Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I've had my chinese fire belly newt now for a month or so and in this time we have become very fond of one another.

However he has a few rather unusual behaviors (or so I think). When he is hiding in the tank I can simply call his name a few times and he will come cruising out of nowhere to come to the glass and greet me. . . which is great but rather odd I would think for a newt.

Also when he is hungry he will come to the glass and pace back and forth. When I get close to the glass and talk to him he opens his mouth very wide in a display, almost to say "hey lady how about some food!" Is this a normal behavior or does my "EcKo" have a little more personality than most?

I have found that EcKo is VERY social and enjoys just about anyones company. He seems extremely curious in the happenings around him. He especially loves to watch me play with my puppy. He will swim/crawl back and forth length wise of the tank and then he dashes around. . . almost like he wants to play too! *LoL*

Anyway I am just wondering if this sort of behavior is normal in Chinese Fire Bellies? Thanx.

Icy

I've heard of this behavior in tiger sals, I also had a female fire sal that acted like your newt at feeding time. Other critters I've owned that acted like your newt: a female Phelsuma lineata and a female Asian long-tailed grass lizard. The main stimulas for this behavior: correct temps/environmental conditions with leads to a healthy appetite.

What type of set-up are you using? I think it would be great for a lot of beginners here if you decribed your set-up and the conditons (temp, water, diet) the newt lives under.

EcKo lives in a 10 gallon tank all by himself. His environment is made up of smoothe pebble river rock, a large smoothe basking rock that starts a jungle gym above water with smoothe weathered pieces of wood/ stumpy roots. Under water is heavily planted with a mixture of live java fern and silk plants. Most everything in his habitat I have aquired from outside rather than a pet store. His tank is filtered by a penn plax small world filter, and I use a small reading lamp for his daytime light and a night light at bed time.

EcKo's diet right now consists of newt pellets and chopped earthworms. As soon as our local pet store re opens he will also get small crickets added to his diet.

As for tempatures he seems quite happy with the current temp of 50 to 55 degrees.

I have included a picture of EcKo's setup

Icy