New Pygmy's Not Happy??

[bcawrse]

Hi y'all,

I recieved 1.2 R. Brev's from FL Chams this past Thursday, and as of this after noon, one has died (female), one is looking so-so (male), and one seems happy (female). They're 2 month captive breds. I'd like to know what's up, and make sure the other two stay alive!

My setup is:

Cage: The brevs are in a plastic 1 gallon container until they're old enough to move into their 30 gallon.
Cage Interior: Slightly moist paper towel on bottom, a few fake plants and one live plant cutting (I'm taking cuttings from a vine plant I have). The entire potted live plant was in the enclosure, but I've taken it out as of today, and am planning on replacing the cuttings when they start to get old.
Humidity/Temp: ~70/~80 (day), ~70 (night)
Light: In a room that gets late afternoon sun, but no sunlight directly on tank. No artificial light
Food: Fruit fly, no gut loading, no real schedule (haven't had the chams long enough to set one!)

The only thing I can think of is that the live plant, when in the tank, was planted in a potting soil mix that may have had something in it. It also had perlite in the soil, which I know is a no-no, but the feeding area is well away from the plant, so I figured that the brevs wouldn't be getting perlite stuck to their tounges.

Any ideas? Thanks for any help!

 

[Julirs]

Make sure that you wash any plants/cuttings with soapy water and rinse well-even trace amounts will kill little brevs. 80 is too high for these little ones. I keep mine at a constant room temp of about 73-74 degrees. The setup sounds OK. How are you watering them?
Perlite is bad-either place rocks over the soil or repot in organic soil.

 

[annette]

pygmy brev.

try to feed crickets dusted with ca.-powder D3. Crickets should be not larger then the distance between their eyes. I know Mike, he is a great guy. If you have further problems, don't hesitate to ask him. Unfortunately a lot is try and error. Went all through this too.

Annette

 

[Chameleons Northwest]

I second Julirs. The 80 degree temps are too hot. We keep ours at 72-75 day and 65-70 night. I have read that temps 80 and above can be deadly for them. The room may be getting too warm with that late afternoon sun. You may wish to try a different room in the house.

 

[PNsSP]

young ones stress easily. a 1 gallon tank is too small (typo?)... a 10 gallon tank for 2 of them that age were too small for my first 2 that i hatched. Bullying was an issue and i didnt realize that one was eating all the food until he was considerably bigger than his sibbling. the one who wasnt eating had a few fractures but hes better now. If u cant separate them for whatever reason then just make the tanks really dense with plants. With my last clutch i tried separating them and they seem to do much better.

 

[bcawrse]

Cool, Thanks for all the advice y'all. I'll try to cool things down for them and see what happens. As far as tank size, I put them into their 30 gallon originally, but thought it was too big, and that they wouldn't be able to find the flies. Was this an ok thought, or should I transfer them into it?

Julirs- Thanks, I took the perlite out after the second day. I'll wash the cuttings more thoroughly. As far as watering, they get misted with water twice a day using a pressure aerosol can (fill with water, pump the cap to pressurize, spray fine mist).

 

[Julirs]

Sometimes with pygmies-they are just so small there really isn't a reason (that we know about) that they keel over. I have had my fair share of pygmy losses. Finally I have 4 week old babies and 2 1 day old babies and 1 that is almost out of the egg!

 

[bcawrse]

Ha,
They are tiny little guys. I did my homework reasonably well before I got these (although going back over my notes, I'm not sure why I thought they wanted mid to high 70's), but I was still surprised at how small they actually are. 'Specially these little 2 month olds I got. I've lowered the temp and it seems to have helped immensely.

 

[Julirs]

2 months old are HUGE compared to new borns! I started my trio of 2 month olds from Mike in a 10 gallon tank with no issues. My week old babies are huge compared to the ones that hatched yesterday.

 

[Chameleons Northwest]

Ha,
They are tiny little guys. I did my homework reasonably well before I got these (although going back over my notes, I'm not sure why I thought they wanted mid to high 70's), but I was still surprised at how small they actually are. 'Specially these little 2 month olds I got. I've lowered the temp and it seems to have helped immensely.

I agree with Juli. It really may not have been the temps, but it's good that you lowered them. With the first batch of brevs we received last year from a different supplier- one died about 7 days after arrival. For no reason that was apparent. And we recently lost 2 more pygmies, for no reason that was apparent. It happens.

How's the male looking today?