My fire-belly likes to bite me.

[Norman44]

Hello!
So I've done quite a bit of searching, and I can't seem to find anything like what I'm experiencing with my fire-belly newt. Every time I go to lift him out of his tank to feed him, he grabs onto my finger. And this isn't just a quick nip mistaking me for food. He holds on and shakes his head back and forth. It seems so odd, considering my other fire belly (that I've had for almost a year now) is very chill and has never so much as nipped me.

A bit of back story:
I had this fire belly newt with another one that died a few days after I got them, and he has one of his feet bitten off. So, when I feed him, I've also been salting his leg. However, it has since healed and I only remove him from the tank to feed him.

Any ideas as to why this little guy seems so aggressive?
thanks so much!

 

[nwmnnaturalist]

Some just have more dominant or aggressive personalities. Their eyesight isn't the best, and they may go after things that move. My Eastern Tiger Salamander does the same. She'll hang on or even try to swallow my finger! They're quite voracious predators.

You may want to consider keeping this little feisty bugger away from other newts. They may just mistake others for food, or may simply be more dominant. If you have issues with it biting you, you may want to consider a more careful approach to feeding. It's unlikely that it will injure you, but they may scuff themselves or just get stressed. Though feeding with tweezers or forceps might work, it might injure itself on the metal. It depends on what you feed him.

 

[Azhael]

What you described begs the question of what species your newts are. "Firebelly" it´s a useless term that is commonly aplied to several species from up to 4 different genera. Most commonly in the present day it´s used for Hypselotriton orientalis, but not necessarily so, and what you describe sounds suspiciously like Pachytriton or Paramesotriton. H.orientalis can "bite" but i can´t imagine one holding on to a finger, they are way too small for that.
Try to upload pictures of your animals and we´ll identify them for you.

 

[Norman44]

Let me know if you need a better image, these pictures were taken only a few days after I bought this one.

 

[AngieD]

Could you take a picture with his tail in ful view please?

 

[Azhael]

It is an Hypselotriton orientalis, i´m quite amazed to say xD Mine have nibbled at my fingers and even clang to the tweezers but never managed to get hold of a finger Maybe you have tiny fingers
The "agression" is nothing to be concerned about. He is just a little overoptimistic.
I would recommend not taking him out to feed, though, it will only cause stress and interfere with its hability to heal and ward off infection. It seems healthy enough despite the missing foot, so just keep him cool, well fed and stress free. The wound will heal and the foot will regrow.
You should try to disturbed them as little as possible and handling should be limited to the strictly necessary (which ideally is never).

 

[AngieD]

If you take him out to feed, then he may be associating your hand with food, hence the attacks

 

[Norman44]

Thanks for all your help everyone!

 

[Norman44]

if anybody is still around, could you give me your best guess as to whether this is a male or not?

 

[Niels D]

I guess it's a female, because of the size of the cloaca, but you should post more pics to be sure. Make pictures of the sides of the newt and one from above.

 

[Molch]

My four japanese fire bellies are finger biters too. After all those years, they have learned that when mama's fingers appear from the sky, earthworms are not far behind. When they are hungry enough I can lift them out of the tank by having them bite my finger. At one magic moment several years back, for only a couple second or so, I had all four of them hanging off one finger each of my left hand. Alas, the camera was not in my right hand to document this acrobatic feat. So you probably won't believe me

When I appear in the newt room, they sometimes start frantically kissing the front pane of their tank. When I put my finger against the tank, they open their maws and try to bite them through the glass.

They are quite mad; who knows, someday my partially eaten body may be found with several giant newts crawling all over it.

 

[AngieD]

On our H. orientalis, the males have a slit on their cloaca, but the female has a dot