Fbn transition to water and..

[Derz94]

So, I raised the water level in my tank a little bit more and he still just seems to seek out the driest part of land. He is eating regularly now, everyday just not as much he eats about 2-3 pieces of chopped earthworm daily and seems to be gaining more mass.

When he goes into the water (with a little push from myself) his skin looks silvery, or almost as if he has a bubble/oil layer on his skin. Is this normal?

Also! What is the deal with feeding live earthworms sold as bait. The only earthworms I could find anywhere in my area was at Walmart!! Are these okay? I am getting mixed info on this topic.

 

[Asevernnnn]

How long has it been in a shallow aquatic setup? Usually when I do this I keep them at a very low level without increasing until after a couple weeks. Do not force it to go into deeper water right away, if you're trying to get it aquatic there shouldn't be any dry land either, just a lot of live plants.
A terrestrial newt will look silvery for awhile if its not adapted to the water, it's nothing to worry about.
Bait worms will usually work if they're not like glowing green, and many will refuse to eat red wigglers. I feed all my newts baby Nightcrawlers I get at Walmart and I don't have an issue.

 

[Derz94]

It was in a shallow setup for about three weeks as I waited for him to adjust to his new environment, then I slowly added about half an inch of water a week but it is now at about 4.5"-5" is that too deep? Should I re-do his tank?

I have a waterfall filter in there and I stuff the opening where the water comes out with some ️Moss so it does not create too large of a current. I love how it looks. But it needs a minimum water level to run and it will also give him a nice chunk of dry land to come out on if I leave it in....

How low should my water level be? And should I take out the waterfall filter?

I have had this newt for a month now exactly.

 

[Asevernnnn]

Ideally I would start with an inch of water with lots of plants and absolutely no dry land mass, if there's land accessible it's just going to glue itself to it