# Chinese fire belly newts not being sold?



## bugmankeith (Dec 13, 2011)

Every store around has stopped selling chinese firebelly newts which in the past had all been WC specimens and many were sick. All science magazines I get have stopped selling them as well, I even looked online in the US and dont see any sites selling them. Was there a ban on them being sold now, perhaps from so many in the wild being captured.

And why arent there captive breeding programs, I heard they are easy to breed.


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## zonbonzovi (Dec 14, 2011)

I've *heard* that there are limitations on import of Chinese Cynops(or whatever the genus is now).  They are bred by some folk, but like many common & cheap animal species, it is a labor of love.  Occasionally, they show up on amphibian forums for sale in the classifieds.


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## bugmankeith (Dec 14, 2011)

I have one that is almost 14 years old, many years ago I had wanted to get a female as a tank mate for him, but it's probably better off I didn't as I don't know how to care for the larvae, plus my male killed the other newts I got with him at purchase, he seems content living alone. If I knew someone who breeds them he would obviously have been good breeding stock seeing how he's healthy and is living very long.

I feel bad he was snatched from the wild though, but as a kid when I got him I had no idea, and the guy at the pet store said they only live 2 years, boy was he wrong!


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## Galapoheros (Dec 14, 2011)

I would sure try to breed it if I had one, esp. if they are becoming rare in the US market.  It'd be fun to try but, guess that's just me.  lol, so many people that work at these pet stores don't know much about the stuff that is not as conventional.  I don't blame them too much but I do think they should try to do some research before dishing out info.  Most of the time they need to know more about the furry mammals and it can be hard to get accurate info on the things the majority has less interest in.  I remember walking into a pet store here asking if they had any heros centipedes.  He said, "We get those in now and then but they don't live very long, maybe 6 weeks."  Some land dwelling salamanders can live a long time, at least one specimen of Salamandra salamandra has been kept in captivity for 50 years.  Are you sure you don't want to try and breed that thing?  It's only going to die a dead end.  I really like salamanders, I like watching the larvae cruise around on the bottom.


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## bugmankeith (Dec 14, 2011)

Galapoheros said:


> I would sure try to breed it if I had one, esp. if they are becoming rare in the US market.  It'd be fun to try but, guess that's just me.  lol, so many people that work at these pet stores don't know much about the stuff that is not as conventional.  I don't blame them too much but I do think they should try to do some research before dishing out info.  Most of the time they need to know more about the furry mammals and it can be hard to get accurate info on the things the majority has less interest in.  I remember walking into a pet store here asking if they had any heros centipedes.  He said, "We get those in now and then but they don't live very long, maybe 6 weeks."  Some land dwelling salamanders can live a long time, at least one specimen of Salamandra salamandra has been kept in captivity for 50 years.  Are you sure you don't want to try and breed that thing?  It's only going to die a dead end.  I really like salamanders, I like watching the larvae cruise around on the bottom.


Like I said, no more are sold, and I only own a male, wont get babies if he's alone. If I knew someone near me who had a female i'd bring him over to mate with the female, then bring him back home and let the other person raise the young since I dont know how to do that properly. Who knows, his offspring might have one of those odd color variations like albino, brown, or gray colored that rarely showed up in this species.


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