The ground colour is dark brown or black with two rows of small pale spots along each side of the back.

It is a largely aquatic species and lives in cold mountain streams at heights of 375 to 1,725 metres (1,230 to 5,659 ft) above sea level.

[5] In this home range it has one or more refugia, crevices in the rock or burrow entrances in which it can conceal itself, ambushing small invertebrates as they pass by.

[5] Salamanders will violently defend this refugia even resorting to cannibalism[7] Breeding takes place in the late spring.

The eggs hatch in about three months and the larvae develop slowly, undergoing metamorphosis into juvenile salamanders about three and a half years later.

The blackbelly salamander's defence strategies include its warning colouration (though it is not in fact toxic), remaining still in the hope a predator will fail to notice it, biting the aggressor, and shedding its tail (autotomy) as a distraction.

It might decline in some localities if streams become acidic as a result of mining activities, and in some places, fishermen capture it for use as bait.