White mold on moist red dessert sand?

[Thyla]

Hey all,

Just getting some issues coming into breeding season with my smooth knob-tailed geckos and keeping the red dessert sand moist and trying to avoid this white mould which is usually about 5mm in diameter. Usually it's infrequent and I spot clean the affected area (use tweesers to remove the mass and throw dry sand on the area) and it's all good. Recently I've been keeping the cool size moist and I saw some white mould in air pockets buried a few cm (seen from transparent enclosure side) for the first time.

I'm particularly worried about when the females lay the mould will get to the egg faster than normal and be transferred into the incubator.

I never really filtered out the sand I just spot clean and mix with new sand. Should this be a routine of mine? Do others use a combination of this and direct sunlight treatment for example?

Any other solutions to this problem would be great.

thx in advance

 

[kitten_pheonix]

I would change from red desert to just play sand, mould cannot be good for the small respiratory system of geckos digging in the sand to lay the eggs, it sounds like its much too moist/ not enough ventillation as our tubs never have mould growing.

 

[Thyla]

I would change from red desert to just play sand, mould cannot be good for the small respiratory system of geckos digging in the sand to lay the eggs, it sounds like its much too moist/ not enough ventillation as our tubs never have mould growing.

Yeah I might start spraying daily less water rather than drenching the sand every few days when I feed. My ventilation has never been a problem in the past as I have around 20cm^2 of fly mesh on the lid. I would like to stick to red dessert sand as it's more natural colour for the gecko and it was bought from a pet shop so shouldn't contain any nasties.

 

[Rogue5861]

Sand shouldnt be growing mould on its own, when was the last time you did a substrate change?

I would probably remove all substrate and swap it for new stuff, if not throw what you have got into the oven and bake it dry/clean.


Rick

 

[Bluetongue1]

There are two things going on. Kitten has mentioned one of them. Mould needs constant high moisture to grow. The second thing is that mould needs organic material on which to feed. There are only two possible sources of that organic matter. One is the bodily wastes from the occupants. The other is than the sand itself contains organic material.

If it is from the occupants, this would be because you are not removing all of it when spot cleaning. Try increasing the depth and width of sand that istaken out when you remove their droppings. I suspect that depth might be the more critical.

Cleaning the sand is a little more problematic. To wash sand you need to let it completely dry out. Then add it a little at a time (using a sieve is good) into a bucket of water. Any insoluble organic matter will initially float and can be scooped out. Soluble organic material will dissolve and can be tipped out with the water. The difficulty with desert sand, and some others, is that the clay component will form a suspension in the water and be lost if you tip the water off. You can try letting it settle for a week or so and then very carefully tipping off as much water as possible. Alternatively, a few layers of fine muslin over the bucket might allow the water to be tipped out and the clay component retained.

An easier though smellier way is to sieve the dried sand to remove any larger pieces of organic material and then bake the soil an oven (outside if possible) until it is smoking and continue until it stops smoking. This will leave behind carbon and a trace of ash, neither of which can be utilised by mould as food. The down side, apart from the smoke, is that you may get a bit of further oxidation of the ferrous compounds in the sand, which will turn it a darker red.

Blue

EDIT: 2 posts went up while I was typing...not surprising.

 

[kitten_pheonix]

Yeah I might start spraying daily less water rather than drenching the sand every few days when I feed. My ventilation has never been a problem in the past as I have around 20cm^2 of fly mesh on the lid. I would like to stick to red dessert sand as it's more natural colour for the gecko and it was bought from a pet shop so shouldn't contain any nasties.

I tried the red sand for a while with wheeleri but found if it dries it forms a hard layer ontop so not really good for them to dig, although more appealing to humans I cant imagine geckos care much as all mine are now on washed sand and I have alot less issues with cleaning and smells it also dries loose so they dig no matter what (sticks less to the eggs as well and doesnt stain them)

You may need some cross ventillation as well as the hot air will be going up with not much flow happening through. Blue has the cleaning instruction for sand above.

 

[Beans]

Use newspaper its easier to clean and safer

 

[kitten_pheonix]

Use newspaper its easier to clean and safer

You cant keep geckos on newspaper.

 

[Beans]

You cant? o.o I thought they were like other lizards haha Sorry! I had no idea.

How come you cant?

 

[Rogue5861]

You cant? o.o I thought they were like other lizards haha Sorry! I had no idea.

How come you cant?

Smooth knob tailed geckos need to burrow to stay hydrated, the sand isnt for us as much as it is for them.

Most ground dwelling geckos need some sort of loose substrate that they can kick around so they can lay eggs, without this the eggs will likely dry up before you get to them or the gecko will become egg bound and possible die if she cannot absorb them.


Rick

 

[Beans]

Oooooh fair enough. xD

 

[Thyla]

So...

EDIT: Oh sry didn't see blue and other's comments above. Thanks blue that's helpful but sad to know how much work is involved in nuking red dessert sand. I think I'll go with the oven option and just open the windows. What temp and how long should I cook it for?

 

[Rogue5861]

So...

EDIT: Oh sry didn't see blue and other's comments above. Thanks blue that's helpful but sad to know how much work is involved in nuking red dessert sand. I think I'll go with the oven option and just open the windows. What temp and how long should I cook it for?

I just dried some white play sand in the oven, had it at about 160c with fan on and kept stiring it up to remove the moisture.

I believe any temp over 100c should kill off any mould spores but you could try it up real high to be sure (250c) they are gone).


Rick

 

[Bluetongue1]

...I think I'll go with the oven option and just open the windows. What temp and how long should I cook it for?

Now you are challenging the memory. It has been a long time. OK, I think it is 10cm deep in a baking tray, at around 250[SUP]o[/SUP]C (very hot oven) for 20 to 30 mins.

Mention was made of the crust on the sand when it dries being too hard for geckos to burrow into. This is caused by the amount of clay. So try washing some sand and strain the water off through an old sheet. Allow the soil to dry in sunlight or dry it out in the oven. Check how hard the surface is when wetted and allowed to dry. That might just do the trick.

Blue