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Algae or a REALLY Nasty Tick Infestation

Spitfire

Spitfire

Snakeless
I was doing a regular spot cleaning today when I noticed a TON of green little spots in the corn's cage. They were all clenched to the pieces of aspen around the water bowl. I've kept fish before so I assumed that it might've been algae. They were green, ~2mm wide, and not moving. I didn't find any on the snake either. What do you think this is? I'm gonna go ahead and do a complete cage cleaning (removing all the substrate) anyways. Any help would be appreciated. Sam
 
Being by the water bowl I'd place my bet it being mold growing on the aspen. The snake may have been drinking and splashed some water out or may have gone for a swim and caused the water to overflow into the bedding.
 
Thanks, that's what I thought it was too. Can it cause any major health problems if the snake was exposed to it for a period of time?
 
it really depends. Some molds are beneficial to health (at least to humans) while others are extremely dangerous. If your have a vet who could examine the mold he could tell you if it was dangerous to your snake or not.
 
Eh, it's kinda late for the vet thing. I disposed of the infected aspen already. Do you think I should just go ahead and disinfect the cage? If so, do you have a formula for a good disinfectant (ex: bleach:water).
 
Sam,

That is fairly common with aspen bedding, especially around wet areas. (It is nothing more than the aspen starting to decompose.) Changing the substrate should eliminate the problem. I really wouldn't be too concerned about the health impact. After all, corns in their native habitat live in dead and decaying forest floors. All the same, I'd suggest that it is time to change the substrate.....
 
Any time you clean the entire cage you should disinfect everything. I'm not sure about a specific formula for the bleach water, but I usually just fill the bottom my 20 gallon tank with 4-5 inches of cool water, put in a capful of bleach (you should just be able to smell it), make sure I wipe off all the inside surfaces of the tank, and plop all the cage accessories in and let it all sit for a while. Then, I rinse it with hot water until the tank doesn't smell anymore.
 
Just remember that even bleach doesn't kill 100% of the really nasty critters. ;)
 
Bleach is still a good choice; just ensure that everything gets thoroughly rinsed.

IMO, Nolvasan is better for the animals as well as Iodophor. Iodophor is much cheaper and is a food grade agent used extensively in restaurants and hospitals. Since it is food safe, it requires no rinse, but will discolor plastics and silicone. I started using it for homebrewing (perhaps a topic for another time :D) and it gets rid of the all bacteria.

With all that said, the only know killer of Crypto is moist heat, similar to a dishwasher’s heat cycle. Crypto been proven to survive heat, cold, chlorine, iodine and other chemical sanitizers. Of course if you've got Crypto in your collection, you've got dead reptiles to dispose of first.....
 
Edit: You beat me to it CAV! Here's my original post anyway:

I think what CAV was eluding to was crypto and possibly some other things.

I've heard that the only real way to get rid of crypto is to expose the cage, etc. to steam, like through an autoclave. Though I doubt any of us have access to an autoclave, except those in the medical professions, and even then, I'm sure their work wouldn't want them bringing in snake husbandry stuff to autoclave. I know when I worked at a vet hospital there was only one staff member that was allowed to do anything with the autoclave. I think it was because it was so expensive they didn't want any of the rest of us to screw something up, but this is getting off topic now.

I'd say that a bleach/water solution (I think 1:10 is what is generally recommended) will kill the main "bugs" you need to worry about. However, you might want to consider getting something called Clorhexadine Diacetate (also called Nolvosan). It's the only thing we ever used to disinfect stuff at the vet hospital, aside from the autoclave that is. I think the Bean Farm sells it.
 
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