How to Take Care of Your Fire Belly Newt

Fire belly newts are the salamanders that you see in some fish tanks at the pet store. They are all black with a red underside. These salamanders are quite easy to care for and they are a good choice for somebody looking to get their first lizard or salamander. Newts only grow to be about four or five inches in length which means that you don’t need a large aquarium to keep them in. If you have a lot of newts you will need a bigger tank to house them. You will want a tank with a secure lid and you will probably want some type of underwater filtration system.

The underside of the newt is red or orange to warn off predators that may be looking to eat them for a snack. The bring colors will warn the prey to stay away from the newt. Newts are secrete a type of poisonous liquid from glands located by their necks. This is not known to be poisonous to people.

Newts are good swimmers but they will also come out of the water to bask in the sun. Newts also love to be on land as much as they do the water. They will get out of the water to bask in the sun under a heat lamp or light. You should provide them with a dry area to relax as well as an area to swim. You should have a basic 2 1/2 gallon tank for one newt and place a large pile of rocks somewhere in the tank so that the newt can come up from swimming and dry off. You should change the water frequently to avoid the water levels getting at an unsafe level.

You will want to purchase some type of blackworms for your newt to eat or some type of pellet food. Most pet stores will sell pellet food that is designed for fire belly newts.

If you have some type of gravel at the bottom of your tank you will want to make sure that the newt isn’t able to suck it in because it will get stuck in the newt mouth.

You will also want to keep the temperature at above 65 degrees and below 75 degrees. Always try to keep the temperature steady or this might stress out the newt and it might get sick. The colder water you can put in the tank, the better. Usually without any heaters or chillers you can keep a tank at around 75 degrees but make sure it doesn’t get any warmer than this. You might want to throw an ice cube in the tank every day to try and bring the temperature down. If the temperature gets too hot you will want to do a water change and slowly drop the temperature back down over the next couple of days.