New pachytriton

[troutnerd]

A few years ago.. I bought some small pachy from a pet shop in town.I brought them home and they were all dead within days from some horrible fungus.I know this apparently happens a lot with this species but it is scary to see when you have a lot of valuable caudates in the house. So that was it for me and pachytriton until this week. I was visiting someone in another Canadian town and dropped by a pet shop as I tend to do. There in a tank was a lone paddletail. The newt was actually in a large tank with good flow...surpring to see..and it looked healthy enough. The owner said it had come in with a group but the rest had died. He said this one had been missing a leg but survived.The leg was regrowing and it looked healthy enough and was large. I bought if for a very reasonble price and brought it home to a 20 gallon tank that had housed my hongkongensis. It is a long term tank that is very balanced and has good filtration.I'm happy to say that the newt has already fed and ate two garden worms. The pet shop owner had been feeding this thing "dried newt food" and it had been eating it! Amazing. I suggested the owner get some frozen bloodworm for his other newts (some sorry looking firebellies and easterns) as they looked very emaciated. I'm looking forward and hoping to have this creature long term.I'm pretty sure it is labiatus..but will take a closer look when it has settled a bit. It also has a nice bite mark in its tail.

 

[Otterwoman]

Lucky little fellow! We await pics.

 

[troutnerd]

This is not a great pic...but this is him/her.Doing great and eating like a pig. I've got the filter current going and the tank is low to the floor and nice and cool. I'll try and get some better pics.

 

[Otterwoman]

Nice looking animal...did you know some people call it an "otter-head newt"?

 

[troutnerd]

I can sure see why.They are certainly built for speed and current.This newt is already responding to me at the tank. So hungry!

 

[EifLadida]

What do you use as substrate? Beautiful animal, by the way.

 

[FrogEyes]

I came across a large batch of seriously diseased torrent newts in a pet store about three years ago, and spent the better part of two hours helping staff clean, alter the habitat, and medicate them. Within a couple weeks, there were a fair number of survivors, and their multiple symptoms had cleared up. Like the one in this thread, they were the northeastern-most species, P.granulosus.

 

[troutnerd]

Frog eyes.That is really interesting information. Glad to know it is P.granulosus. It's going strong and can't seem to eat enough.Do you have any tips to keeping it? I have it in a fast flowing tank and it seems quite content. So far.