Granulosa and torosa together...

[chris]

hey all, a few months ago a couple of tarichas i bought from a pet store both died and i'm looking to get a new tank mate for Pocket(t.gran). but what i wanna know is can he have a torosa for a tank mate since the are a close related subspecies? is it possible that might be the way the other 2 died.i believe they might have been torosa, kinda unsure since i got them from a petstore. the other 2 just stopped eating and died.

 

[joan]

T. torosa are not common in the pet trade. I doubt you'd be able to find one even if you wanted to. They probably had 'pet shop syndrome'. They were stressed from transport and improper care before you got them.

 

[richard]

at my bud's pet shop he received a new order today. he just acquired some new newts in this shipment. they were labled t. torosa, but upon research, they look very much like the rivularis shown on caudata culture. is there any chance that they could be taricha rivularis? i am sure it is not a t. granulosa because of the distance that the eyes protrude out past the head.

(Message edited by richierich on May 13, 2006)

 

[joan]

Without a picture, it would be difficult to say. Rivularus are fairly terrestrial, have VERY dark backs (almost black) as well as VERY red bellies. These are even more rare in the pet trade than T. torosa. I would highly doubt they're rivularus.

 

[richard]

i doubted myself, but if there was a chance that this was a rivularus than i would jump at the chance to own anything so rare. ill try to take some pics the next time i visit. BTW does anyone on this site have a t. rivularus or is that too farfetched?

(Message edited by richierich on May 17, 2006)

 

[pin-pin]

Ok, I'll make this one post instead of two since it's a little late.

Chris> T. granulosa and T. torosa are nearly identical as far as subspecies goes, in fact, they can interbreed in locations where both are present. General identification in T. torosa include a lighter eyelid and Y-shaped volmerine teeth. A more concrete identification trait (in my opinion) is that T. torosa lays a cluster of eggs while T. granulosa lays individual eggs.

Mistakes are often made by dealers since T. granulosa (common name: "Oregon Newt") are collected in California. (i.e., the common name for T. torosa is "California newt.")

T. granulosa tends to be more aquatic. From the looks of your tank in this post, you have a good land area as well as water area, so it shouldn't be a problem. (The animals in those photos are almost definitely T. granulosa).

Richard> T. rivularis not only have a red belly, but they have a completely black iris. Several people in this forum have T. rivularis, but they are definitely more rare in the market than T. granulosa or even T. torosa.