Slight preoccupation

[rachel]

After owning him for slightly more than a week, I am convinced that Sid, my Japanese firebelly newt, wants to eat me. In his 5 years of life, Sid has eaten anything put into the tank with him (other firebellies and fish including plecos twice his size), and now he seems to have gotten a bit ambitious. If he spots me near the tank, he swims over and attempts to bite me through the glass. He generally ignores food in favor of attmepting to eat my fingers until I leave him to his dinner.

Is Sid a particularly ambitious newt, or are they normally this voracious?

 

[paris]

hes just an over eager eater -many will often get excited or confused when food is coming-there are some photos in here of other guys trying to eat the glass-its very funny

 

[rachel]

I think he's used to people=food, whereas here he is perpetually being observed and admired.

 

[jennifer]

Sid's consumption of firebellies and plecos makes me wonder if he's truly a JFB. Sounds more typical for a paddletail or warty. See:
http://www.caudata.org/cc/articles/firebelly.shtml

 

[rachel]

Yeah, I read through that a few times. He's got the pebbly skin and the orange belly with black speckles and the tapering pointy tail, and he really really looks like the Japanese firebelly. He's also tiny. I had a friend take some pictures of him, so I'll add them in here when he sends them over. He is proportioned just like this:

http://www.caudata.org/cc/images/articles/misc/C_pyrrhogaster_tail.jpg

 

[carl]

i have got to say i think he looks like a JFB his tail dosent look like a paddletails

 

[rachel]

That's not actually Sid, it just looks a lot like him, minus the bites out of his tail.