Lake Urmia Spotted Newts (Neurergus crocatus)
Spotted newts are a beautiful species from Iraq, Iran and Turkey. They live in mountain streams and are closely related to Kaiser newts. In the wild, they spend a fair amount of time living terrestrially as the water sources they use often dry up seasonally. In captivity, I have had luck keeping them aquatic year round without any issues.
Spotted newts typically reach a maximum size of about four or five inches in total length and are fairly active. Like many newts, the adults are primarily aquatic animals but appreciate a place to haul out of the water. For a single newt, a ten or twenty gallon aquarium would be sufficient (but bigger is always better), and a pair or trio could comfortably be housed in a twenty long or larger. They are generally not aggressive to each other but accidents may happen (newts can be aggressive to anything grabbed while feeding). They prefer their water a little bit harder than other newts and this is easily achieved by using a few pieces of limestone in the tank. They also really enjoy flat rocks stacked on each other to hide in and will use little crevices like that to lay their eggs on.
If allowing them to live terrestrially for part of the year, spotted newts will need a terrestrial set up, however as stated above, I have not needed to do this. You can provide them with a simple plastic critter keeper or similar with damp sphagnum moss as substrate. During this time they will eat only live foods such as pinhead crickets, white worms, chopped earthworms and fruit flies.
Make sure to secure the lid of the aquarium/terrarium, preferably with a tightly fitting screen top as they can climb. Filtration can be as simple as a sponge filter attached to an air pump, but uniquely they don't mind a bit of flow so other filtration types are possible. Temperature should ideally be around 65 F. They can tolerate a bit warmer in the summer but the cooler the better. Do partial water changes at least every two weeks to keep the water from building up harmful nitrogenous waste. When replacing with clean water, make sure to treat with a dechlorinator product.
Newts do not need any sort of special lighting, but if you choose to grow live plants in the enclosure, the plants may. Lighting is however, helpful in triggering newts to breed, so read on with regard to that.
Spotted newts are not picky eaters. Adults will eat commercially prepared sinking pellet fish foods, frozen blood worms and live worms of almost any kind. (However, be careful when acquiring wild worms from outside, as they may contain trace amounts of pesticides and other harmful things). Offering a variety of foods ensures good nutrition for your newts so mixing it up is recommended. Feed newts every two to three days and siphon out any uneaten food before it rots.
Spotted newts are a moderately difficult species to breed. Males will develop a somewhat taller tail fin and will begin waiving their tails at any females they can find. Females are generally a bit larger, and rounder in the belly. Often these newts will begin to breed if simply exposed to natural sunlight and a drop in temperature.
These newts are unique in that they don't typically use vegetation as egg laying material and instead prefer to lay their eggs on rocks. The eggs also tend to do better if undisturbed, and the adults do not eat the eggs or the larvae so you can safely leave them in the tank with the adults.
Once the eggs hatch, the larvae will appear as tiny yellowish tadpoles. The best thing to feed them is pond water from outside if you have access to such a thing. There's no comparison to the microorganisms that are in there. If you don't have access to a supply of pond water, live daphnia, live black worms that are chopped up with a razor blade will work, as will live baby brine shrimp. After a month to two months, when the back legs come in, you can begin offering non-live foods just like the adults would eat.
Spotted newts generally take about one year to reach sexual maturity.
A Word About Mixing Species
Many people ask if they can mix X species with Y species. My answer is almost always, no. These animals should be kept in a species specific setup for their own safety and the safety of anything else. They will generally try to eat anything they can fit in their mouth (and sometimes things they cannot), and the risk of potential diseases being transmissible between amphibians is well documented. That said, I have safely kept spotted newts with small rams horn snails. I do not use plants in my spotted newt tanks.