Amphibians

Fire-bellied Newt

Cynops · also called fire belly newt, Chinese fire-bellied newt

Least Concern ↓ carnivoreinsectivore Rivers & wetlands Temperate forest

A fire-bellied newt is a small, dark, slow-moving salamander that spends most of its life in a weedy pond, and its one loud statement is underneath: a belly of vivid orange or red. That colour is a warning. Its skin carries tetrodotoxin, the same nerve poison as a pufferfish — harmless to touch briefly, dangerous to swallow.

Overview

Fire-bellied newts are the genus Cynops of East Asia, chiefly the Chinese and Japanese fire-bellied newts. They live in and beside still, cool, well-vegetated fresh water — ponds, ditches, marshes, rice paddies — for most of the year, and they are carnivores of worms, insect larvae, small snails, and amphibian eggs and larvae, taken with a suction gape.

The warning and the poison

The bright belly is aposematic, and a threatened newt performs the unken reflex, arching its head and tail up to flash it. The skin secretes tetrodotoxin — too little to harm brief handling, but genuinely dangerous if the newt or its shed skin is swallowed, or if the secretion reaches the eyes or a cut. Fire-bellied newts are long-lived, often 10–15 years and sometimes 25–30.

A pet with a disease problem

Chinese fire-bellied newts have been exported as cheap pets by the million. Fear that this trade could spread the salamander-killing fungus Bsal led the United States to ban imports of 201 salamander species in 2016, before the disease reached North America’s exceptionally diverse native salamanders.

Status

The Chinese fire-bellied newt is Least Concern but decreasing, from drainage and pollution of its breeding ponds and very heavy pet-trade collection. The Japanese species is Near Threatened. Captive-bred animals are strongly preferred.

Fire-bellied Newt: common questions

Are fire-bellied newts poisonous, and are they safe to keep?

Their skin contains tetrodotoxin, a powerful nerve poison, so they are genuinely toxic, but the risk to a careful keeper is low. The amount on the skin is far too small to poison someone through brief, incidental contact, and keepers handle them for years without harm. The real dangers are swallowing the newt or its shed skin, which has caused serious poisoning and death in a small number of cases, mostly involving young children or people eating them on a dare, and getting the secretion into the eyes, nose, mouth, or an open cut. The sensible precautions are to handle them as little as possible, always with clean wet hands, to wash thoroughly afterwards, and to keep them well out of reach of children and pets.

What is the difference between a fire-bellied newt and a fire-bellied toad?

They are not closely related and only share the warning-coloured belly and the defensive arching display. A fire-bellied newt is a salamander, with a long body, a long tail kept throughout life, and a mostly aquatic adult life, in the genus Cynops from East Asia. A fire-bellied toad is a frog, in the genus Bombina from Europe and Asia, with a squat tailless body and a more terrestrial habit. Both flash a bright orange or red belly when threatened and both have toxic skin, a case of two distantly related amphibians arriving at the same defence, but a newt and a toad are as different as a lizard and a frog.

How do you care for a fire-bellied newt?

They need a cool aquarium, ideally kept between about 15 and 22 degrees Celsius and never allowed to get warm, with an area of water 15 to 20 centimetres deep, a gentle filter, and an accessible land area or floating platform for resting and gas exchange. Water quality must be good, since they absorb pollutants through the skin. They eat small live and frozen foods such as bloodworm, blackworm, brine shrimp, and chopped earthworm, and many will take sinking pellets. They are social enough to keep in small groups, are hardy once settled, and live for over a decade, but they are escape artists and the tank must be tightly covered. Captive-bred animals are strongly preferred over wild-caught.

Why did the United States ban imports of fire-bellied newts?

In 2016 the US Fish and Wildlife Service listed 201 salamander species, including the fire-bellied newts, as injurious under the Lacey Act, banning their import and interstate transport. The reason was Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans, or Bsal, a fungal skin disease that had recently devastated wild fire salamanders in the Netherlands and that Asian newts, including farmed Chinese fire-bellied newts, can carry without dying. Because these newts were being imported into the United States by the million as cheap pets, and North America has the highest salamander diversity in the world, the risk of Bsal escaping into wild populations was judged too high, and the trade was cut off pre-emptively.

Sources & further reading

Written by HideShark Editorial Team · reviewed by HideShark Science Desk. Published September 10, 2026. Last updated September 10, 2026.

Quick facts

Scientific name: Cynops
Diet: Small aquatic and shoreline invertebrates including worms, insect larvae, water fleas, brine shrimp, small snails, and slugs, plus frog and fish eggs and tadpoles, taken with a quick lunge and a suction gape, with the newt spending most of the year hunting slowly through submerged plants
The warning belly: The underside is bright orange, red, or yellow, often with a bold black pattern, and this is aposematic colouration advertising that the skin is toxic, and a threatened newt arches its head and tail upward and rolls slightly to flash the belly in a display called the unken reflex
Pufferfish poison in a newt: Fire-bellied newts secrete tetrodotoxin, the same potent nerve poison found in pufferfish and blue-ringed octopus, from glands in the skin, and while the amount is far too small to harm someone through brief handling, it is dangerous if the newt or its shed skin is swallowed and can cause serious illness if it enters a cut or the eyes
A long life for a small amphibian: Fire-bellied newts are slow to mature and long-lived, commonly reaching 10 to 15 years in captivity and sometimes 25 to 30, so a newt bought as a pet is a decades-long commitment
Water for most of the year: Unlike many newts that spend a long terrestrial phase on land, adult fire-bellied newts stay in or very close to still and slow water for most of the year, coming out only to move between ponds or to shelter under damp cover, and they breathe through the skin as well as simple lungs
Eggs wrapped in leaves: A breeding female lays her eggs one at a time on submerged plants and uses her hind feet to fold a leaf around each egg, hiding it, and the larvae hatch with feathery external gills and transform over a few months
A pet trade with a disease problem: Millions of Chinese fire-bellied newts have been exported as cheap pets, and concern that this trade could carry the salamander-killing fungus Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans into new regions led the United States to ban imports of 201 salamander species in 2016
Range: East Asia, with the Chinese fire-bellied newt across eastern and central China and the Japanese fire-bellied newt on the main islands of Japan except Hokkaido, plus related Cynops species in southern China and Vietnam, in still and slow fresh water including ponds, marshes, flooded meadows, ditches, slow streams, and rice paddies, from lowland farmland up into hill country, generally in cool, shaded, well-vegetated water.
Conservation status: Least Concern ↓ ≈ The Chinese fire-bellied newt is still assessed as Least Concern because it remains widespread and locally common across eastern and central China, but its numbers are declining through the draining and pollution of the shallow ponds, ditches, and rice paddies it breeds in, and through very heavy collection for the international pet trade, with some local populations reduced or wiped out. The Japanese fire-bellied newt is Near Threatened and declining for similar reasons, and several of its regional forms are of particular concern in the wild