Question: Newt won't grow up!!

Good evening,

I have a fire-bellied newt (Cynops pyrrhogaster) that grew out of its larval stage a good year ago.

I've kept it in a container w/ about 1/2 inch of water & a moist (unbleached) paper towel for resting, w/ a plastic vine. I've been feeding it flightless fruit flies this entire time since it's surfaced.

It's been over a year. The newt is eating & has grown some, but has no interest to move on. I have tried on 4 separate occasions on placing it in the terrarium. But every time, it just stays on land for weeks & starves up until I place it back in it's previous home.

Any advice? I have 6 other newts who had made the transition w/ ease in the past. This one simply doesn't want to make the move & seems to hate being in the water.

Thanks,
Eileen.

It can take 2 - 3 years for an eft to reach the adult stage, but some can be 'trained' to live semi aquatically before reaching adulthood.

I have two pyrrhos who were refusing to go in the water while their younger siblings have been swimming happily in fairly deep water for weeks. These two were in a small semi aquatic set up, 1.5 cm water, lots of plants and islands. They would only go in the water when they moved from one island to another.
Inspired by this thread (which refers to his one) I raised the water level so all the islands are under water now (about 3 cm). I added more plants. The two newts didn't seem that bothered. They tried to stay out of the water by climbing the side of the box and sitting on the ledges in the beginning. I put them back in the water on top of the plants or the submerged islands a couple of times and they tried to swim, even going under water. On the second day, one of them was happily hunting worms on the bottom which I think is an important step in the transition. After 3 days, one seems very comfortable under water, the other one is probably going to take longer to adjust.

Before I tried this, I was always scared that newtlets would drown in too much water and thought I must wait until they decide they're ready. They seem fine so I think they can be trained to go aquatic quicker if you remove land areas, while leaving them lots of places to be near the surface (plants, stones). It's only been like this for a couple of days and it's just two newts but it seems to be working well.

Thank you so much, I will try this tactic. Although I luv the newt, spending 30+USD/month on this guy is getting a bit much!