Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Here's a new surprise that popped up in my 4 year old imitator vivarium. Most of my tanks have had various mushrooms crop up, especially when they are relatively newly planted, but this one has had no take-down or anything but glass cleaning and plant trimming, minor maintenance for over 4 years. I haven't identified it except it's nothing I've ever seen locally. anything interesting like this is welcome, of course. I also recently had a crop of lovely butter-yellow, very delicate mushrooms in an older auratus tank that just showed up on the cork bark, fruited away, then faded out. I've posted that photo elsewhere, but will add it to this gallery as well.

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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

Here are some photos of a sulphur yellow mushroom that also showed up last spring on the cork bark of a 3 year old D. auratus tank. It may be a Hyphodoma fasciulare (sulphur tuft,) but that's just a guess from some "table top" book photos. Anyway, surprises like this is one reason I never "over-santitize" the dart vivariums or boil the cork bark.

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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 patty,those are fantastic and i imagine they are a sign that your ecosystem is in good harmony.im wondering if you did anything that you feel may have acted as a catolist that initiated blooming.when i read about this guy that uses co2 gas as a natural insectiside and flooded his tank with it for 24 hours to kill a centipede or millipede(forget)infestation,he mentioned that the following days after doing it,mushrooms began popping up all over.just curious.

I didn't do anything special. I wouldn't use the CO2 with herps in the tank, but I think that guy didn't have any herps in his tank at the time he used the CO2. Sometimes mushrooms will have been developing mycelium for a long time before the fruiting bodies show up. Some species may grow underground or on bark for several years before fruiting, and others may show up shortly after planting. Once in awhile, I see a few centipedes--they sort of come and go, but I rather like them. Those I have just seem to feed on organic matter.

Where was that CO2 post? I can't remember. On Frognet? I'm always a little leary of trying stuff like the dry ice CO2 due to the fact that it may also kill off some organisms that are beneficial to the biological balance. But it does seem like the safest way to get rid of unwanted insects in a tank without herps. I wonder if it would kill slugs.
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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

do you think your frogs eat any of the centipedes?i think the c02 would kill slugs.as far as i know,all insects need oxygen and flooding the tank with co2 for a few hours should kill them.the good thing about co2 is that its heavier than air so it should penitrate the soil and kill anything hiding in there was well.you have to be carful though becuase it cant be left in there more than say 12 hours because plants need oxygen also.i read about this volcano that was spewing out co2 and it killed all the plants in the area,the story mentioned how plants use co2 and how they thrive in a co2 rich enviornment but the roots need oxygen to survive and when the soil gets drenched with co2 for too long it will kill everything.i actually bought a small co2 tank last week when i was battling phorid flies but they left on their own.that is unless there are larva in the soil waiting for another attack.if they do ill be ready for them this time

I've been out of touch for a few days, so this is late. The frogs don't eat the centipedes. I've seen a couple of my leucs try it however, and they spit them right back out. You are right about the prolonged CO2 at high concentrations killing off not only plants, but perhaps some other vital organisms as well. I think the dry ice treatment that was mentioned was relatively short lived, so it tended to affect the insects more than the 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

Mushrooms need alot of CO2 to thrive. As far as mushroom growth I agree with someone who said that its showing a true ecosystem. They grow in the wild and thats what your trying to reproduce. Dont know what to tell you.

Jess

hey nice pic. i love getting mushrooms in my viv...
my viv is fairly new, a few months, but still has
some nice mushrooms.
pic not so good but u get the idea.

Hey--That picture IS good.
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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

I hope this thread is still being watched!! Saw it strictly by luck!

So, mushrooms growing is a "good" thing? I was just about to tear down my pygmy leaf chameleons tank and start over. I have recently started to get these pretty bright yellow mushrooms that seem to pop up over night and grow really fast. They look just like the ones that Slaytonp showed in the second post. They have come up off cork bark as well as up threw the soil. They are spreading like wildfire. I pluck them out and they come right back... three fold! They seem to double in size overnight. I let one go for a few days just to see what it would do and by the time I pulled it, it was as almost as large as my fist.

This is a 55 gallon tank w/screen top that has been set up for a little over a year. I have layered the substrate. On the bottom is a layer of Terra-Lite mixed with some charcoal followed by a layer of screen, then a layer of pea gravel then another layer of screen then soil, cocos fiber, cork bark, living sheet moss, dried leaves, plants etc......... This viv is heavily misted twice a day (distilled water) and has a UV light on top. No waterfalls and the only inhabitants are the chameleons and their prey.

Are these mushrooms something I need to worry about? Is there a way to control their growth without completely tearing the viv apart or endangering the animals? I fear if I leave them, they will quickly take over. My other concern lies with the possibility of this fungus causing harm to any eggs that may be deposited in the soil. Will any rogue bugs attempt to eat it? If so, if one of my animals ate said bug, would there be a possibility of death for this animal or would he just ....ummm .... see pretty butterflies with swirling colors?

Any information/constructive criticism will be greatly appreciated.

Here are a couple pic's of the tank right after I set it up. It has filled out quite a bit since then....

pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/herphappy/album?.dir=87ff&.src=ph&store=&prodid=&.done=http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/herphappy/my_photos
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~Jamie

Pic's! pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/herphappy/my_photos

A mushroom out-crop just indicates a healthy tank, at least it does with dart-froggers who try to set up biologically balanced set-ups for dart frogs under humid rain forest type conditions. With dry land reptiles it might indicate too much humidity, but with us, the advent of a shroom is always welcome. They are not dangerous to any dart frog, even if the mushroom is poisonous if you or I would eat it. Dart frogs don't eat mushrooms, even accidentally. They pick off insects accurately, without gobbling the surrounding plants or substrate by accident.
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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