Fire Belly Newt in outdoor pond

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Pyramid_Party

Pyramid_Party

Fire Eel
MFK Member
Aug 6, 2008
4,916
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68
Monterey, CA
Hi,


I have a 55 gallon rubbermaid pond. It has been set up over 6 months and is doing really good. I have lots of anacharis, parrots feather, banana lily, and water hyacinth. I have a few small fish like fat head minnows, american flagfish, and pygmy sunfish. I also occasionally add daphnia and scuds to the pond to seed it with natural food. And about 1-2 times a week I add some fish food. I do weekly or sometimes biweekly partial waterchanges.


Anyway, I got a firebelly newt and I added it to the pond. At first it hung out on top of the water hyacinth but today I noticed it swimming and laying around in the submerged plants. The submerged plants are tall enough too that they reach the surface and I have plenty of water hyacinth so that the Newt can have a spot above water. Anyway, my question is how cold hardy are they? In winter lowest temps can reach low 40s. Sometimes in rare circumstance it can reach upper 30s. But mainly low and mid 40s.


Summer temps can reach 90s and low 100s. But I use a big garden umbrella that provides lots of shade. This summer the water temps were upper 80s and low 90s, after adding the umbrella the temps were in the 70s and low 80s.

So what do you think the chances of this Newt surviving is? Here is a pic of the pond BTW:


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it depends on how cold the water will actually gets in the winter, but that seems like it is on the cold side. Probably ok for short periods, but would probably kill it in the long term. I would be more concerned about the hot temps. if the water gets above 75 it could kill your newt. I think what you are planning here is testing the limits of survivablility and probably a little on the cruel side.
 
I agree. I'd be more worried about the hot temps. These guys get seriously stressed when the water temperature is in the mid 70's on up. They do better if their water is kept in the low 60's. Do you know if you have a Chinese or Japanese FBN? I believe the Chinese species can take lower water temperatures.
 
It is a chinese one. If I need to I can also bring the newt in when it is too hot or cold. BTW the lower part of the pond is usually cooler in hot weather. I have it slightly buried into the ground.
 
Well here's the thing, the newt I would recommend might be on a banned species list in your state so you'll have to research that yourself. I would say to try out a few adult staged Eastern Newts (Notophthalmus viridescens). They can definitely take lower temperature swings better than Fire Belly Newts. N. v. virdescens is native here in PA and live in ponds that freeze over during the winter so they are pretty hardy. They go into hibernation when the water temp gets near 40 F. Their downfall is that they don't like water above 70 F. But burying your pond into the ground and letting it have some shade will help maintain a constant temperature. I guess if the water got too warm you could always dump some ice into it.
 
No turtles please, my goodness. And yea, chinese firebellies really need cold temperatures, and for that matter, they are the weakest species among the known firebellies. A possible newt is tylototriton verrucosus, please obtain the adult versions, only till adults do they actually swim entirely and they withstand up to 25 degrees celsius at maximum for a short period of time. Otherwise, you want to keep most newts between 18-22 degrees, the colder the better.
 
Vicious_Fish said:
Their downfall is that they don't like water above 70 F. But burying your pond into the ground and letting it have some shade will help maintain a constant temperature.
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Heat-tolerance in newts may be a function of geographic origin too. The little buggers are abundant in the ponds and swamps in the southeast, where the water is above 70 F for months at a time.
 
Noto said:
Heat-tolerance in newts may be a function of geographic origin too. The little buggers are abundant in the ponds and swamps in the southeast, where the water is above 70 F for months at a time.
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Hey this topic is right up your alley! I was wondering if you were going to chime in. :D

That is true and I have found then in water that seemed to be above 70 F. in the summer but the pond I'm referring to is mostly shaded.I should take a temperature reading next summer. Possibly one of the subspecies like the Peninsula, Broken-striped or Central Newt would work better.
 
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