T. rivularis

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heather

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Hello, I know that at least a few people out there on this forum keep this species, and was wondering how they housed them and some basic care about them. My brother in law grew up in the Bay Area of California and told me the next time he visited family he could take a trip and look for some. I am hesitant to collect animals, but for some reason I like the looks of this species and am interested in learning more about them. Are they hardy, or too difficult to even consider? Any ideas or info would be appreciated, thanks
Heather
 
I believe their care is similar to that for granulosa and torosa (not difficult). However, you should check on what their protection status is - you don't want your relative breaking the law.
 
If you have a California fishing license you are legally allowed to take and keep 4, so long as you're not taking from national or state parks. If you're visiting from Utah, it would probably be best to buy a daily fishing permit to keep legal. I'm not sure of the laws in Utah, but seeing as how they're not native to Utah I'd assume they're legal to keep there, but check your local laws just to be sure.

As far as keeping them, Paris once told me that they are relatively shy in comparison to granulosa and torosa. I've tried a few times over the years to go out and look for them, but no luck in finding them for me, as they spend the majority of their time underground in the wild and primarily emerge only during breeding time.
 
If they are shy, then it seems like granulosa would be a better bet. In addition to being easier to obtain, I hear they have a great personality. There is not much fun in getting your "dream species" only to find out that it hides all the time (for me, T. shanjing comes to mind!).
 
Granulosa are AMAZING as a 'pet' species. They're very outgoing, and have a great personality. They rarely hide, and are fairly active.

I'd definately go for granulosa over rivularis.
 
Thanks for all the replies. I checked out that Petranka (sp?) book from the library to read more up on their natural history and habits. From what I read, they seemed more land based than aquatic when not breeding, so I was wondering how they were kept in captivity. I found some granulosa in a pet shop near my work and was so tempted to buy 2 or 3, but didnt really want to support a place that kept 3 different newt species in with some mudskippers. The Taricha were actually by themsleves and were much larger than I had pictured them in my mind.
As for the rivularis, even if they werent so shy/secretive I dont think I could really take an animal from the wild, instead I think I will persue other captive bred animals - I have an interest in eastern newts, too, as well as the other Taricha species
Again thanks for the replies and ideas,
Heather
 
Some may disagree, but I feel that if you're going to have wild-caught newts, it's better to go and collect them yourself, if it's legal to do so.

This way, you're not encouraging mass-collection (as often seen in the pet trade), and you can personally pic large, healthy individuals (preferably those moving away from breeding ponds).

My T.grans rarely leave the water. They have a zoo-med floating log, so they occasionally hang out on that, but I have removed all the other land, as they never used it.

I will be cycling all my animals for breeding this winter, so we'll see what pops up.
 
I do have a good size land part in my setup and the animals move between the land and water part quite a bit. Some animal prefer being on land for a few days, then head back for the water.
 
I agree with you, Joan - I would much rather collect an animal myself than purchase one from some place where I know they had been collected in mass for resale. But I still do not feel comfortable collecting rivularis because their care is so unknown to me and I feel I am enough of a novice that I dont want to experiment with any collected animal.
And as far as leaving the water - sounds a lot like my pyrros. Love the land for about a day out of a month, and then back in the water they go!
 
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  • Katia Del Rio-Tsonis:
    Dear All, I would appreciate some help identifying P. waltl disease and treatment. We received newts from Europe early November and a few maybe 3/70 had what it looked like lesions under the legs- at that time we thought maybe it was the stress of travel- now we think they probably had "red leg syndrome" (see picture). However a few weeks later other newts started to develop skin lesions (picture enclosed). The sender recommended to use sulfamerazine and we have treated them 2x and we are not sure they are all recovering. Does anyone have any experience with P. waltl diseases and could give some input on this? Any input would be greatly appreciated! Thank you.
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  • Katia Del Rio-Tsonis:
    sorry I am having a hard time trying to upload the pictures- I have them saved on my hard drive... any suggestions-the prompts here are not allowing for downloads that way as far as I can tell. Thanks
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    Katia Del Rio-Tsonis: sorry I am having a hard time trying to upload the pictures- I have them saved on my hard... +1
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