Hi Bob,

I had firsthand experience with this insidious disease. I had a small colony of agalmas back in the early 90s when I was in my early 20s. At some point I added a new animal into my colony that I noticed was crawling on its side a little. I said to myself that this doesn't look right. Mind you it didn't have any symptoms of a skin disorder and at the time no one really had heard about this disease/syndrome. As weeks went past, one by one all my agalmas caught some form of the disease. As I recall I had just hatched out a few babies and they caught the disease. They died very fast as they didn't have much size and energy to fight off the disease. Their skin became like sandpaper and they just withered away. It was so sad. All the while the few adults I had also had contracted the disease by now. Their skin looked exactly like the pictures of Stu's animals and they were constantly going into a shed one right after the other. One particular adult male had his skin clear up after numerous sheds, but the disease had affected his nervous system and he would forever crawl on his side or back for locomotion until I euthanized him a few months later.

So my entire colony was wiped out and I was bummed. It wasn't until about five years later that I got back into agalmas because I love them so much. I now make sure that if I bring any new animals into the colony from an outside source that they are quarantined to make sure there are no skin issues or neurological issues. I haven't had a problem since I started back into them in the late 90s.

I hope that helps

Allan Bartlett
Juarez Wonders

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