I have a japanese fire belly newt that doesn't want to come out of his hiding space. Also, he won't go in the water ( I have a semiaquatic tank). When I got him I had seen him a couple of times in the tank at the pet store and noticed that he was always housed on top of the filter, away from the other newts and never in the water. I figured he didn't want to be in the water and constructed a semiaquatic tank with a very shallow and small water area. There are two problems with the water: one, it has a lot of current from the filter, and two, the temperature of the water is always somewhere between 75- 76 F. I've tried to cool down the water by blowing a fan on mid-to-high speed about three feet from his tank, but it only cooled the water a degree or so and I'm worried that the air flow is bothersome to him, and that's why he won't come out. However, everytime I turn off the fan the water temp. goes up to 77-78 F, which is not good. So I have two main problems: how do I cool the water even more and keep it cool, and how do I slow down the water flow of the water area? The filter is variable speed and it's on the lowest it can go, but the water area being so shallow it kicks up a strong current anyway. I also put a couple of water plants in fron of the filter, but that didn't slow it down much either. Suggestions, please?