Paddle Tail Newt - Help Please

[leandrah]

Hey guys,
I recently adopted 2 Paddle Tail Newts.
I need to change their gravel as they have small sharp stones they could probably eat.

I have a quick question,
are they poisonous? - I have tried to google this but I cant find any sufficient answers.

Also, I see that they need a fully aquatic setup (which I have them in)

Are there any other recommendations?

thank you

 

[Otterwoman]

First, paddletails can be very aggressive. If you house two together, they should be in large tank with lots of hides and plant growth.
They are no more poisonous than other newts.
I wouldn't recommend sharp stones in any tank, though they are not big on eating gravel as far as my experience goes.

http://www.caudata.org/cc/species/Pachytriton/Pachytriton.shtml

 

[leandrah]

Thank you,
These ones have grown up together as babies, but I will make sure that I move them to a large tank.

I do have cats, and obviously I would like to make sure all of my animals are happy and safe. If anything did go wrong and one of my cats had to get a hold of one of them, would they die?
The reason I ask is because I will make the enclosure even more cat friendly

thank you

 

[Azhael]

Either they are Pachytriton (paddletails) or they have grown together as babies, but the two are not possible.
I suspect you have another genus of newts. Post pictures if you can so that we can give you a possitive ID:

 

[leandrah]

Thank you so much.
I have attached the only 3 pictures i have.
I only got them last night, sorry - I know I sound very uneducated about this all, its just really new to me

 

[leandrah]

Im not sure if this helps, but they are male and female

 

[Azhael]

They are indeed Pachytriton, which means that they can´t have really grown together since babies. Maybe you meant that they´ve been together since they were originally bought, but they were definitely not babies, they must have been small adults at the very least.

I see that you have fish with them. Being one of the very few species that actually specialise in eating fish, it´s ok to have small, prey fish with them, but it´s never ok to have large fish like cychlids. There are serious incompatibility issues. Read the Pachytriton caresheet.
The main issue is that Pachytriton are cold stream specialists. That means they need strong currents and very cold water. By keeping them with cichlids i´m assuming they are nowhere near the range of temps that they require.

 

[leandrah]

Thank you Rodrigo,
I have actually removed the cichlids.

I have got quite a strong filter , thank you for your help,
Could you perhaps tell me how poisonous they would be to my cats?

thank you again
PS - Yes thats what I meant about them being together, sorry for not explaining it better