What can I keep together in my Paludarium?

[Greg H.]

Originally Posted by froggsong

I do indeed own one of the most toxic animals on the planet. Enough tetrodotoxin to kill at least 8 grown men, lol...

Let me guess ... Notophthalmus v. viridescens?

For all it being a very common species, scientists were surprised to find that it's toxicity was surprisingly high ( mostly in the Red Eft stage ).

Originally Posted by froggsong

I am comfortable enough with her habits and personality that I am going to put her in my native tank to lower the number of tanks I'm running. That said, with a less calm individual, I don't think that I would risk it. Greg, where are you located? That arms race you are referring to is likely the one between the newt I have and the garters around these parts.

I live in Colorado, but I have seen information about this natural arms race documented on one of PBS's nature shows and later on after a bit of searching I found the info online, that went into greater detail.

Originally Posted by froggsong

The thing with newts, and where I'm going to disagree with beck, is that something doesn't have to be trying to kill it for it to go into defensive mode. Most newts will curl up into a circle with their bellies showing, and begin to excrete their toxins through their skin, even when only startled. Some don't curl, but begin almost spewing forth a froth of toxins. It's too bad that I didn't take a pic of one that I found in my yard. All I did was lift something off of him and in less than a second his entire back was covered in a thick layer of toxin.

With some species (it can also be affected by whether they are WC or CB), the toxicity is much lower, and people mix them without any noticeable affects on other species, but generally those animals mixed with them have a shorter life span. All it takes is for one animal to be startled somehow, and you may lose another animal. Whether to take the risk is certainly one's personal decision, but it should be kept in mind that it IS a risk.

This was what I was trying to say - one newt stressing out about something and you have problems.