# Chinese Fire-Bellied Newt New Aquascape



## Vinss (Mar 9, 2010)

I’ve been told about Takashi Amano by a co-worker and Googled it; needless to say, I was stunned by the great visuals he achieves in aquascaping. I’ve been very passionate about decorating my future reptile’s vivarium and it’s awakened a passion in me for decorating vivariums and aquariums; after seeing Amano’s work, I wanted to do something similar in my Chinese fire-bellied newt’s aquarium. I had some ideas and sketched a little something in Photoshop last night, today I went to the dollar store and bought some nice-looking fake grass I had seen last week.

The end result is satisfying; it’s far from Amano’s work, but I like the way it looks and am sort of proud of this start. I’ll be going back to my mother’s for Easter and will be getting some nice rocks and branches which I’ll clean out good and probably will be adding to this very soon (the turtle dock just seems out of place in this cleaner scenery.

‘Hope you like. Critique and comments would be appreciated. (For those getting worried, she's got a top, it was removed for the pictures but put back on right after, I know all about the escapist mastery newts have).










Quick digital painting of what I hoped the grass would look like










The end result










Lots of air bubbles forming around the grass, don't know why










Top view










Speedy contemplating herself in the nice clean glass










Happy as she could be.


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## roostarr (Jan 27, 2009)

thats remarkably similar to my newt tank.. same species too! LOL

i saw the artificial grass and moss balls i used in a pet shop and thought that they would make a fun tank that looked a bit different to the norm - and the grass mat makes a great tunnel network for mine and they seem to absolutely love it! i'm considering changing it a little now but i've loved it for the last year the way is is... here's a photo of it.


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## Vinss (Mar 9, 2010)

Ha ha, that looks great! Same turtle dock, same grass, except I cut off the flowers because I wanted a more zen look to it. and here I though I was original, he he.


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## connor 1213 (Apr 6, 2009)

sweet! some of the nicest FBN set ups i have ever seen!


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## roostarr (Jan 27, 2009)

Vinss said:


> Ha ha, that looks great! Same turtle dock, same grass, except I cut off the flowers because I wanted a more zen look to it. and here I though I was original, he he.


great minds think alike... hehe! i like the flowers, they glow under uv light, not that i have a uv lamp on them but they are pretty when they glow :flrt:




connor 1213 said:


> sweet! some of the nicest FBN set ups i have ever seen!


thank you :blush:


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## Joel_H (Jun 4, 2009)

the bubbles will be oxygen, a product of photosynthesis: victory:


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## roostarr (Jan 27, 2009)

snakeman190 said:


> the bubbles will be oxygen, a product of photosynthesis: victory:


on plastic grass? LOL

it just means the water it too highly saturated with gases, its a side effect of modern plumbing. its harmful to fish but i don't think its any trouble for amphibians as far as i know!


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## Joel_H (Jun 4, 2009)

roostarr said:


> on plastic grass? LOL
> 
> it just means the water it too highly saturated with gases, its a side effect of modern plumbing. its harmful to fish but i don't think its any trouble for amphibians as far as i know!


LOL, soz, misread the it:blush: haha


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## serpentsupplies (Sep 4, 2009)

by the way they aren't fire bellied newts. they are a pachytriton species


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## roostarr (Jan 27, 2009)

serpentsupplies said:


> by the way they aren't fire bellied newts. they are a pachytriton species


i think you are right... i only glanced at the newts, i looked at the tank in detail but not the newts since i just assumed they were what they said they were... but you are right the head looks more like a pachytriton species!


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## Vinss (Mar 9, 2010)

serpentsupplies said:


> by the way they aren't fire bellied newts. they are a pachytriton species


This is news to me, do you know which type it is? I'd like to have my info straight.


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## roostarr (Jan 27, 2009)

don't worry, from what i've read about them its pretty common to find them being mistakenly sold as fire bellied newts, but for the most part they are essentially just a slightly different species that is a bit bigger but requires much the same care. 

here's a link to info about them over at caudata's website.

Caudata Culture Species Entry - Pachytriton - Paddletail


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## serpentsupplies (Sep 4, 2009)

yeah exactly as above. can be tricky to breed. but much the same as cynops orientalis.


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