They make use of a large range of different water types and qualities, ponds, lakes, ditches, canals, marshy pools and some inland coastal saline waters. Unlike other newts they often spend little time on land, when they do they live in woodland debris and semi composted matter where they eat worms and slugs. Hibernation is in cavities in the ground, under tree roots etc. In their aquatic habitat they eat all types of water insects, their larvae and eggs.
Reproduction starts from late March and continues until mid May. A female deposits around 200 eggs at a rate of 10 a day which are placed singly on leaves of aquatic plants, these take about 4 weeks to hatch and metamorphosis can be anything from 40 to 275 days, some therefore hibernate in the water and complete metamorphosis the following spring. Sexual maturity is 2 to 3 years and lifespan is around 10 years.
