Reptile & Amphibian Forums

i have a vivarium that is about 60 gallons.i use 2 uv florecent tubes,mist every day,have several plants,i have a small water area,many live plants and the floor is basically carpeted in live moss.its not the typical moss you see sold for reptiles and amphibians.its wild moss that i found near my house.i think it looks great in a terrarium.i basically use it as a live carpet and make hills and fill in cracks with it.its the kind of moss that you see growing inbetween the cracks in the sidwalk or around the base of trees.its very,very short and looks like very short astroturf.anyway,im sure you guys know what i am talking about.my problem is,i love the stuff but i have problems keeping it green.when i take it from outside,it is really ,really green and nice.but after a week or so indoors,its begins to turn brown.i know that i have good growing conditions in the tank,because as the moss dies,other plant spores and seeds that where in the moss from outside,begin to sprout and i have basically weeds growing through the moss.i dont like the dead moss you can buy bags of for substrate.i want live,green moss to grow all over the dead wood i have on the floor and walls of my tank.i want it to look like an old forest and i dont think anything makes that look more that live moss growing over everything.oh that and mushrooms.actually,since i mentioned that,has anyone ever tried growing mushrooms in a vivarium?can it be done?i do not yet have any animals in my tank,im actually more interested in getting the tank growing properly,the way i want it to look,before i place any animals in it.thanks

Unfortunately, the outside moss from a temperate environment is not suitable for a tropical vivarium, because it requires better lighting, is seasonal, and the humidity and temps just aren't right for it, either. It usually simply dies after awhile. Try a tropical moss. Java is great. The other tropical sheet mosses need a lot of light and in my experience more ventilation than I give my dart frogs-- or that's my guess (or excuse) why they fail eventually.

As far as mushrooms, we have all had them just crop up to our great joy, but none of us yet has reported being able to deliberately grow them that I know of, or even sustain those that crop up spontaneously. They are just one of the surprise delights of attempting to keep a biological balanced vivarium, vs a super-santitized set up with plastic plants.
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Patty
Pahsimeroi, Idaho

4 D. auratus blue
5 D. galactonotus pumpkin orange splash back
5 D. imitator
6 D. leucomelas
4 D. pumilio Bastimentos
4 D. fantasticus
4 P. terribilis
4 D. reticulatus
4 D. castaneoticus
2 D. azureus
4 P vittatus

hey thanks for responding,you mentioned maybe trying a tropical moss instead?what does this moss look like? how do i buy it?its alive right? i have seen other mosses,im assuming tropical,in vivariums but they seem to be of the longer type.i like the look of the really short type if you know what i mean.kinda looks like really short green carpet.the other mosses that i have seen look more like a shag carpet,something i dont like as much.im designing my vivarium to resemble a bonsai type of look and the short moss is a must.also as far as mushrooms,i have searched online for mushroom growing and all i find are kits for growing "magic" mushrooms,the type you take to trip.its funny cause there are page after page of these kits for sale and i couldnt find one site selling regular mushroom growing kits.if all i can get are these,do you think they can be toxic/harmful to reptiles and amphs,or are they only toxic to mammals?the magic mushrooms are actually very pretty,they have purple rings that go around them and they dont seem to get too big.

The Java moss is definitly of the shaggy carpet type, so that wouldn't be what you are looking for. I have personally had no success with the other short mosses I've tried, perhaps because my dart set-ups don't have enough light for them, and may not have enough ventilation. On the other hand, in my Phyllobates terribilis tank, the Java is beautiful. They keep it trampled down to a carpet except on the edges where I can trim it off. They just happen to have the habit of hanging out in the open more than the other darts.

I think the mushrooms are all safe with darts that eat pick off their food with their tongues. The leap and gobble frogs might ingest them, as they sometimes do substrate and pieces of plants, etc. How dangerous this would be to frogs, I simply don't know. Whether any mushroom toxins would affect them through their very permeable skins, I don't know either, but I've never found a report, either documented or anectdotal to suggest this.

While I've never attempted to grow shrooms in my tanks deliberately, I did take a spore print of a delightful yellow mushroom recently that grew in my auratus tank. It must have taken years to develop in this 3 year old tank, because it certainly isn't a local species that just floated in, and had a vast mycelia tangle that covered most of the cork bark. It sent up several fruiting bodies, and has now disappeared again, as suddenly as it appeared. Since it is on cork bark and not in the substrate, I'm hoping it will reappear, but if it does, this will be a first. Usually all the neat mushrooms fruit, usually in new tanks, then I never see them again.
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Patty
Pahsimeroi, Idaho

4 D. auratus blue
5 D. galactonotus pumpkin orange splash back
5 D. imitator
6 D. leucomelas
4 D. pumilio Bastimentos
4 D. fantasticus
4 P. terribilis
4 D. reticulatus
4 D. castaneoticus
2 D. azureus
4 P vittatus