Have any of you had success trying to breed 2 diffrent species of newts?

[mike]

i was curious if anyone has been able to acomplish this? or if it's even possible? i can see it happening with a paddle tail and a chinese fire belly.

 

[abrahm]

I have serious doubts on whether this is possible or not from a genetic standpoint. My initial reaction would be no, it's not possible.

There are probably subtle differences in the courtship process that would cause each species to exclude the other as possible mate choices. The extreme territoriality of paddletails (Pachytriton) would probably just mean that the poor Chinese fire belly will see his last days.

Secondly why would one want to do such a thing? There are enough problems with amphibians in the wild and breeders should be responsible enough to try and keep bloodlines closer to the wild type then by crossing them. There are very few instances of Pachytriton breeding in captivity at the moment. I think that crossing them with Chinese fire belly would be nearly impossible and also quite counterproductive.

(Message edited by magustrate on November 03, 2006)

 

[jennifer]

I can tell you absolutely that it is NOT possible for a paddletail and CFB to interbreed. In terms of biology, they are more distantly related to each other than humans are to chimpanzees, for example. Furthermore, due to the aggressive behavior of paddletails, no responsible pet keeper would keep these two in the same tank.

The old-fashioned definition of the word "species" was two groups of animals that cannot interbreed. There are some exceptions, where two species in the same genus can interbreed (horses and donkeys, for example). Paddletail and CFB are not even in the same genus (Cynops and Pachytriton). It just doesn't happen, and cannot happen.