Question: Chinese firebelly suddenly eating more and bulked up

[keithp]

I have a 14 year old male Chinese firebelly who has lived solitary for 13 out of 14 years.

A few feet from his tank is another tank with adult eastern newts, when he first saw them he immediately was interested and swam across the other side of his tank to look at them and I notice he now paces along his tank following the other newts movement in their tank.

My Chinese firebelly eats good but he never was the type to overfeed and I know females of his species really get fat looking they usually are a tad bit larger.

Well now ever since seeing the other newts he is suddenly gorging himself on food and he is getting the same foods he has been for years, he is more active, and his tail is twice as wide. It almost sounds like breeding behavior except all these years he has never exhibited this behavior.

His sudden increase in appetite worried me because I'm confused why he never "gorged" himself eating and never moved around much, and now suddenly he seems so much happier.

Was I wrong never having a tank mate with him?

 

[keithp]

Anybody have an answer?

 

[Kaysie]

Sounds like breeding mode to me.

If the animal has been solitary, it may not have gone into breeding mode. Why would it, if there are no females around to fertilize? Now, all the sudden, there are other salamanders around. And they might not be the right species, or even in the same building, but when you've had a 13 year dry spell I think any port would do.

 

[keithp]

I was under the impression change in room temp over the months would still stimulate breeding mode even if no other newt was present, guess I was wrong than, thanks for helping me.

Wow so my guy is a stud now lol, I should take a picture of him at his finest after all these years!

 

[keithp]

Here are photos of him, when he was younger his tail was thin never this wide so he certainly is manly for a newt!

 

[Kaysie]

Some species will go into breeding mode regardless of who/what is around. Others need all the right triggers. I imagine there's a lot of plasticity in this between individuals as well.

Your guy is lookin' good. Maybe you should get him a girlfriend!

 

[keithp]

They don't sell them here anymore and no stores are buying. I'm not sure if it's because they were all WC and the source there from was affecting the wild population, or if the US cut ties with China buying stuff from them due to the Economy.

If I ever knew someone who lived by me I'd love for him to breed and the other person can keep all the young I just want my guy.

He was on his death bed when I got him he almost died. He was mixed with fire belly toads, Japanese newts, about 40 other Chinese fire bellies of various sizes, and bullfrogs!

He was a new metamorph so was small and on land, but he was starving and was covered in a white film and had layers of shed skin stuck to him I had to remove. He couldn't submerge he would float and it took him a few days to eat tiny pinhead crickets but after he got constipated by a cricket leg and wouldn't eat for another 2 weeks I thought he was gonna die.

Luckily he pooed and after that he was fed worms and pellets and he started to grow and swim and from there he made a full recovery!

 

[AngieD]

Sounds like you've done really well with this guy. I can't make any suggestions about sourcing a female except maybe scouring local buy/sell publications (if there are any). Maybe a wanted ad on this forum?