gecko egg fungus nightmare

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trogdor1988

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I need help, this is the first time I've bred any of my geckos and everytime I incubate them they keep getting covered in fungus/mould. Not sure what I'm doing wrong, this is the third egg in a row now. First a bynoes clutch now robust velvet eggs. I'm keeping them at about 26 degrees in a closed Chinese food container with vermiculite and a small amount of water mixed in. I'm using clean new containers for each clutch and clean new vermiculite so I'm not sure how to fix this problem, help please anyone?

Steve
 
I have had nothing but problems with vermiculite, I had the same problem moldy eggs I have changed to pearlite and have much better results.
 
if the eggs are fertile to start with then I would move to a perlite mix 50/50 based on weight

also up the temp a little to 27-28
 
I have heard tinea foot cream actually works. Being inexperienced with breeding geckoes 26 sounds slightly low i could be very wrong though i thought they incubate closer to 29 but maybe thats levis. it was a member oin here that said tinea cream is what works so hopefully he will read this and give you some tips/
 
Ahh right, well I'm pretty sure I was told by members of this site 26 would be fine. Any chance of saving the egg or? Ill switch too pearlite but I only have the large grain stuff for my orchids atm. Hopefully it will do. Hopefully they lay another clutch before its to late.

Ahh right, well I'm pretty sure I was told by members of this site 26 would be fine. Any chance of saving the egg or? Ill switch too pearlite but I only have the large grain stuff for my orchids atm. Hopefully it will do. Hopefully they lay another clutch before its to late, thanks guys.
 
Ahh right, well I'm pretty sure I was told by members of this site 26 would be fine. Any chance of saving the egg or? Ill switch too pearlite but I only have the large grain stuff for my orchids atm. Hopefully it will do. Hopefully they lay another clutch before its to late.

I have had no luck bringing them back, as kupper said they may not be fertile to start with if they are a young pair.
 
I use grade 4 vermiculite for all my knobbies i would say it would be around pea or corn kernell size pieces, I do a mix by feel but 1:1 by weight normally works a treat I incubate all my gex with everything else at 30.5 degrees

Cheers sam
 
I use perlite too. I spray my water around the sides of the tub so the eggs are not in direct contact with wet substrate. I incubate my eggs at between 29-30 degrees. My infertile eggs don't even seam to go mouldy. I usually leave a hole open in the top of my container.
How much water are you using by weight to vermiculite?
 
while im not even 1% as experienced in teh egg field as most people on here, i found with last years attempts the eggs didnt go mouldy till they were dead.

i had 1 of 2 eggs hatch in a few clutches, teh dead egg would die at 6 weeks, i was told that was because the substrate was too wet,..when i went 60:40 instead of 50:50 both eggs hatched.

so far my first clutch of amyae eggs this year is 6 weeks in and still looking really good,....incubating at around 28, 60:40 vermiculite to water by weight.


oh, and ive heard of tinea powder for mould, not cream, which would make more sense,....

might try perlite next, only have 1 tubs worth of vermiculite left,....
 
If going mouldy theres a good chance they were not fertile or very weak to begin with, it often happens with the first clutch of the season.
 
I use tinea powder to prevent mould on eggs, It works a treat. I have had eggs go mouldy (still fertile), so I wiped the mould off and dusted them with tinea powder and the mould didn't come back and the eggs hatched fine. I recommend it to everyone.
 
i had nothing but problems last breeding season when i used vermiculite although the season before was 100% success rate, but this season i wont be taking any chances and will go with perlite.
 
I am having the same problem with one of my Golden Tail Gecky's first clutch.... Gecko Josh (from here), who sold my original gecko's to me advised me to switch to perlite instead of vermiculite, which I did yesterday, 1 week into their incubation. One kept growing fuzzy kind of mold, like the very beginning stage of it. I wipe it off and it grows back the next day :-( One looks like it could possibly be dead, as it was very deflated when I first put it in the incubator, and is the one that keeps growing the most mold, but the other one looks like it might be ok..? Good luck to you Steve, hopefully our little eggs survive :)

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I am having the same problem with one of my Golden Tail Gecky's first clutch.... Gecko Josh (from here), who sold my original gecko's to me advised me to switch to perlite instead of vermiculite, which I did yesterday, 1 week into their incubation. One kept growing fuzzy kind of mold, like the very beginning stage of it. I wipe it off and it grows back the next day :-( One looks like it could possibly be dead, as it was very deflated when I first put it in the incubator, and is the one that keeps growing the most mold, but the other one looks like it might be ok..? Good luck to you Steve, hopefully our little eggs survive :)

OMG, just realized how old your post was.... Lol, never mind!
 
I have incubated a few thousand eggs of many different species of reptiles on vermiculite and have had no problems with it at all, I have also used sphagnum moss and perlite without any problems. If the eggs are good to begin with, and you get the moisture ratio right, they will hatch!!! Eggs need two things to hatch, A; to be fertile, and B; to have enough nutrients in them to form a strong embryo / hatchling, the latter is a very common yet often unrecognised issue that many keepers don't understand and often blame something else like egg substrate. It is commonly a problem with many gecko species, and is usually caused by over heating (over heating in amount of hours) the female which causes her to develop eggs rapidly, ie laying eggs every 15-20 days instead of 30 - 40, though other factors such as diet and calcium levels are also factors that you need to look at.
 
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