planted vivarium.. to clean or not to clean!

[Srakha]

Hello everyone! I have a vivarium I planted up originally for wc holaspis lizards. However these have since died or escaped (disappeared somehow). It has been about a year since they were in there, and I have since redecorated: added new plants, glued in a corkbark background, glued in some larger branches, and added a new thick top layer of cocofiber over the dirt. The only living thing in there still besides the plants is a whole bunch of dwarf white isopods in the dirt.

Anyways, my question is.. is this cage safe to use for new reptiles? I have some wc uroplatus phantasticus in quarantine that I am intending on putting in this cage. I can't really bleach clean the cage, and taking all the plants out is something I am hoping to avoid.

Here's a picture of how the cage looks now, in case anyone was curious:[attachment=0]

 

[rrcoolj]

why wouldn't it be?

 

[Srakha]

Well.. this is what I'm asking I didn't bleach anything or remove any dirt when planting new plants. I rinsed off the branches in hot water, and I may have wiped the leaves down of the one plant that the holaspis did come in contact with, as well as the cork bark on the ground.

I don't know if they had any diseases or parasites or bacteria, but they lived for at least a year with anything they did have. I think most of them escaped, and the two that actually died were my fault/accidents. The lid was not holaspis escape proof - they are slim lizards that can sneak out of a normal screen lid if it isn't set down just right.

I was initially remaking the cage to get more of them, but have since decided that phantasticus are more interesting

 

[rrcoolj]

looks fine to me

 

[GOT_TEGUS]

Hello everyone! I have a vivarium I planted up originally for wc holaspis lizards. However these have since died or escaped (disappeared somehow). It has been about a year since they were in there, and I have since redecorated: added new plants, glued in a corkbark background, glued in some larger branches, and added a new thick top layer of cocofiber over the dirt. The only living thing in there still besides the plants is a whole bunch of dwarf white isopods in the dirt.

Anyways, my question is.. is this cage safe to use for new reptiles? I have some wc uroplatus phantasticus in quarantine that I am intending on putting in this cage. I can't really bleach clean the cage, and taking all the plants out is something I am hoping to avoid.

Here's a picture of how the cage looks now, in case anyone was curious:[attachment=0]

nice lookin cage looks clean to me.

 

[Richard21]

Do you have any idea how your past reptiles died in there? Or escaped? I think some reptiles can transmit diseases to other reptiles I would try to clean it the best I could. Very nice cage by the way.

 

[Srakha]

Most of them escaped I think, as they simply disappeared. One died when I accidentally shut the lid on it and the other was the very last one I had, which I moved into a kritter keeper to redo the cage, and she lasted maybe two weeks, and I hadn't finished the main cage yet. I think it stressed her out or something.