Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I raised these when I was much younger with a lot of success. They were easy keepers and actually got along well with the Rough-Skinned newts I had at the time.

Recently I have looked high and low for Japanese Fire bellies and all I find anywhere are the Chinese variety. Any idea why this is? I hope Japanese are not becoming endangered... I would think captive breeding would be common-place.

On a sad side note I recently traveled to the place I grew up - western washington and all of the old ponds I used to catch rough-skinned newts in are either dried up or turned into parking lots . I couldn't find any Rough-skinned newt habitat at all... this was very sad for me as they used to be everywhere... and they are really cute little guys...

Farvoyager

I'm not sure of the status of C. pyrrogaster off the top of my head but Japan is no longer exporting this species in any numbers. There are very few people breeding these newts as they are not cost effective to breed (Oriental Firebellies are much cheaper to import), and the stage when the larva become terrestrial is labor intensive and makes it difficult to rear the larva in significant numbers.

Ed

Thats too bad. I would like to find a breeder or someone who sells these newts. They are a wonderful species.

Farvoyager

You could put a post on caudata.org as there are occasional breeders of pyrrogaster on there.

Ed

When I last went looking for JFBs, they were impossible to find anywhere. They are no longer being imported from Japan & are rarely bred here, as said above. I finally found one for sale on Caudate Central. Best of luck!
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1.3.0 leos, Yoda, Geo, Tang, Ginger
1.0 Blue Tongue Skink Indigo (Indy)
0.1.1 frogs Buffy the Cricket Slayer, Butrose Butrose Froggy
1.1.4 firebelly newts Wayne Newton, Isaac Newton, Fig Newton, Juice Newton, Olivia Newton John & Helmut Newton
1.1.0 cats Gus & Mena