Chinese Fire-Bellied Newt
(Cynops Orientalis)
We have two newts, each about two inches long, that we believe to be
young Chinese fire-bellied newts. If you think we are wrong, please let us know.
Unfortunately, one of the newts was sick for a long time and refused
to eat anything. It had an open sore at its mouth that didn't
heal. We put it in our quarantine tank, where it sat most of the time
in the water (with its head above the water). We tried treating the
sore with Iodine but this did not seem to have any effect. Later we
tried antibiotic tablets dissolved in the water and the newt got
somewhat better. It still had a small light area at its mouth, but it
didn't seem to be infected anymore. Now, that area got its healthy
dark color back. At some point, the newt switched from staying in the
water to staying on land. Later, we thought we also solved the eating
problem. The newt accepted live worms in a shallow dish, but again we
haven't seen it eat in a long time and it still isn't interested in
dead worms. It continues to be very shy and hides in its little cave
pretty much all the time.
The other newt is healthy. It is rather secretive and spends the day
hidden somewhere in a shady area on the land side of the
aqua-terrarium. At night, sometimes, it walks around, but does not go
into the water at all - it seems to hate water. We feed it blood worms
with tweezers, which it eagerly accepts.
Some Cynops links:
Back to Swantje and Sven's Aqua-Terrarium Page
swan@newts.org /
Last update: December 15, 1997