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Thread: Small white bugs crawling in tanks

  1. #1
    LizardMama
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    Default Small white bugs crawling in tanks

    After the death of a very expensive lizard that I haven't even payed for yet I'm doing all I can to find out what happened. On December 27th I cleaned my female Red Eyed Crocodile Skinks cage, she was in a different container with a small amount of water in it. While I was cleaning the tank I noticed that there were small white bugs crawling around and before I had removed the lizard I had noticed that she had had some on her too, the reason why I had put a small amount [chest high, no high!] of water in the container she was in temporarily. Well, something happened and I noticed that as I was cleaning my lizards cage the container with the lizard in it had tipped a little and the lizard was limp inside. I rushed over, tore the lid off and pulled the lizard out, she gasped [mouth open fully, gasp of air came out]. For the next 15 minutes I sat on my bed running my finger tips over her, she opened her mouth every time I touched her throat, and when I put her in her newly changed cage she was breathing, albiet heavily. For the next few days I watched her closely, noticed she vomited twice and when I went to take it out the white bugs [in a newly cleaned cage!!] were all over it. 5 days, she didn't move much but whenever I came into the room she was in a different location that what she was before. Last night before I turned off the lights I gave her 3 Wax Worms, she ate 2. Well, this morning when I woke up and turned on the lights to the cages I found her, 5 days later, dead in her cage. Those white bugs were all over her.

    Now, I have noticed that those same white bugs are also in my other Red Eyed Crocodile Skinks cage and in the American Green Tree Frog's cage as well. My question, was it those bugs that hurt my lizard and thus killed her, were those bugs parasites or was it because her container somehow, mysteriously tipped over and she near drowned? Will those same white bugs that were in my female Red Eyed Crocs cage hurt my other lizard and my American Green Tree Frogs? The reason why I have added this thread here is because I have frogs [3 American Green Tree Frogs, 2 Cuban Tree Frogs, 1 Pacman frog, 2 Gray Tree Frogs and 1 Barking Tree Frog] and all live on Eco Earth, the same substrate that my now deceased Red Eyed Croc had in her cage.

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  3. #2
    NatureLady
    Guest

    Default Re: Small white bugs crawling in tanks

    Sorry for your loss.

    Google mites and springtails. Mites are bad news, but usually black. Springtails are janitor bugs and would not have been the reason for death. If your skink threw up, she almost drowned.

    Do you have anything in the tanks that could have had springtails?

  4. #3
    arielgasca420
    Guest

    Default Re: Small white bugs crawling in tanks

    black and red mites are the ones you need to watch out for. white mites usually decompose organic matter in the tank but I would examine them and ID them properly. you may need to get some sort of magnified glass to see them. mites are extremely tiny

  5. #4

    Default Re: Small white bugs crawling in tanks

    Hey boss, while everyone else is calling spring tails, I wanted to throw in my horror story. My Red eyed Armored Crocodile Skink just passed. She presented with moderately oblong white pests that had infiltrated a few open wounds she had picked up in the wild. (Side note, if you can get captive bred, get captive bred). We washed her and the parasites all jumped ship. We isolated her for 48 hours and then took her to an exotic animal veterinarian. It turns out those pests were actually mites and only appeared white due to the species they were feeding on. She defecated after receiving subcutaneous fluids and we were able to identify hookworms and acarids from visual presentation alone. She was so full of parasites that her kidneys had failed and had been on the trail to failure for weeks before we had introduced her to our home. The inability to keep small mites off is a very late sigh for a crashed system. My skink had problems holding her head up in her last hours, so yours still could have aspirated water and then crashed due to global weakness caused by infection and parasites at the end.

    I’m sorry if this is too clinical, but this is the info I wish I had had four days ago.

  6. #5
    100+ Post Member Bynny Ribbit's Avatar
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    Default Re: Small white bugs crawling in tanks

    So sorry to hear about your skink, Thomas. Thank you so much for passing this information on.

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