whats wrong here

ollygatorsnapper

ollygatorsnapper

New Member
apocalypse upon us?

lol i had to say sumthing drastic in hoping i get a response. i have a total of 15 veiled baby chams and two of them seem to be walking around with their eyes shut in the aquarium. is this normal?
 
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It doesn't sound right but more information is needed to answer your question. How old are the veileds, how many are in the tank, what are you feeding them, how are you misting, what temperature are they & what is your lighting? We can go from there.:)
 
Please allow more time for answers before starting another thread about the same topic. Thanks.
 
ok i have 15 veileds in a 10 gal aquarium. they are about three weeks old. i keep the aquarium at 75 to 82 degrees. i had them in a bigger screen enclosure but did not have a heat lamp in there so the temp stayed generally at 72 to 75 degrees. i think my uvb flourescent light is a 5.0 not sure though. i also have a reptifogger in there to keep the humidity up, which also acts as a dripper because of the water buildup that it makes on the fabric polyester screened lid that eventually drips through. almost everyday i dust fruit flies with chameleon dust powder by t rex. hopefully thats enough info
 
15 is to many for a 10 gallon tank. You should have no more then 5 in a cage that size. you should get a uvb light that your sure of, that may be the problem. Also dusting that hard on such young chams can cause damage.
 
Do you have a heat light now?

You should. Inadequate basking temp can cause the symptom you are describing. Babies should be able to reach at least 85 degrees (I go even higher, many on the forums do not without problems, but I would definately make sure you have a hot spot of some sort in the enclosure and not rely on ambient temp). It is important the babies be able to escape the heat when they want as well- heat one end, and make sure the other is at least below 79.

Get rid of the fogger. Too much constant dampness can cause the symptom you are describing. 3 week old veileds in a tank that size tend to do best with a hand misting of the enclosure a couple times a day and possibly a drip cup, depending on size of the babies at this point (without a heat light and at those temps, and because it sounds from your description like they are still mainly eating fruit flies, I suspect yours are probably still pretty small, and the misting 2x or maybe eve 3x per day would be fine). If they haven't grown much since hatching, you may want to mist enough that water drops form on the glass, branches, and leaves, but not puddle at the bottom, and then let the enclosure dry completely, and then mist again a short time after it completely dries. I do that for the first couple of weeks normally. Constant dampness causes problems. Once you have babies with eye problems like that, you may need to make sure you hit the babies slightly just a little (like a pump or two from a hand-held mister) with the mist to get them started drinking and to get their eyes open. Once eyes are open, offer food a short time later- make sure it is well gutloaded and dusted with supplement.

Find out for certain what brand flourescent you are using and report back. Improper full spectrum lighting can cause the symptom you are describing.

I have no experience with the t-rex powder, but again, lack of adequate supplementation can cause the symptom you are describing. Maybe someone here knows about that supplement. But lack of proper nutrition or poor or inadequate supplementation can definitely cause the symptom you are having...

Basically, get some good info and then check each point with your setup to make sure you are following each thing exactly. Light, temperature, how water is provided, supplementation, gutloading, all of these are very important and you can't fudge them or you will end up with more problems (google is your friend, try to get a care sheet for babies from a breeder somewhere that gives brand names for supplements and lights and go point by point through the sheet and make adjustments to what you are doing so you are doing what the breeder is doing as exactly as possible).

You should also spread them out some by this age- splitting them into 3 enclosures about the size of the 10g would be better by this age. Stress from siblings that are outgrowing them or that are more territorial can cause the symptom you are describing.

The symptom may be caused by different problems. The only way to troubleshoot is to go step by step and check everything you are doing and make adjustments.
 
it would seem like its entirely too damp in the cage, the paper towels are soaked within a day of that fogger running. should a get a thermostat to run the heat bulb? i have to go out of town for the next three days and im goin to have a friend stop by to feed and mist them. the uvb is 3 month old it says zilla reptile desert 50 on the bulb so i am not real sure what that means
 
You better get a new linear bulb 5.0 uvb by repti sun. And a 40 watt heat bulb is prob plenty for an aquarium. You need a therm/hygrom also. Get a digital combo from home depot or lowes for 12.00 Also you need too start feeding fruit flies and also pin heads. Dust every day w/ calcium without D3. Twice monthly w calcium with d3.
 
Get crickets. Sounds like your only providing FFlies. I usually start veils out on 1 week old crickets. 15 babies will go through a 1000 crickets in under a week.

When you say " I'm feeding fruit flies almost everyday with calcium", are you offering food (insects) everyday?
 
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ok this is what i have figured...

im going to get 2 new 5.0 bulbs, 2 thermo regulators that im going to connect to the heat lamps. i have 15 so im going to try to split them in half, keeping the bigger ones in one cage, and the smaller ones in the other. no more fogger. and im also going to look for powder without d3. hygrometer???! not familiar with that but will b soon. these little guys can sure burn a hole in your pocket!
 
yes i am feeding them fruit flies everyday. they r three weeks old almost. pinheads have been a pain to get lately at the local pet store. but i will ask when i get there.
 
ollygatorsnapper said:
...the uvb is 3 month old it says zilla reptile desert 50 on the bulb so i am not real sure what that means
Click to expand...
Howdy,

As Heather mentioned, replace that R-Zilla Desert 50 with a ZooMed Reptisun 5.0 linear (18" is fine) tube and a fixture. DO NOT use that R-Zilla tube, even for another minute! Closed eyes is due to the pain of photo-kerato-conjunctivitis. It shouldn't be too late and they will likely recover in a few days after the R-Zilla has been removed.
 
feeding dusted ffs is a terribly inefficient way to deliver supplements, which is probably a good thing if you are using chameleon dust ICB by t-rex on a daily basis, because it contains preformed vitamin A and daily use will put them young chams on a fast track to vitamin A excess. also you didnt mention how you were feeding the ffs to the chams ?, if you are simply dumping the flies in, you may also be dumping excess dusting powder into their eyes , they are usually looking up when flies are coming from above, and the powder is abrasive. you may also be dumping mites in if youre cultures are not mite free,(and if they are bought at the local pet chain i can almost guaranty they are not) personally i would use the tank for something else (like keeping your cultures mite free) get the chams back in the screen cage, with live plants, a real reptisun 5.0, and a dripper, you may want to consider changing the wattage of your heat and basking bulbs so that no dimmer is required. they should defenitely be onto a vareity of real feeders (not just ffs) as soon as they are able. 1 or 2 week crickets, baby dubia, small pheonix worms and hfs jmo
 
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