Eco Earth

[mmichele]

what do you guys think about Eco earth

[clint545]

A good substrate... for adult Cresteds. Smaller Cresties might accidently choke on it when they're hunting crickets and miss them. Otherwise it's one of the better ones out there.

[mmichele]

k thats what i thought would it be good for one 3 monthes old. im asking this cuz i just bought a second one. and its three monthes old

[clint545]

Give them till they're bigger and get a better handle on how to nab a cricket on their first try:) Paper towel works for me, even thou it's not the prettiest thing to have in a tank:)

[HerpAddict]

I use it for any crested that's big enough. It's great because it holds in some moisture when you spray, which helps keep up the humidity all day long. It also works great for me when as an egg laying substrate, I don't use hide boxes, or laying boxes, my girls will just lay in the eco-earth, or coco-fibre as I call it.

I even play sometimes and sculpt the coco fibre into hills and valleys to make things look more interesting! That's just be being weird though!

[mmichele]

soo a crested thats 8 monthes or older should use this but anything below that should not??

[HerpAddict]

I put it in once I see that my little ones are catching crickets well on their own, Normally that's after about 1 month old. I have a hard time keeping up the moisture with just papertowel, so I move them off it sooner than most I think.

[labomb]

how often do you guys clean out the coco fiber? doesn't it make cleaning more difficult? I always use the carpeting that I can take out and wash once a week with a light bleach solution. But I would rather use ths coco fiber. would that need changing often?

[mmichele]

well i would change it every 3 to 4 monthes but washing it is good to. i think this stuff goes a long way cuz one little brick can make over like 6 to 8 gallons of coco fiber.

[sungazer]

i just bought 3 bricks of it and it rocks one brick expanded 7 times and make sure you have a large container, mine over flowed, lol but i am using it for water dragons. i feed them out side of the tank.

[K1LOS]

how do you all get the right amount? i don't have the need for a whole brick, so i have been sawing off the pieces i need and expanding them. Sawing it is tough work though, does anybody else break it apart? how?

K!LOS

[sungazer]

you can soak the whole thing and take out what you need and dry out the rest, given that it wont go back into the brick but it is easy to get the amount you need for next time.

[LdyPayne]

you could cut it in chunks with a saw...though it's a bit gratting on the ears LOL. One thing mentioned by another poster, that he uses the eco-earth as an incubation medium? I seem to recall eco-earth (or at least I think it was eco-earth, l can't remember and I don't have my rhac book handy to double check, as I am at work) can harm the eggs if used as an incubation medium. Will double check and post tomorror if its something other than eco-earth that I am thinking of.

[HerpAddict]

About the incubation medium...I had heard that it was bad...but then I knew 3 top breeders that used it for hundreds of eggs, so I decided it give it a shot, and it's given me 3 healthy hatchlings so far!

I moisturized a whole brick, and put the damp excess into a triple layer of garbage bags, and just tie it up tight, and then store it in a cool place (my basement).

[little_dragon_]

I love coco fiber..same as eco earth. I use vermiculite for incubation medium. I wouldn't use coco fiber because it will mold easy. I do use it for my egg boxes though ;)

[DragnDrop]

A few points I'd like to make.
Eco-earth is the expensive brand name for 'soilless seed starter' sold at garden centres. Save a bundle of $ if you want by buying that. With it being the end of the gardening season, I just picked up a 3-pack for 75% off.
Moist coco-fibre/eco-earth does mold if there's foreign organic matter in it, the cocofibre itself is less likely to go blue. Since it's hard or impossible to see the foreign matter, I wouldn't store it moist for long in a plastic bag, it will probably just grow it's own cooties.
You can moisten the brick, crumble it, remove what you need and let it dry out. Once it's been wet and has expanded it won't shrink back to the compressed volume that it came in. It will stay loose so you can help yourself to what you need and just wet it then. Letting it dry before storing helps reduce mold and other hairy growths. ;)

I tried sawing some off and made more fine dust to inhale than anything, now I just soak it as mentioned.

Normally I use ceramic soil substrate for incubating but I ran low this year and couldn't find any. Going back to peat didn't thril me because I didn't have much of it, and never had luck with vermiculite or perlite so I used coco-fibre for some of the clutches. Turns out most of those were crestie eggs and a few gargoyles. I've not run into a problem with it yet, all clutches are doing great and some hatched already. I read the article in the book too, and wasn't sure what to expect or if I should even use it. However, I think they meant not to use it as a laying substrate in the enclosure since it does dry out a bit too much for that (or it stays too wet if you're overly generous with misting). I can see not wanting the girls to lay eggs in the floor substrate in my enclosures, it does get dry because I let it dry out a bit each day to prevent fungus. I've got coco-fibre in the laying boxes which stays nicely moist, both leopard and rhac eggs, no problems with them.

[stickytoedgecko]

coco fiber breaks can be easily seperated into smaller peices using a straight screw driver and a light tap with a hammer. simply put the screw driver into the smallest face of the brick tap into with a hammer and pry it apart, it works cuz it goes with the grain of it. and it will at least cut it down to half for you. If you need something smaller, repeat :o)


Just our 2 cents...