I'm a little concerned about Shikara. I'm pretty sure he's about to go thru a shed. His eyes have turned blue and his color is very dull. Last wednesday I soaked him while I cleaned his cage. He seemed okay. Since then I have only seen him stick his head out of his hid a couple of times. Other than that he has not been out of his hide that I can tell. I know BP are nocturnal and very shy but is that normal behavior for them to stay in the hide for days and days? Or is he hiding because he's about to shed? How long after the eyes turn blue will he come out and start rubbing? Should I mess with him at all during this time?

Here is a pic I took last night of him.


Also up until this past sunday I was using a red heat light to heat his cage and misting regularly to keep the humidity up. My hot side ranged from 90 to 93, cold side from 81 to 86, ambient from 79 to 84 and the humidity was 60% to 80% (higher after misting of course). On sunday the heat bulb burst so I had to use a regular 60w during the day and a blacklight at night to heat the cage. On monday I bought a CHE and UTH. I keep a log of my temps and today's readings were:

11:56AM
hot: 89.3
cold: 80.1
amb: 82.6
hum: 72% (after misting)

9:16PM
hot: 88.6
cold: 81.5
amb: 81.3
hum: 50%

The substrate is like a soil (comes in brick form that you add water to). The UTH I bought is ExoTerra Heat Wave 10.5x11 and the CHE is ExoTerra 60w in a wire frame lamp. My tank is 40 gal. and made of glass with deminsions of 36"x15"x16". Is the 60w CHE sufficiant? Should I change to a different substate?