Newts feeding habits and more

[chris]

I have two warty (paramesotritons) newts.
1)one is plumper with flat claca, but has faint blue on tail. Is it male or female?
2)Definate male is chasing m/f round tank. He snaps at his/her tail. She/he occasionally tries to swim to the top an keep swimming! Is this breeding or aggressive behaviour (may relate to q.1) and do I need to separate them?
3)The newts are both healthy, but do not eat much - a small cube of frozen blood worm is all they will eat between them every other to every 3 days. If I put any more in, they normally refuse it and they will not touch anything but bloodworm. Is this okay?
chris

 

[erik]

Related to question 3, I have a question of my own. How much do you normally feed one newt? I have a t. granulosa that I feed once every 2-3 days, but I don't know how much to give in one setting. I've seen pics of rather large chunks of food that you guys feed your newts. I have frozen bloodworms that come in those individual cubes (about 1/2in. square). How much should I feed my newt out of that per feeding? Is 1/2 that cube too much, or too little? I worry about over feeding.

 

[jennifer]

The blue stripe indicates a male. If they are P. hongkongensis, it is impossible to distinguish the sexes by the size of cloaca. Sounds more like aggressive behavior, but I've never seen mating in warty newts, so I don't know. You might want to try a larger tank, or adding more hiding places so they can stay separate.

For one large newt, half a cube of bloodworm every 3 days sounds normal to me. My smaller newts eat much less than that, especially in winter.

 

[mark]

my cfb are currently eating more than that amount and their tank is pretty cool at the moment (~65F)

I dont have left over food in the tank and the newts dont look particularly over or underweight.

interesting...

 

[(unregistered]

My newt has a tan stomache green back and orange spots is it a boy or girl and it's half full size what does it eat?

 

[jennifer]

Unregistered, it sounds like a red-spotted newt (Notophthalmus). Read the FAQs and articles at www.caudata.org/caudatecentral