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Lovely fungus in vivarium

Slaytonp Oct 17, 2007 06:09 PM

I believe this is Clavulina cristata, one of the Crested coral fungi, which grew spontaneously on some Malaysian drift wood in one of my vivariums. It's usually considered among the mushroom species. I had to lower the resolution of the photograph in order to upload it, but it's very feathery and pretty. Some people consider it edible, while others don't like the taste, but either way, I'm not going to eat it.

These surprises are one of the reasons I don't "sanitize" wood and soil very carefully.

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Patty
Pahsimeroi, Idaho

D. auratus blue, auratus Ancon Hill, galactonotus orange, galactonotus yellow, fantasticus, reticulatus, imitator, castaneoticus, azureus, pumilio Bastimentos. P. lugubris, vittatus, terribilis mint green, terribilis orange.

Replies (6)

skid Oct 17, 2007 06:20 PM

Thats awesome. Im not trying to hijack the thread or anything but, do you think it would be a alright to actually introduce some type of wild fungi into a vivarium?

Slaytonp Oct 17, 2007 07:25 PM

It would be perfectly all right, but oddly, it usually fails, or at least seems to have failed with those of us who have tried it. One reason may be that some mushroom type fungi may spend years as mycelium growing in the wood or in the substrate before fruiting, which is about all we see. The conditions may never be just right for them to fruit. It's worth a try, though. None of the mushrooms are toxic to darts, merely because darts don't eat them, and they don't have contact poisons. Wouldn't it be incredible to grow some of the beautiful Amanitas in a vivarium? Without introducing spores myself, I've had many different interesting, or just plain gorgeous shrooms crop up.

If you find something attractive that you would like, pick a mature cap, then set it gill side down on a piece of white paper in a protected place. You can slip the paper inside a plastic baggy, but leave the end open for a little air circulation. The spores should drop onto the paper as it dries out. You can then blow them into the tank to see what happens. This is just the simplest, but perhaps not the best way to collect spores.

Since my computer went down and I lost a lot of the contact information I can't tell you right off hand for sure, but there is a great site that I believe is "themushroomexpert.com" but a search under mushrooms should find it for you. It has a forum where you can ask specific questions, or contact the host himself, as most of the forum posts are about collecting edible mushrooms. They have a terrific photo gallery of all of the species. There's also a great book, MUSHROOMS DEMYSTIFIED by David Arora, if it's worth it to you to spend a little money on it. I can't recall the cost.

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Patty
Pahsimeroi, Idaho

D. auratus blue, auratus Ancon Hill, galactonotus orange, galactonotus yellow, fantasticus, reticulatus, imitator, castaneoticus, azureus, pumilio Bastimentos. P. lugubris, vittatus, terribilis mint green, terribilis orange.

Slaytonp Oct 17, 2007 07:45 PM

Here are a couple more photos. The second photo is of an unidentified saphrophye, or parasitic plant that just cropped up in an imitator tank, and hasn't been seen since. It had no green parts at all, and although on first glance it looks somewhat like an orchid, it is definitely not that. It may one of the saphrophytes or a parasitic species related to the ghost pipes that I've never been able to identify, even with some pretty good help. The blooms were so fragile they virtually melted when I touched them. I keep hoping it will decide to show up again some day. I was unable to collect any seed, as the blooms simply disolved without setting seed capsules.

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Patty
Pahsimeroi, Idaho

D. auratus blue, auratus Ancon Hill, galactonotus orange, galactonotus yellow, fantasticus, reticulatus, imitator, castaneoticus, azureus, pumilio Bastimentos. P. lugubris, vittatus, terribilis mint green, terribilis orange.

Slaytonp Oct 17, 2007 07:48 PM

Here are a few more.

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Patty
Pahsimeroi, Idaho

D. auratus blue, auratus Ancon Hill, galactonotus orange, galactonotus yellow, fantasticus, reticulatus, imitator, castaneoticus, azureus, pumilio Bastimentos. P. lugubris, vittatus, terribilis mint green, terribilis orange.

Slaytonp Oct 17, 2007 07:50 PM

That was a double post when I got a "web page expired, resubmit" message. Sorry about that.
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Patty
Pahsimeroi, Idaho

D. auratus blue, auratus Ancon Hill, galactonotus orange, galactonotus yellow, fantasticus, reticulatus, imitator, castaneoticus, azureus, pumilio Bastimentos. P. lugubris, vittatus, terribilis mint green, terribilis orange.

skid Oct 18, 2007 09:26 PM

Hey thanks for quick responses that unidentified saphrophye one is crazy looking. I live in seattle and there are alot of different mushrooms popping up everywhere right now so i might pick a few and try to introduce 'em.

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