Newt's 15th B-Day

[steve]

Fifteen years ago this month, I picked up my little Japanese fire-bellied newt (Cynops pyrrhogaster) at the local pet shop. I don't know how old he is exactly because who knows how long he was at the pet shop before I got him. Does anyone have a fire-bellied newt over the age of 15?

 

[john]

I know of a man in the UK (sadly he doesn't use the internet) who has the same species that he acquired around 1970.

Another interesting record of age: Max Sparreboom, in his Russian Cynops caresheet, tells us that Wolfgang Mudrack in Germany has animal(s) (I can't remember exactly) that were acquired in the 1950s and were still alive in 1997.

However, I must congratulate you on successfully keeping your newt alive that long - few people get them to live to 15.

 

[steve]

I assumed there were other people who had newts living far past 15. I do believe it's almost all about how you care for them. Mine seems happy as ever, so hopefully another 15 years.

 

[ralf]

I have a couple of Cynops pyrrhogaster-newts that were acquired in a pet-shop in Karlsruhe / Germany October 9th in 1976. The animals were already sexually mature then. So they are more than 27 yrs. old. Both animals are still alive. The female belongs to the sasayama-race (from phenotype, unfortunately no locality data) and did still lay eggs last spring.

Ralf

 

[caleb]

I've mentioned this before, but there's a list of urodele longevities here:
http://www.pondturtle.com/lsala.html

My oldest are two female alpine newts that will be 15 this year.

 

[shaun]

Jeez, I've got them beat for Taricha Granulosa! When I was younger I had two Granulosa who lived to seven and eight years. Believe it or not, we fed them almost entirely on reptomin, with occasional earthworms in the summer. It's too bad that caudata.org wasn't around.