Barbie Heid wrote:
>
> Both tanks involved are garden-variety glass aquariums - does
> this make any sense to anybody? I can see if I drastically changed the
> environment, but I didn't really.
There's one possibility which I have experienced.
A few years ago I have 2.8 P. pictus set up in 2 groups of 1.4. One group
thrived the other just went downhill in no time. Both had the same set-ups,
temperatures, you name it. The tanks were side by side, so whatever the problem
was, it had to be very localized. The sick group made several trips to the vet
in a matter of 4 or 5 months, and all tests came back negative. I even took the
healthy ones in for testing so the results from both could be compared.
I finally moved the sick ones into individual 5 gallon hospital tanks since they
were in such bad shape they needed intensive care. When I was cleaning their old
tank, I noticed the trim on the top had some black sealant on it. I checked
further and finally figured out it wasn't aquarium grade silicone (the tank was
used, got it from a friend). It turns out they had re-attached the trim with
sealant they'd bought to fix something on their car. I can't remember exactly
what it was, but it was silicone and some other chemical thingees. To make sure
the trim stayed put, they put nice fat globs all around the edges. Either fumes
drifted down to the geckos (though I never detected any odours), or possibly
water from spraying the tank carried the chemicals down to where it affected
them.
After just a few weeks in quarantine tanks, 3 of the pictus made a perfect
recovery, but the weakest female died.
Is it possible the old tank could also have some similar contamination? Maybe
silicone with fungicide or the like?
Hilde
--
~*~***~*~
Why didn't Noah just feed those two mosquitoes
to the two frogs?
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