I agree with Danny Mendez. I have all kinds of small bugs in my tanks. For the most part these small insects live of mold, fungus and dead plant matter, they won't harm your cresties. Mold and fungi are normally a passing phenomenon that will disappear by themselves after a little while provided there is enough ventilation in the enclosure. I'm not a big fan of disinfecting terrariums. As I see it, healthy animals have an immune system that should protect them against infections. I have small bugs in all my terrariums. I raise hatchlings of R. chahouas and R. leachianus in naturalistic terrariums with such small bugs from day 1.
I believe that keeping animals in as clean as possible and as sterile as possible terrariums is overprotection and doesn't benefit the animals in the long run. It is hard to maintain a sterile environment in high humidity and high temperature conditions. You can keep a tank very clean most of the time but you can't keep it sterile all of the time. If you try to eliminate all potential infection sources in the terrarium you are likely to fail at least in part. The bacteria who survive disinfection of a tank are the most hardy ones and those may/will get more and more hardy for every time they survive an unsuccessful disinfection procedure. It may not be a big risk but eventually you might end up with bacteria that are able to survive short periods of very poor conditions. IMO this creates more of a risk than a benefit for the gecko since the gecko lives in a tank that is very clean most of the time and is seldom exposed to dirt and infections. IMO animals that are kept in very clean conditions that are often disinfected are more likely to have a poorly developed immune system. I believe that the immune system of geckoes is in small part inherited by the parents and primarily dictated by the surroundings. Still, over generations of keeping and breeding geckoes that are kept in very clean enclosures it there is a risk of producing animals that have a lesser developed immune system. In this case animals would be more susceptible to infections and allergies. In order for geckoes to develop immunities to foreign particles and bacteria it has to be exposed to them first. Since young reptiles have a more acute immune system than adults I believe that it is during the youth of a gecko that it builds up a list of immunities to different bacteria and foreign particles. After all, the animals come from non sterile conditions in the wild and even if we keep them in countries that are worlds apart from their native habitats I believe that geckoes in captivity develop immunities against as many of the potentially dangerous bacteria they are exposed to. About 5 years ago one I had a pair of WC tockays. About a year after I bought them the male got an oral infection that spread and lead to death since I didn't have a good vet at hand and wasn't experienced enough to go to the vet in time. Shortly after the female got the same infection, this time I went to the vet earlier but she still died on me. :o( I raised some CB hatchlings from this same pair in the same tank and all of them were very healthy and never got sick. This might not prove anything at all but since this incident I've never had a single animal get infected by anything and my tanks haven't gotten any cleaner in the mean while. I remove feces from some tanks if they should build up, I also clean the sliding glass doors of tanks when they get dirty. Other than that I don't do any other cleaning in my tanks except removing prey items that have grown too big for geckoes to eat or to remove uneaten dead pinkies. Regards obeligz msn: [EMAIL PROTECTED] )/_ �� �������������� _.--..---"-,--c_ ���� ������� \L..'���������� ._O__)_ � �� ,-.���� _.+� _� \..--( /��������� ��� �� `\.-''__.-'\ (���� \_ ��� ����� `'''������ `\__�� /\ ���� ��������������� ') -----Opprinnelig melding----- Fra: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] P� vegne av Danny Mendez Sendt: 16. april 2004 23:10 Til: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Emne: RE: [gecko]question about crested gecko behavior The little white bugs are most likely springtails, they inevitably arrive in any "woody" bedding, even the commercial stuff made for reptiles! They will do abolutely nothing to your gecko, in fact, they are feeding on fungus and mold so I essence they are probably more helpful than damaging. No worries. -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Dana Sent: Friday, April 16, 2004 9:22 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [gecko]question about crested gecko behavior Hi All - I have 2 juvenile R. ciliatus (somewhere between 4-6 months old) and I have noticed over the past 2-3 weeks that on occasion one or both of them will go hide in their bamboo branches and not come out for 2-3 days straight. I am wondering if this is odd behavior at all. Otherwise, they seem to be fine - they are usually out the other 4 days or so out of a week and are eating regularly. Does anyone else's crested do this? I am slightly concerned over the fact that there is mold growing on the inside of the bamboo, which I do wipe down periodically (but can't seem to get rid of it) and this morning I found very, very tiny white bugs crawling on the end of the bamboo that they were sleeping in and have been hiding in for the past 2-3 days. I wiped the little bugs off, but I'm not sure what they were and if they were just going after the mold or if they were going to go after my juvies. I would appreciate any feed back on this. - Thanks, Dana ---------------------------- Dana Chyung 600 Hope St. apt. #1 Providence, RI 02906 [EMAIL PROTECTED] 401-447-9938 _______________________________________________ Global Gecko Association http://www.gekkota.com Classifieds http://www.gekkota.com/cgi-gekkota/classifieds.cgi gecko mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://lists.gekkota.com/mailman/listinfo/gecko _______________________________________________ Global Gecko Association http://www.gekkota.com Classifieds http://www.gekkota.com/cgi-gekkota/classifieds.cgi gecko mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://lists.gekkota.com/mailman/listinfo/gecko _______________________________________________ Global Gecko Association http://www.gekkota.com Classifieds http://www.gekkota.com/cgi-gekkota/classifieds.cgi gecko mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://lists.gekkota.com/mailman/listinfo/gecko
