small clear bugs crawling on my tortoise

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BlackMountain412

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Does anyone know what it is? I see about 10-15 crawling on my black mountain tortoise which cohabit with 2 redfoot.

The bbm is losing weight but is still active and eating/drinking.

I have eco earth and spaq moss as substrates.

Also there some fruitflies flyin around in there because of left over veggies and fruits. I try to remove the food idea within 24 hrs but sometimes I leave it in there for 2-3 days.


The small bug is picking on only the BBM so I'm concern if theres something wrong with him. Should I remove him out by himself and not use any subrates for now?

PLEASE HELP and Give me advice..


Thanks
 

Edna

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A. Your tortoises need to be in separate enclosures. I would say ASAP but it really needs to happen right now. You did not say how old/big your Black Mountain is, but if he's losing weight that can't be a good thing.
B. "Fruit Flies" are usually fungus flies. They aren't there because of the fruit, but rather are reproducing in your substrate. It's annoying, happens at my place too. Even if you don't have tortoises in your house they can live in the soil of potted plants. I don't really know of a good way to control them that is safe for tortoises.
C. "Bug" is a very general term. I can't think of anything I would call a bug that is clear. Do they hop, crawl, move along on a slime trail? If I had to guess I would say that they are little springtails, and they are in there cleaning up the food scraps, not hurting your torts at all. Some on the forum have added pill bugs to their enclosures as competition for the food, resulting in a significant reduction in the number of springtails.
D. I like cypress mulch for a substrate. In parts of my enclosures I also have clean soil and spagnum moss and I keep it all pretty damp.

Please get your Black Mountain into his own enclosure so he can grow and thrive.
 
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