The crested newt was first mentioned in print by the famous Swiss naturalist C. Gesner in 1553. He called it "water lizard". I. Laurenti, an Austrian naturalist (1768), was the first to use the word "triton" to designate the genus of tailed amphibians.
External Features
The crested newt got its name for the high crest located on the back of the male. It differs from the pond newt in size (it is much larger) and, of course, in a high, serrated crest. In combination with bright colors, these features make the animal one of the most beautiful inhabitants of aquariums.
The maximum total length of the lizard is 153 mm (including a body length of just over 80 mm). In some European countries, individuals up to 200 mm are found. The largest recorded weight is 14.3 grams.
The crested newt, whose photo often adorns the covers of magazines for aquarists, has a wide and flattened head, a massive body. The palatal teeth are two almost parallel rows.
On the back the skin is coarse-grained, on the abdomen - smooth. In marriageperiod, the crest of the male is notched, high, sharply separated from the tail by a notch. The tail may be slightly shorter, but more often equal to the length of the body. There are no notches on the crest of the tail. The belly is orange or orange-yellow with black spots. The throat is black at the edges of the jaws and orange-yellow at the base.
Color
Numerous small white dots are clearly visible on the throat and on the sides of the body. In males, a mother-of-pearl or pale blue wide strip is visible in the middle of the tail and its sides. It starts at the base of the tail, where it is a blurry line, and ends with a bright, well-defined border at the tip.
Females do not have a crest on their backs, and the blue stripe on the sides of the tail is barely noticeable or completely absent. There is sometimes a narrow reddish or yellowish line along the middle of the back. The eyes are usually golden-orange, with a black pupil. Fingertips are yellow or orange.
One circle of blood circulation has newt comb?
This question interests many beginner aquarists. Let's dwell on it in more detail. The circulatory system of this lizard is closed, the heart is three-chambered. The blood mixes in the ventricle (the only exception is lungless salamanders, in which the heart is two-chambered). The body temperature of an animal directly depends on the temperature of the surrounding air or water.
It has features of blood circulation newt crested. The second circulation circle is associated with the acquired possibility of pulmonary respiration. The heart has two atriathe right blood is mainly venous, mixed, in the left - arterial) one ventricle, the walls of which form folds that prevent mixing of arterial and venous blood. From the ventricle comes an arterial cone with a spiral valve.
Pulmonary is a small circle. It begins with the pulmonary arteries, which deliver blood to the lungs and skin. Blood, well enriched with oxygen, from the lungs is collected in the pulmonary paired veins, which flow into the atrium (left).
The big circle begins with the aortic arches and carotid arteries, which are located in organs and tissues. Through the paired anterior veins and the unpaired posterior vein, venous blood enters the right atrium. Oxidized blood also enters the anterior vena cava, therefore, the blood in the right atrium is mixed.
Type of digestion in crested newt
All amphibians, including the hero of our article, feed exclusively on moving food. At the bottom of their oropharynx is the tongue. The jaws contain teeth that serve to hold prey.
In the oropharyngeal cavity there are ducts of the salivary glands, the secret of which does not contain digestive enzymes. The food then travels through the esophagus to the stomach and then to the duodenum. Here are the ducts of the pancreas and liver. Digestion takes place in the duodenum and stomach. The small intestine leads to the rectum.
Lifestyle in nature
Combthe newt, whose photo you see in our article, lives in small-leaved, mixed and broad-leaved forests, near water bodies. Outside of forests, it can live in open meadows with small areas of shrubs, floodplain areas of lakes and rivers, and in swamps. Sufficiently deep (at least 0.5 m) unpolluted water bodies with slowly flowing or stagnant water can serve as a condition for the penetration of the lizard into urban areas.
The crested newt is nocturnal on land. And during the day he goes into the water. Most of the time it prefers to live on land. Only in summer and spring during the mating season leads an aquatic lifestyle. Newts molt every ten days in the water. The skin shed by him remains completely intact, but it is always turned inside out. This beautiful lizard does not like bright light, the sun, it does not tolerate heat very well. The triton swims with its legs pressed to its sides. He uses them as a rudder. The translational movement is provided by the tail.
Wintering and hibernation
The crested newt leaves for wintering in late October or early November, when the air temperature no longer exceeds +60C. Settles in heaps of gravel, plant rags, on raised bogs, in the basements of residential buildings, in cracks in the soil, on railway embankments. The newt hibernates both alone and in groups, sometimes even in rather large clusters. Comes out of hibernation in March-May.
In spring and early summer, it prefers to settle in forest lakes, ponds, oxbow lakes. After breeding (in the middle of summer), it moves to land, where it finds moist and shady places for itself.
Most active on land at twilight, in water it is also active during the day. It tolerates low temperatures well - it is mobile at temperatures slightly above 0 ° C. Active in water at temperatures from +5 to +28°С.
Captivity, feeding
For such a pet, you will need a horizontal type terrarium. For 1-2 individuals, it must have a capacity of at least 20 liters.
The terrarium should be equipped with local daytime heating. At the warming point in the daytime, the temperature should reach +28°С, the average background temperature in the entire terrarium is 16-20°С at night and 18-22°С during the day. In the terrarium, there should be a raft on the surface of the water. You can keep these beauties in small groups.
We have already mentioned that in natural conditions this lizard feeds on aquatic invertebrates, somewhat larger than its common pond relative eats. And what does the crested newt eat at home? In the terrarium, he is fed with banana, brownie and other crickets, mealworms, cockroaches, mollusks, earthworms. Bloodworms, snails, tubifex can be given in water.
Among the feed, preference should be given to mollusks, water beetles, insect larvae. Often, the newt eats tadpoles and amphibian eggs. On land, your pets' diet should include slugs, earthworms, and various insects. The crested newt has poor eyesight, so it can catch prey that swims completelynext to him, and the newt can smell her.
Interesting features of the newt
This is a very interesting pet - crested newt. Interesting facts about these lizards are often published in publications about animals. It is noteworthy that the newt is able to change its color, like chameleons, but to a somewhat lesser extent.
We have already said that newts have poor vision, so catching food is very difficult for them. They cannot catch fast animals, so in natural conditions they often have to starve.
Newts are also interesting for their amazing ability to restore the lost parts of their body (regenerate). A limb completely cut off from a newt grows back. The naturalist Spalanzani conducted very cruel experiments on these animals. He cut off their tails, legs, gouged out their eyes, etc. As a result, all these parts were restored completely. This often happened several times in a row. Blumenbach once cut out almost the entire eye of a newt, leaving only 1/5 of it. Ten months later, he was convinced that the newt had a new eye, however, it differed from the previous one in a smaller size. The limbs and tail are usually restored to the same size as those lost.
