My Amphibians;
Right now I am only keeping X. Laveis. I have 6 of them.
1 albino female 1 year +
1 reticulated albino female 7 year +
1 reticulated albino male 1 year +
1 wild type male 7 year +
2 wild type females 3 year+ and 7 year +

I am planning to bring a couple of species up with me when I return from vacation this summer. X tropicalis and X. Borealis. I don't know if these are in Canada anywhere yet. If they are they are rare. The last few weeks I have been engaging the various authorities on both sides of the border to make sure everything is on the up and up. Been a real pain because everyone refers you to everyone else. You would think people would know their jobs.... Anyway I would like to breed them and get them into the pet trade so they are not so uncommon.
As far as where it all started, when I was stationed in Virginia I worked on the side at a pet store that had any and everything. I had kept newts once before when I lived in Florida, but failed at it. I picked up a couple of "warty newts" because they were so cool. One day I noticed a lady looking at the newts and started talking to her about them. She ended up being " Jennewt" from Caudata.org. She became my mentor so to speak where newts were concerned. I ended up getting the Crested and Eastern newts from her and I grabbed the entire stock of Warty newts for her with my discount. Turns out there were several species present. At that time they had not been too widely distributed in the US. She sent them out to several other members who could breed them. As far as I know those offspring are still in the hobby. I ended up re-homing everything when we decided to move to Canada. Some of the species of amphibian I have kept are:
Cynops pyrrhogaster
Cynops orientalis
Triturus marmoratus
Triturus cristatus
Taricha torosa
Paramesotriton hongkongensis
Paramesotriton chinensis
N. v. dorsalis
Pachytriton labiatus
Ambystoma mavortium melanostictum
Hymenochirus sp.

Needless to say, I really love newts. I managed to get some spawns out of the Hymenochirus, N. v. dorsalis and C orientalis. The wife said no more when we moved here, even though the basement is ideal! It is virtually impossible to get a hold of anything that interests me here in Canada anyway. I am completely fine with the Xenopus frogs for now though I do consider getting some more newts occasionally.
Forgiveness is always easier to ask for then permission.