Aggressive(?) newt

[newtie]

At the moment I have one big tank (140 L) with one C. ensicauda male and one C. orientalis female. The male C. ensicauda is bigger and seems to be chasing the female all the time. I'm not quite sure is it aggressive or more like sexual harrasment (however, they are different species!). The male is on the way all the time and prevents the female going to places, basically doesn't leave her alone at all and often climbs over her. I have not seen him bite or anything like that but this morning it looked so stressing that I took the male out into a separate bucket and now I'm wondering what on earth do do with them?!! Should I get a new tank for one of them or is it possible to divide a big tank? It has to be stressing for the female if somebody is all the time chasing her and unfortunately the smaller newts (three C. ensicauda babies) are still far too young to be put into the same tank with the bigger ones.

Any suggestions?! All ideas are welcome...

 

[Azhael]

Definitely breeding behaviour. Cynops males can get very annoying during breeding time, even to the point of forcing the females to leave the water to avoid them.
It´s not at all advisable to keep two different species together anyway. Being a big tank you could certainly try dividing it in two.

 

[newtie]

Thanks Azhael! I got him a separate tank and he seems like a different newt alltogether, much calmer now :happy: I wonder how long does the breeding time last? His genitals seem really swollen as well so I guess I can just wait and see until they get smaller (which I suppose they will at some point...)??

It was an accident that we ended up with two different species. We got the three baby newts that were all supposed to be sword-tailed ones and but later when they grew up it got obvious that one of them was C. orientalis. I would be able to tell it now but at the time we were buying our first newts and I had no clue. And neither did they in the pet store Anyway, so far they have been fine but for the last weeks the harrassing has become worse and worse.

 

[Azhael]

In my experience, Cynops males can be in breeding mode intermitently for up to 9 months a year! However, with no females around the animal should behave like normal.
Those aren´t actually the genitals although they certainly look like they might be, hehe. The genitals are in fact internal, and the swollen bulges are simply the cloacal tissue.

Juveniles of both species can indeed very similar, mistaken them is certainly understandable. They should posse no physical danger to each other at all, but still, monospecific tanks are always best.