Sexual Dimorphism in Paramesotriton

I hope I used that term correctly...
I was looking at my warty newts today and admiring their breeding dress differences.
I thought I'd take some pictures, because I find them to be really stunning animals, in their own way. I love their greenish colors. They really remind me of alligators.
Anyway, this post contains pictures of the female. The next post contains pictures of the male.
Notice how the female has a red stripe all the way down the bottom of her tail (unlike the male's).
Notice the shape of her cloaca vs. the male's. And the little round ET bulbs at the end of each of her toes!

Here is the male. First a picture of their tank. This pair lives in this 15 gallon tank. I have been lucky to have only two and they happen to be male and female (this also happened with my Tylos, and my Pachytritons also. LUCK!)
Notice how his cloaca is much more rounded and larger (hers is more pointy).
Notice the way his tail is so much more rippled, with that amazing bluish stripe along the side!
That tail looks like a beaver's, like he could slap you around with it! Has anyone ever had these breed in captivity?
One note: while it looks like they are walking on a rug, they are actually in a moist clear glass dish which is on the rug.

Audrey has bred P. chinensis and P. hongkongensis. Your newts are gorgeous, by the way.

I never did name this pair...I just decided to name them "Beauty" and "The Beast."

Otterwoman your post got me in the mood to snap some pictures of my remaining two chinensis males from a group of 8 wild caught-pet shop purchased animals I bought over a year ago. I have had these two males by themselves for about 4 months since my other animals have passed on due to unknown causes. One animal has breeding tail tail stripe and the other does not. Now both my males also have a red streak that runs down underside of thier tails. I was hoping someone might have extra female adult animals I could mix with these two animals. As far as the two nubs my males do not have these.

Congratulations Dawn for your pair the look like big, well treated and healthy animals!:happy: Very nice male!

Those are cool. Thanks for sharing them! Is the one as black as it looks in the pictures? Mine are very green looking. I wish I had an extra female to send, but I just have the two, and am amazed they happen to be a pair. But the one in picture two looks like it has the toe nubs just like my female.

eljorgo said:

Congratulations Dawn for your pair they look like big, well treated and healthy animals!:happy: Very nice male!

Click to expand...

Thanks, I'm very pleased with them. I hope they produce!! How fun would that be!

That female has a big belly. I'm sure she's egg-nant.

Yeah my one male is very black. I so hope you are able to get your pair to breed. Before I was an active caudata form reader I bought both of my hongkongensis and chinensis groups from pet retailers and I had a lot of loses. I have not seen post's of anyone selling Paramesotriton very often and I hope more members have captive breed animals to provide to other members. The chinensis I'm down to two males and my hongkong's I have two males and two females left. I discected my hongkong's to see if it was parasites or something internal, but nothing looked abnormal. The animals that died did seem to look like they were covered in a white type of film over thier bodies. Looked like salt specks covered in a white slime. Anyway my other animals seem to be imune to whatever killed thier tank mates. Anyway Otterwoman what a cool post and what an awesome pair of animals you own. Maybe playing a little Barry White might spark them to get into the MOOD

I haven't been in the hobby all that long, and even I have noticed how they were more common and now they are not. So even though at the time I bought them (maybe a year ago or so) I didn't really have room for a new tank, I had to snap them up and hope that I would find a spot in time (which, of course, I did).
I have a pair of paddletails which are also male and female, which do a lot of courting, but no eggs (yet?). So I can just be patient and if they do, great, and if not, well, at least they are enjoying life.
Thanks for the compliments on the animals. I was just struck by their differences and thought a thread of pictures would be educational.

I bred Paramesotriton Hongkongensis, i still have 29 juveniles and they are doing well. They are now 11 months and eating lots of tubifex. Most of the juveniles are darkbrown some are light brown.

That's great, did you do anything special to get them to breed?

I was taking care of the adult ones for a friend of my. He was on holiday for 5 months. Maybe it was the refreshing of the water in the tank? The female became fatty and restless. She laid the egs between the long leaves of vallisneria.