u/shfiven

A few days ago I posted a question about my little newt climbing. This weekend I saw this little aquarium bridge at the pet store and thought it would make a nice hiding place without drowning risk because it has good clearance. Well, my little climber absolutely loves it. He's been all over and under it for 2 days.

I have 2 juvenile Chinese firebellies. The one on the right is always in the mossy area and recently shed and I think I could increase the water depth a little and it would be happy. The one on the left climbs and spends the majority of its time up on the side. It comes down and gets its belly wet then climbs back up. I used to keep them on paper towels in a drier setup and it did the same thing. I'm just trying to figure out if there is something I can change to make it want to stop doing that and start adjusting to the wetter environment. They're about a year old and it has done this since I got it. The temps should be fine. Always below 68 in winter. In summer it can get up to like 71 but I open windows at night so it gets cooled down to mid to low 60s at night, so it isn't subjected to sustained high temps. I suction out water every day and replace with same temperature water. Any ideas why they climb and if there's anything I can do? Are some newts actually just more comfortable that way?

To be fair, a couple from the yard looked like this too but I separated them out and started the other colony with them so I knew they probably carried the genetics but still excited to find it in there.

Any suggestions? I planted this Saturday and it looks really bad. I didn't think to water yesterday since I did Saturday. I just watered again and will make sure I check it daily until the sprinklers are on. Any other suggestions? It was pretty root bound/girdled and we had to cut off a really large root and everything attached to it.