I have seen a strange white fungus/other organism appear in my hatchling tortoise enclosure. The temperature is 78F cold side, 100F warm side. Humidity fluctuates between 75 and 90%.
Has anyone seen this before? It appears under or near the water bowl and food bowl if the saucers are not washed twice daily. Have seen it three times now. The first time, a few days ago, I scooped out all the affected substrate in a wide margin. I began cleaning the water and food saucers two times daily rather than once because after 12 hours it seemed to pop up again. I only have eco earth so I made 7 blocks of it to replace at least the top portion of the bark in the enclosure. Doing that tonight after work.
Any tips to help keep the strange stuff from reemerging other than what I'm doing? I don't have enough substrate to change it all out completely, but will pick up a bunch more substrate after next paycheck. I worry about using eco earth because my leopard hatchling seems to want to eat the long stringy pieces. It's all I have right now, so I will pick out as many of the long pieces as possible.
if you have seen this before, is it more serious than I am thinking? Should I change everything and start over fresh in that enclosure? I'd hate to do that for time constraints. I saw on a bioactive crested gecko forum that they use cleanup crews to keep mold/etc at bay; perhaps some earth worms could help me out here...
Last question: have you seen/heard of tortoises getting sick from the spores and such?
If anyone knows anything about this or has any suggestions, I'm all ears!
Has anyone seen this before? It appears under or near the water bowl and food bowl if the saucers are not washed twice daily. Have seen it three times now. The first time, a few days ago, I scooped out all the affected substrate in a wide margin. I began cleaning the water and food saucers two times daily rather than once because after 12 hours it seemed to pop up again. I only have eco earth so I made 7 blocks of it to replace at least the top portion of the bark in the enclosure. Doing that tonight after work.
Any tips to help keep the strange stuff from reemerging other than what I'm doing? I don't have enough substrate to change it all out completely, but will pick up a bunch more substrate after next paycheck. I worry about using eco earth because my leopard hatchling seems to want to eat the long stringy pieces. It's all I have right now, so I will pick out as many of the long pieces as possible.
if you have seen this before, is it more serious than I am thinking? Should I change everything and start over fresh in that enclosure? I'd hate to do that for time constraints. I saw on a bioactive crested gecko forum that they use cleanup crews to keep mold/etc at bay; perhaps some earth worms could help me out here...
Last question: have you seen/heard of tortoises getting sick from the spores and such?
If anyone knows anything about this or has any suggestions, I'm all ears!
