Tank conditions/mouth rot?

[AvaRose]

Hi all,

Recently I've been noticing small gnats flying around Dandy's tank all too frequently. I also am concerned that there is some discoloration around his month that I am worries might be mouth rot. I have been giving his tank a thorough cleaning and changing out all the substrate about once per month. I feel like the bugs have just show up in the past month since his last cleaning (he is due for another soon but I am waiting for a new order of substrate to arrive - I upgraded him to a larger tank recently too so he's been going through it a lot faster). Since it has gotten colder, the humidity in his tank has dropped so I have started spraying it regularly to get it up to about 50-60%. I am worried that the spraying could be attracting bugs and/or mold, but if I don't spray this time of year his humidity would probably go down to 30-40%. He is on cypress mulch and eating just fine.

Does his mouth look normal to you, or do you think I need to take him to a vet? Any idea how to get rid of the bugs in his tank? Thanks all!

dandymouth.jpg

dandymouth2.jpg

[underlashes]

I'm still new to blue tongues, but here's my advice until someone with more experience steps in for ya!

The gnats are likely thriving due to the substrate being too wet, they also could have been in the substrate to begin with and you're just now seeing them (in this case, baking the substrate first would kill any bugs it came packaged with, but isn't always practical)

If you're concerned about wet substrate, here are some different humidity options you can try without misting the whole tank:
-A bigger water dish or a 2nd water dish on the warm side
-Put a wet sponge in a suction cup container on the wall of the warm side (it acts as a humidifier)
-Mist the substrate, but spray heavier on the warm side, spray lighter on the cool side so it isn't constantly wet in all areas

As for the mouth, I'm not a vet and can only judge by the picture, but it looks like stuck shed or food stains to me. I ended up taking mine in for a similar issue and that ended up being all it was. You can try gently rubbing it with a q-tip dipped in water and see if that helps.
If you notice anything off in his behavior or you think the spot is getting worse, the vet is always a good choice! They'll be able to give a better opinion in person, after all.

[splashy07]

Doesn't look like mouth rot. If you can look along the gum line inside the mouth for signs of infection but looks like food stains to me too. I always get gnats in the substrate in summer in one of my cages. I got rid of them for a while after changing it out and using substrate blocks I had previously frozen. They came back anyway, probably native ones that just flew in there. Seems to be the nemesis of high humidity environments.

[AvaRose]

Thank you! This is quite reassuring.