Defining Characteristics:

• Jet black coloring with a contrasting red blotched “fire” belly
• Diurnal with bold and active personalities
• One of the smallest newt species
• Highly aquatic as adults and can be kept fully aquatic year round
• Peaceful and do well in colonies
• Easy to breed

Name: Hypselotriton orientalis, Chinese fire-bellied newt, named for the bright red and black bellies and Chinese origin.

Recommended Enclosure Size & Setup: Juvenile Chinese fire-bellied newts can be kept terrestrial or semi-aquatic. These animals are currently being kept fully terrestrial. A terrestrial enclosure can be a naturalistic bioactive terrarium or a simple paper towels and cork bark hide setup.

If you wish to transition them to aquatic, do so after they have been established in your care for 4–8 weeks. A successful aquatic setup for juvenile Chinese fire-bellied newts should only have 1-2 inches of water with plenty of aquatic plants and small islands that only allow the newts to rest but not dry out. Keeping their skin moist is essential to get them to remain aquatic.

Any type of enclosure should have a tight-fitting lid, as this species can climb well and will likely escape if any hole 1/4 inch or greater is available to them.

As adults, they generally are happy to live fully aquatic in a planted tank with 4–12 inches of water. They will rarely leave the water, but offering a piece of floating cork bark is advised.

Being a small species of newt, they don’t need as much space as most other newts. A group of 4 adults can be kept in a 10 gallon aquarium. A 20 gallon long is an ideal tank size to keep an aquatic group of 4 to 8 individuals.

Sponge filters are an effective form of filtration for aquatic newts. Sponge filters offer great biological filtration, minimal water current, and allow for an escape-proof lid. If they’re kept in a paludarium, a simple air stone can help break the water surface and keep some circulation going.

Suitable substrate for the water portion can be aquarium sand or bare bottom. Larger pebble substrates should be avoided as they can accidentally be eaten and cause impaction. Food can also fall between larger pebbles where the newts can’t get to it.

Live aquatic plants are highly recommended as they create hiding and resting places for the newts as well as provide excellent biological filtration to help maintain good water quality.

Cohousing newts with fish and inverts should be generally avoided. Small inverts such as cherry shrimp and snails do well with newts and act as a bioactive clean-up crew.

Temperature (°F): Water temperature should be maintained at room temperature or 65 to 70°. Temperatures above 75 degrees should be avoided. An aquarium thermometer should be used to monitor water temps.

Humidity: If kept terrestrially, humidity in the range of 60-80% should be maintained. Use a hygrometer if your newts are in a terrestrial environment.

Size: Chinese fire-bellied newts metamorphose at a small size of only 1-1.5 inches. They reach adult size of 3–4 inches in 2 years. Adult males tend to be smaller than females. All juveniles sold are well started at ~2 inches.

Age: Chinese fire-bellied newts can live for 10–20 years in captivity with proper care and diet. Juveniles for sale are 2 or more months post metamorphosis.

Feeding: In the wild, Chinese fire-bellied newt’s diet consists of terrestrial and aquatic invertebrates such as earthworms, isopods, zooplankton, etc.

Kept terrestrially, they need small prey such as 1/8 inch dusted crickets, hydei fruit flies, dwarf white isopods, live blackworms, or small chopped redworm pieces.

In an aquarium they are fed frozen bloodworms, chopped earthworms and redworms, live blackworms, and sinking pellets.

They should be fed daily until adulthood when they can be fed every day to every other day.

Sexing: These juveniles for sale are not sexable. Males and females can be distinguished at about 1-2 years of age when they become subadults/adults. Males are smaller with shorter tails and the cloaca will become bulbous during the breeding season. Females are larger with a longer tail.

Color/Pattern: Chinese fire-bellied newts are normally jet black with an orange to deep red blotched belly.

Social Behavior: Chinese fire-bellied newts are diurnal and are quite active during the day. They do well in groups, especially if you want to observe courtship and breeding behavior as adults. Some aggression during feeding time can occur but injuries are very rare. They are not aggressive during the breeding season.

Social Behavior: These newts do well in groups and are particularly mellow, not showing any aggression towards each other, even during feeding. They tend to be a bold and inquisitive species, active during the day and night.

Breeding: The Chinese fire-bellied newt is a relatively easy species of newt to breed. They reach sexual maturity at about 2 years of age. They require a cooling period in the winter, a drop of 5–10°, and will breed in the spring/summer. Males will develop an enlarged cloaca and begin tail fanning at the females. Courtship and laying can go on for several months, with clutch sizes of 50-200 eggs per female.

Natural Range: This species is found in East-Central China in rice paddies, ponds, and marshes.

History in the Hobby: The Chinese fire-bellied newt is an iconic species of newt in the hobby. They were the newt that many hobbyists started with when wild-caught individuals could be purchased from nearly any pet store for just a few dollars. The import of wild-caught specimens has since ended, but captive breeding programs have kept the species alive. Rarer now than a couple decades ago, the Chinese fire-bellied newt remains an iconic, easy to care for, and desirable species of newt.

Links of Interest: 

• Caudata Culture has many great care guides including one for this species