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.

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