Mystery Newt or Salamander

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JEAE21

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Aug 19, 2007
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CA
Hi, My friend caught this little pink guy when we were fishing at this place called Stevens Creek Reservoir. He was by the shore I think, and we placed him on the water and he swam pretty well, by wiggling. But then he quickly got onto the shore and hid under the rocks, slowly.

Any idea what he was? Is he one of those terresterial ones or the aquatic type.
And what is the difference between a newt and a salamander?

http://s59.photobucket.com/albums/g317/JEAE/?action=view&current=Yokoso014.jpg

http://s59.photobucket.com/albums/g317/JEAE/?action=view&current=Yokoso016.jpg
 
It's a salamander, but I don't know which type. Cute!
 
Newts are not necessarily smaller - but most newts have a flattened paddle tail, but they both look superficially identical.
 
well, I'm no expert but the things you can do with google are amazing...
I googled salamander and california and it came up with what looked like a great site for ID'ing. Aneides lugubris seems to be a pretty close match... and they look like they have quite an extensive range in comparison to some of your other natives. http://www.californiaherps.com/salamanders/pages/a.lugubris.html an arboreal salamander, which is cool, didn't know there were any arboreal salamanders. Better look up some info on them now lol.
You have so many cool salamanders. If I lived in CA, I wouldn't stop until i've seen them all!
 
Oh newts are part of the Salamandridae family, one of those all newts are salamanders but not all salamanders are newts. In general newts spend most of their adult life aquatically, although of course no hard fast rules here! (aquatic salamanders and terrestrial newts do exist!). Think it is easier to sex newts (again avec exceptions). I believe the difference has much to do with time as it does scientific, but if it's in any of these genus, it's a newt:
Cynops, Echinotriton, Euproctus, Neurergus, Notophthalmus, Pachytriton, Paramesotriton, Pleurodeles, Taricha, Triturus, or Tylototriton
 
Wow, I wasn't expecting so much responses in so little time!

Thanks Davo, it looks escatly like it with the yellow spots?

Hey do salamanders and newts have venom? Can I keep them with turtles? Would they both be safe...I don't want the amphibian to get eaten it looks cool!
I'll look it up if they can be in an aquatic set-up, with basking docks!

oh and what should the captive diet be?
 
Yeah, you got an arboreal! way cool!

NO AMPHIBIAN HAS VENOM. Poison dart frogs and a few asian newts and msot toads have POISON. There is a difference you know. Arboreal salamanders are no posionous to my knowledge. Let the guy go, they don't fare well in captivity and arent very common in the wild.

The turtle would eat it in a flash. Besides, is arboreal. LIVES IN TREES. It would be a totally wrong set up anyway. They do not bask btw. California is very temperate.

If you want a cool pet salamander, I can point you in the right direction. But spare the arboreal guy. They have a bad track record of survival in captivity, and it might even be illegal.

THERE IS NO DIFFERENCE BETWEEN SALAMANDERS AND NEWTS. Except newts have a terrestrial stage called an eft. Thats about it. There are no physical differences. Newts are sometimes rougher. They are in the same order. All newts are salamanders, but not all salamanders are newts. Get it? Just like all toads are frogs but not all frogs are toads.
 
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