Rudis baby help!

[chamsrcool]

my female rudis had 7 babies and now I'm down to two, very sad I moved them to a window that doesnt get direct sunlight and the temps are fine and I always have fruit flies supplied in their tank along with a flourescent UVB bulb and sprayed twice a day but one died recently after I added pinhead crickets the day before, could the pins be responsible for uneeded stress or even death if left in the cage? I havent been giving them supplements because I read that rudis were sensitive to supplementation how could I regulate the amount of supplements given to them? beacuse they are babies and need the calcium but I dont want to risk poisoning. here's a picture of the cage also, anybody know what these blotches on the sides of my baby rudis are? their on all my babies could these be bite marks or are they just preparing for their first shed?

 

[Brad Ramsey]

Is that a compact fluorescent?
BAAAD!!!
You should get that light off of them right away.
I'm sure others will chime in.

-Brad

 

[Champhibians]

sorry to here about that. I have some 3 month rudis right now. I dust every other day with great success. I gave mine fruit flies for the first month and a half only. I gave them alot of them. I had problems with them not eating the pinheads. But the swithced over the 1/8in after a month or so with no problem. I house mine separate. 2 to a cage at most. With all livebearing this way seems to work best for me.

 

[Champhibians]

I forgot this. I think you should change the light as well.

 

[chamsrcool]

Why is the compact flourescent bad? I changed it right away but why is the bulb not reccomended?

 

[Tydis]

http://uvguide.co.uk/phototherapyphosphor.htm


read up there.

Cliffs.
Some UVB Compact's can kill.

 

[chamsrcool]

Thanks a bunch tydis!! I had no Idea, I'm going to relace the light and put in a brand new full spectrum bulb.

 

[Trace]

I don't think it was necessarily the coiled UVB bulb that was the problem. Ovoviviparous babies are notoriously hard to raise in captivity. Most seem to hit a certain point/age and then they all drop dead. Danged if I know why. One day I'll figure it out.

Like morphingexotics, I've had a dramatic improvement in survival rates if I raised my montane babies separately or in pairs. High humidity is also critical to growing montane babies. I can not stress that enough. They also need frequent misting sessions and low temperatures. You say they aren't in direct sun, but is that true all day? Glass and plastic tanks can heat up to lethal temperatures if exposed to sunlight.

Good luck with the remainder of the litter and don't be hard on yourself; they are tough to raise. Keep us posted too.
Cheers,
t

 

[snk]

keeping temperature low is the key. Heat from fluorescent light + green house effect in a room where sun light hit directly can kill the babies if not instance, gradually over period of time. For low land babies (eg: veiled or panther) babies are easily raise in a plastic container until certain ages before moving to screen cages. However, i found that mountain species babies has a higher survival rate if raise in plastic container with side cut out and replace with screen (like a small screen cage make from plastic container). This way air flow is much better hence help reducing heat clogging in the container which the only air flow is going up. Like what Trace mentioned, some how cb babies just drop dead at certain age for unknown reason. I do have rudis babies that grow up to 6 months and just dropped without a trace.