Chemnitz

Chemnitz is a city in eastern Germany. With a population of approximately 245,000 in its city limits, Chemnitz is the third-largest city of the Free State of Saxony....
Zoo but the problem is that they have not been able to get the F2 animals to breed well, which could suggest that they are in fact a hybrid of cyanurus and chenggongensis or an undescribed Cynops species. There have even been suggestions that the animals thought to be cyanurus in collections is in fact chennggongensis.

Aquarium Proportions

Both Japanese and Chinese Fire Belly Newts tend to require 3/4 land and 1/4 water. This set-up is known as a vivarium, a mixture of land and water, in which the newt(s) can 'bask on the banks'. This can be achieved by using plexiglass, piled up gravel, or even ceramic media. The vivarium should include caves or other places for the newts to hide when they are frightened. This helps to relieve stress or even death.

External links

Order:Caudata at livingunderworld.org
Fire Bellied Newts as Pets at exoticpets.com
Fire Newts, Care and information at aquascape.co.uk