Cynops orientalis

[jesper]

Hi,
I am currently chilling my C.o. @ 16C. They are totally terrestrial. I made the mistake to only provide one shelter at the island...
Basically all of them spend the day in there, it becomes quite crowded. I didn't think there would be a problem but today I noticed battle wounds *sigh*. I have never seen aggressive behaviour(ok maybe once) in c.o. before so I was quite surprised. They have plenty of space so that's not the problem, they must have been fighting over the roof. I have seen a C.o. chase and bite C.e.e. that were twice+ its size so I guess I really shouldn't be surprised at this show of temper.
Just thought I'd hear if you think they are aggressive since I am planning on a quite big colony.

 

[benjamin]

From my experience C. o. aren't aggressive unless something (e.g. the leg of another newt) gets in the way of their eating, sometimes fights can break out because of this and once I almost had a large female eat a small male, luckily I managed to pull the male out by his head and nobody was hurt. In another instance a large male was driven away from a pile recently thawed blood worms by two smaller ones, and to my surprise he took out his frustration on an elodea plant by tearing it to pieces. If you have a large number I would recomend giving them many seperate feeding spots. My newts are living around 13º c and acting completely normal.

 

[mark]

quote "and to my surprise he took out his frustration on an elodea plant by tearing it to pieces"

-How cute, ha ha.

 

[heather]

Ben> LOL! I can relate,
it seems like they should start an anger-management class for newts!

 

[mark]

Ha ha, I have never seen a newt get angry except with his bloodworms. Thats why I think i
t would be funny to see this newt get pushed away from the food and then go over to a plant and start rippping it up, ha ha.

 

[benjamin]

Well I suppose there was a bit of personification there with angryness, but the he did destroy the elodea plant. I've recently had my female tear up the roots of a plant but that was because I placed the bloodworms next to them and they got in the way.