Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi. I am contemplating moving my Leo to my 55G tank. The problem is there must be 200lbs of fish rock in it as I use to have fish in there. I dont realy have a way to dispose of so much rock without maybe puting a little in the trash every week in wich it would take like 4 years to get rid of that much and would rather not just dump it in my yard. Do you think it would be of for the Leo to just use the rock in there as substrait? I do not feed the leo in its home anyway so I am not to worried about it mistakingly eating any but who knows maybe it a hazard because he will eat it anyway. Thank in advance for the help.

I wouldn't recommend it. When I've had problems with substrate ingestion it was because the leo decided to eat the substrate. A tummy ful of gravel would probably plug up your leo. The cost of surgury to remove the obstruction would exceed the cost / inconvenience of getting rid of the gravel. You could also just get a big rubbermaid tub and store the gravel in your yard or garage. Murphy's law: you'll need it as soon as you get rid of it.

-Alice

I definately agree, any particulate substrate is dangerous, but something as large as gravel is probably just asking for impaction. A little bit of sand may be able to pass through the system, but aquarium gravel will not.

Not to mention, if that gravel is left over from your fish then its dirty and shouldn't be used anyway.The whole tank needs to be steralized so you will have to empty it of the gravel and do a thorugh cleaning of the whole tank
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I sort of agree with alteredmind, the gravel does need to be thrown out and the tank needs to be sterilized before you put another creature in it. Leos can pass some gravel depending on the size. If its those huge things i dont know how they'd eat it but if they did manage to get one into their body they'd be impacted. If its that fine stuff then they can pass a certain amount just not a belly full of gravel. Its not like sand so it doesnt stick together. But thats on my top substrates that isn't safe for leos. I'd go with either tile, paper towel, or linoleum that isn't sleek so they can't slide all over it.