FBN in smaller tank

So I had my FBN in in a 10g tank with some floating stuff and one NEVER entered the water, but the other did. Now I upgraded the tank to a 50g acrylic tank and they both stay on the floating land log thing I have. They barely ever enter the water. I keep it around 68F as much as I can. so a question came up, I also have a about 5g smaller acrylic tank that houses 2 ADF's and a guppy. it is about 12" x 8" x 14". I was thinking of moving my newts to the smaller tank and putting the ADF in the larger tank. now I think they might be afriad of the fish in the water, I had them in your own 10g for a week when switching tanks and they were in the water a lot and seemed happy. Now space is limited so many tanks are not a solution. I am just curious if the newts could thrive in the smaller tank with no other fishmates. I would most likely have it bare bottom with a piece of drift wood or the floating log thing I have now. along with a live plant of two. Please give me some input here. I really want them to be happy. Right now they seem bored and not too aquatic. I know some have terrestrial stages, but for my female she has been like this since I got her about a year ago.

I wouldn´t recomend housing them in anything smaller than 10g unless they are fully terrestrial.
Did you cycle the new tank? It sounds to me that the new terrestrial behaviour might be induced by water quality or tank mates. Newts should ideally be kept alone, just animals of the same species.

yeah, the new tank was cycled just fine. Temp is a little below 70F. the only thing I can think of is the other fish may be scaring them (3 small endlers) or the water is just too deep.

The fish are a good explanation. It´s known for some species to actively search for fish-less water masses, and leave ocuppied ones.
The water being too deep is unlikely to be an issue. I wouldn´t take it as a possibility.
Why don´t you try to keep it alone and see what happens..you might be surprised.

I agree with Azhael 100%. I seemed to have a similar problem with my Chinese fire belly newt. I really believe his actions were caused by stress. As soon as I moved the fish out he moved in! It seemed to be alright for a week or two but it was just down hill from there.

It is important to note that my newt spends quite a bit of time out on land. Whether it is the really nice chuck of property (floating cork with some moss) or he just likes a mix I don't know but moving him into his own setup helped.

Mitch

ok, thank you so much for that. So what my plan is now is to take my5.5g that I mentioned and remove its inhabitants and give the newts a bare bottom tank with a floating log. For now and see how they react. they are still small at 2.5" and the tank will most likely not be a permanent home. I like the bare bottom because then I can feed them blood worms and the things will not get in the gravel . thanks for the info.