Can anyone tell me what this really is?

[Marcia]

First off let me say that I intend to right a review as soon as I know what I got.

Okay so I purchased a rough skinned newt from a petstore in Las Vegas. I was concerned because the picture online had a clearly defined orange stripe down the back that I have not seen on rough skinned newts. I spoke to the owner about my concern and he asured me they were the west coast rough skin newt with an orange belly. I decided to give him the benefit of the doubt mostly because I'm desperate for a rough skinned newt (T. granulosa). Unfortunatly when the newt arrived it was dead , and in addition it was the wrong kind of newt and had a black belly with small orange spots.

I found another place selling what looks like the same kind of newt under the rough skinned name and was wondering if anyone could identify what it is, here is the link



any info would be great, thanks!

 

[Azhael]

Hey, i deleted the link because we don´t allow links to commercial sites that carry wild caught animals.
I saw the picture, though, and it was clearly a Paramesotriton chinensis.
This species is commonly sold under the name rough skinned newt (argh...i hate common names so much).

I´m sorry you got the wrong dead newt....sadly this stuff happens surprisingly often when buying from importers.

Taricha granulosa is rarely bred in captivity, but it happens, so i strongly recommend that you keep an eye on the classifieds section, you might get lucky!

 

[Marcia]

Ah I see, thank you so much for the info and advice.

 

[tmarmoratus]

I occasionally browse the kingsnake classifieds, and can tell you that particular vendor has always sold P. chinesis as "rough skinned newts". They aren't the only ones to misidentify their newts, either. You have to be very careful when dealing with online vendors, particularly those who buy and sell everything under the sun. Buying from private breeders is almost always the better route to go.

 

[Marcia]

Yeah I will definitely be looking for breeders instead from now on. The guy from that place basically just agreed to whatever questions I had about that newt. It was a waste of my time and that poor newts life, ...never again.