sys-log:

By default when using a for loop in bash the field separator is set to a space.

Example:

[bcane@bcane \~]\$ for x in list:like:this; do echo \$x; done
list:like:this

One of the cool things about bash is that you can change this by setting a simple variable \$IFS

[bcane@bcane \~]\$ IFS=:
[bcane@bcane \~]\$ for x in list:like:this; do echo \$x; done
list like this