Fire belly newt acting weird

[Jacobt]

Hi, about a year ago I got a Chinese fire belly newt, and he has been perfectly healthy up until about a week ago, when I decided to change the scenery (it was pretty ugly).
The next day he started spending all his time on land.
When I fed him a worm he ate it fine, but a few minutes later regurgitated the whole thing!
The next time I fed him he did the same. I thought that probably those worms were too big to fit in his stomach, so I gave him just a quarter of one. He attacked it but didn't do much more than that.
Now every time I feed him he snaps at the worm and then lets go and sits there for the next few minutes with his mouth gaping open as if he were yawning. Please give me some advice as he is starting to look pretty skinny.
Thanks in advance!

 

[Mark]

Could it be the worms? Compost worms often secrete noxious fluid which many newts dislike the taste of. The fact that it's trying to eat is a good sign so perhaps offer something different like frozen bloodworm.

 

[Jacobt]

No I don't think it's the worms. I have been feeding it earthworms and slugs for its entire life
(it never accepted anything else) and it has always eaten them willingly.
I don't know whether it's a coincidence or not that it did this as soon as I changed the scenery. If you have any other advice please give it to me, especially as to why his mouth gapes open when I try to feed him.

 

[AuSu]

Can there be something in the new scenery that's harming it? What I'm thinking could there be a new decoration that's leaking something in the water, or something like that. If you took everything out and cleaned thoroughly, it might be like a new tank with non-stable water parameters. But if it has been to land all the time this maybe is not the reason...how warm is it over there, could the temps be suddenly too high? I hope things will turn out well and soon back to normal behavior!

 

[Jacobt]

The temp has not changed since I got him. He has always liked this temp.
It might be something new, I put 3 chunks of wood in there but I boiled them for 24 hours solid so I don't think it could be a parasite, although they do leak their natural wood colour into the water.
As for going on land he had three phases of that, once when I got him, once when I added the plants and when I changed the scenery. I think it's probably just the way he responds to stress. What I'm really still worried about is the gaping mouth thing. It almost seems as if he's trying to vomit or something.

 

[AuSu]

Has the newt eaten yet? One thing still came to my mind though it might be different as this is new behavior to your newt...namely, my swordtail newts do open their mouths wide like trying to bite through the front glass when they are hungry. It's like they go crazy and then they sometimes drop the worm. They do eventually eat when the exitement passes a bit and now I've maybe even overfed them to avoid this behaviour. I' ve never seen the same among my JFBN or CFBN. But as said, it's perhaps not the same reason your newt is "yawning". Just keep offering tiny bits so they are easy to swallow, I hope things are better already!

 

[Jacobt]

I fed it yesterday and it actually seemed afraid of the worm.
However it may have just been afraid of my fingers, although it usually isn't.
I haven't fed it yet today but I'll give you an update when I do.