An Experiment in Substrate

Through our various experiences with baby leos, we've decided to try letting them live on sand substrate from birth rather than starting them out on paper towel.  I don't recommend this for anyone who wants to breed leos, as there is a chance of the little ones ingesting sand and becoming impacted and dying, but we've decided that the chances are low enough to risk it.  Frankly, sand is easier to clean because you can just sift out the poop rather than having to disturb the whole tank by having to take all the paper towel out and replace it.  Besides, we've had babies living on sand before because we ran out of paper towel briefly, and they were just fine.  Really, the paper towel is just procautionary.

This is Charlie and Echo exploring their new sandy home.  Delta is in the wet-box and is difficult to get pics of, but she's Echo's twin (only with much prettier patterning).

I'm very worried about Delta right now.  Baby leos tend to be born with big bulgy eyes and although I don't think they are blind at birth, they certainly look blind.  The thing is, Echo and Delta were hatched just under a week ago (Delta is one day older than Echo), and Echo's eyes were only buggy for about a day or two.  Delta's eyes haven't normalized yet, and actually look as though there might be something wrong with them.  Her bottom lids look swollen, and you can't even see her irises... her eyes are just dark grey.  I guess it's just a waiting game, now.  We'll see how she looks in a couple of days.  I hope she's okay, I'd be so heartbroken if one of my babies suffered and/or died.

On an upnote, Darwin got a new log to climb on today and seems to be enjoying it:

~J