Salamander/newt?

[Marck]

I saw once a goldfish try to swallow a baby newt whole, with half the newt body already inside the fish. Yuck. I don't know if the fish completed his meal or not.

Probably not. Taricha newts can exude tetrodotoxin on their skin. This is the same type of poison found in many deadly marine animals, like pufferfush and scorpion fish. Most predator will quickly spit out a Taricha newt or become paralyzed. When I was child, I used to pick up terrestrial Taricha newts that I'd find in the woods. I never noticed any ill effects, but then I was just touching a dry newt with dry hands. Also I believe they only release the toxin when threatened, because even the newts are not completely immune to the toxin.

 

[Dimelius]

All already said, but watch out of the upside down aquarium if you got something that breath air from surface(newt, turtle etc...) if they are lacking oxigen and make a run to the surface and they end into "viewer" they can drowing.

 

[j.w]

You better hope the axolotle gang doesn’t run upon this!

They are almost as bad as the tang gang over on r2r ( nothing wrong with opposing animal mistreatment, but you waterdog isn’t going to die because you have 2 grains of sand in the tank, natures rivers and lakes don’t have perfectly clean glass bottoms )

Had to look that one up and he fits the bill for the moat perfectly and if any of his limbs get chawed off by the crocs or gators they will just grow right back!

 

[j.w]

Probably not. Taricha newts can exude tetrodotoxin on their skin. This is the same type of poison found in many deadly marine animals, like pufferfush and scorpion fish. Most predator will quickly spit out a Taricha newt or become paralyzed. When I was child, I used to pick up terrestrial Taricha newts that I'd find in the woods. I never noticed any ill effects, but then I was just touching a dry newt with dry hands. Also I believe they only release the toxin when threatened, because even the newts are not completely immune to the toxin.

I think me needs one of those Taricha ones for the king's throne

 

[DerSchoeneBahnhof]

All already said, but watch out of the upside down aquarium if you got something that breath air from surface(newt, turtle etc...) if they are lacking oxigen and make a run to the surface and they end into "viewer" they can drowing.

Huh, so far I have had no trouble with that. No turtle in my pond that I know of. The salamanders happily go into the box and back down into the pond. They colonized the pond for years.

 

[DerSchoeneBahnhof]

This is the aquatic stage of a Taricha newt. There are two similar species in the S.F. Bay Area: California Newt (Taricha torosa) and Rough-skinned Newt (Taricha granulosa). Any possibility of taking some close up shots? A profile shot of the head and eyes would be especially useful for identification.

It will be interesting to see if this newt will want to remain aquatic. They are often terrestrial when not breeding.
Note, they are quite poisonous if eaten, so don't eat it.... They are not venomous, just poisonous.
I expect they would eat very small fish and fry, but I doubt they would try to eat something they can't swallow whole.

Here is another slightly better picture.
CG

 

[Marck]

The coloration around the eye suggests California Newt (Taricha torosa), but I must add that in this picture, the newt looks less reddish overall compared to typical California Newts. Perhaps this is due to the lighting or the water, but I won't rule anything out. I'm much more used to seeing these animals in their terrestrial stage.

 

[DerSchoeneBahnhof]

The coloration around the eye suggests California Newt (Taricha torosa), but I must add that in this picture, the newt looks less reddish overall compared to typical California Newts. Perhaps this is due to the lighting or the water, but I won't rule anything out. I'm much more used to seeing these animals in their terrestrial stage.

Oh yes, definitely more reddish than in the picture, due to lighting and reflections on the surface.

We used to have tadpoles and back swimmers, but no more the last few years.

 

[seandelevan]

Yeah it’s something of the traicha species. Had a few as pets when I was a kid. Kept them in a fish tank. Very interactive and very active..also really big compared to the newts i often encountered in my own woods(eastern spotted newts). Fed them mainly night crawler and bugs. Not sure if they were fast enough to catch a fish but I’m sure they would try. Very cool find.

 

[DerSchoeneBahnhof]

Here is another cute pic. Darn, reminds of the Geico commercial.

 

[rubyduby]

Here is another cute pic. Darn, reminds of the Geico commercial.

He/she is really cute...I have been feeding a wild curly tail lizard that lives under a rock at my pond meal worms now and then. He is so cute and comes running when I go out to give him an occasional treat.