Fire belly toads with fire belly newts

[subie]

Can this be possible?

I added the two newts to the tank with the toads. All the animals are the same length (not including the newts tales). After a few hours they all seemed happy together climbing and jumping around very close to each other.

About 3 hours after I added them to the tank. I feed the toads and newts pinheads and worms. One newt ate a worm

and the other was hanging around on the wall so he missed out on the fun. The one decides to come of the wall. This is when the bad happened. One of the toads struck and got the newt in it's mouth head first. It went do to the newts front legs. I took the newt by the rear section and pulled him out of the toads mouth. The newt seems ok and swam to the shore to hide in a cave. He hasn't come out and the toads don't get close.

Did it strike because it looked similar to the worms it ate before or should I seperate them immediatly?

Thanks!

 

[nate]

Seperate them immediately. It will happen again and again. Toads are serious carnivores, and as they become tamer and conditioned to eating in captivity, they'll strike at anything moving. They simply can't help it.

Go to www.caudata.org/caudatecentral and read the species mixing disasters article, and you'll see plenty more stories along the lines of yours. Many toads swallow the newt down, and then the newt's toxins kill the toad as well.