[Gecko] Sphaerodactylus notatus "drowned" (?)...please advise

[ElizabethFreer]

Hi Folks,

[Nuff said about kaolin.  How about a Baskin-Robbins peppermint candy ice cream shake...definitely a kaolin-free experience and extremely delicious no matter what season?  Off-topic?  yes!!]

On 12/22 exactly two weeks after laying what I hope will be a viable egg, my female Sphaerodactylus notatus had some skin remaining on her toes.  (In the past I've occasionally soaked Lepidodactylus lugubris and Pachydactylus tigrinus even overnight with absolutely NO fatalities.)  HOWEVER, this Sn soaked during the afternoon.  I checked on her at 5:30 PM...she was fine, although floating...there was a plastic leaf she could climb upon.  I guess she needed something more substantial like a rock to climb out of the water onto.  When I returned from a holiday concert at 11:15 PM she was lifeless, still afloat upright with her head seemingly OUT of the water  :-[  I managed to get an air exchange, but had no luck reviving her.  Another thing that caught my attention at this point was that just with very gentle touching, the skin on her tail as well as a spot on her body just seemed to come off.  This had never happened wit! h any other gecko that I had soaked!  I don't know how delicate her skin was prior to soaking, because she was really too small to really "pet", but I do know that she tolerated handling from many folks and seemed vibrant and able to do all things gecko even with a missing left forearm from the "elbow" on down.  "All things gecko" includes eating, climbing, shedding, leaping, and laying her egg two weeks earlier.  I got her mid-October.  Her mate had died six or so weeks earlier.  I'm hoping that her egg is fertile!

Will appreciate any advice!

Peace and hope in 2002,
Elizabeth
Seattle

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