I have a newly setup paludarium (up for about 4 months now). Its about 5 ft by 4 ft and its half water, half land. The land is completely separated from the water. The last few weeks, the land side is producing lots of mushrooms. I don't know whether to pull them out or leave them alone. It is not overly moist in there, in fact I have a hard time even keeping the soil from drying out. Today I notices most of the mushrooms are dead and have mold on them. There is also some other type of fungus growing in the soil along the glass. The terrarium portion is heavily planted and houses 2 anoles.
fungus in paludarium
- Thread starter sixpack_ey
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No, I was thinking this was a bad thing. It looks like there are a few different kinds that are growing. It can't be good to have mold in my setup, right?
what you got in there animal wise
maby try to find out the type ofg mushroom so you know if its safe or not
get pics im sure some one here will know
maby try to find out the type ofg mushroom so you know if its safe or not
get pics im sure some one here will know
Did you use dirt from outside? It probably had spores in it. I don't really know what to tell you about the fungus except to try and remove as much of it as you can. You have to remember with fungus, all you're seeing is the fruiting body of it. It has a large root system underground. Remove a good portion of soil around where you see the fungus too. Pics would be helpful.
Fungus isn't likely to hurt your animals. It helps break down the waste your animals produce so that it can be used by the plants.
Fungus is a good thing they are natures decomposers and help breakdown waste and decayong organic material. It sounds to me like you have a healthy biosphere going on in their congratulations.
well, I got a book on vivariums and I think the mistake I made was using potting soil as a substrate. I am going to change out the substrate, replacing it with ground cocunut husks mixed with spagnum moss and leaf litter. The book says leaf litter will introduce lots of beneficial bacteria that will seed the tank and help breakdown wastes. (kind of like the nitrogen cycle in aquariums, now there's a topic I can relate to!) I'm sure some fungus is normal, but not as much as I'm seeing. Plus, my plants are starting to dry out, because as I've found out, potting soil was not the right way to go. And no, I don't have pics. I've tried so many times to post pics, but after hours of frustration have just given up. It took me over two hours just to get my avatar pic on here!
a good thing to add to any teranium or vivarium is a 1'' layer of Shultz charcoal. it helps with odors and stuff. its made for plants that have no drain holes. like a vivarium.