Naturally occurring soil fungi with tarantulas?

[ArborealLotus]

I’ve used Scott’s awesome topsoil for my ~4” A. seemanni and it seems to be TOO awesome a soil for my purposes, and may have preferred something more inert? From a Facebook group, someone else has had the same thing occur with a recent Scott’s soil, and perhaps their latest batch includes viable spores previous Scott’s batches didn’t have.

I set up the enclosure about a week ago, and it has little mycelia spots beginning to appear, and even entire fruiting bodies (mushrooms) occurring subterraneanly up against the glass which I find hilarious.


So far, to me, it is just a healthy living soil, but will I want to sprinkle some springtails in or do other mitigation to control ordinary soil fungi??

Or let them be unless surface molds appear?

 

[ArborealLotus]

This T has only JUST begun to consider moving dirt around to dig, but so far behaves like a Brachypelma sp. just chillin on top of stuff in the open.

Will mycelia interfere with its burrow potential?

 

[BoyFromLA]

For substrate, just get top soils with no fertilizer in it. They are like a dollar or two per twenty pounds bag. Much less for much more.

And by the way what’s occurring in your enclosures is not at all an emergency.

 

[l4nsky]

Yeah, don't stress it. One of the best tips I ever got was from a microbiologist who used to grace these forums with her presence. She told me to add a spoonful of soil collected from a clean forest to my moisture dependent and bioactive enclosures. This would introduce a balanced population of beneficial soil microbes that would keep each other in check and help create a mature setup. The mycelium won't harm or interfere with the tarantula, just pick out any mushrooms that are growing on the surface before they release spores to keep it under control. If it's still an issue you want to solve, you can dry down the substrate and/or add springtails or dwarf white isopods to help eliminate it.

 

[viper69]

I see the cure for cancer!

 

[ArborealLotus]

Yeah, don't stress it. One of the best tips I ever got was from a microbiologist who used to grace these forums with her presence. She told me to add a spoonful of soil collected from a clean forest to my moisture dependent and bioactive enclosures. This would introduce a balanced population of beneficial soil microbes that would keep each other in check and help create a mature setup. The mycelium won't harm or interfere with the tarantula, just pick out any mushrooms that are growing on the surface before they release spores to keep it under control. If it's still an issue you want to solve, you can dry down the substrate and/or add springtails or dwarf white isopods to help eliminate it.

Yaaass thank you. I had already kinda settled with my planned “solution” (which is inaction lol), but an intelligent contribution is always around the corner on the boards : ).

Appreciate yeh. Yeh I take one look at mycelia and think “mmhmm that’s a healthy soil”. I will deeefinitely utilize your mentioned spoonful of wild soil for future projects.

I dooo want to start keeping isopods on the side for their own sake, will do further reading on white dwarf or others who can coexist with a giant spider .

Will add springtails if it ever gets to a point of what I would consider IMbalance.

 

[ArborealLotus]

I see the cure for cancer!

...

 

[KaroKoenig]

She told me to add a spoonful of soil collected from a clean forest to my moisture dependent and bioactive enclosures. This would introduce a balanced population of beneficial soil microbes that would keep each other in check and help create a mature setup.

...or - if a clean deciduous forest (oak, beech, etc.) is around - just get a full bucket of soil from there and use it - rotten leaves and beech nuts, last year's small twigs and everything. Just scrape away the uppermost layers of fresher leaves and scoop up the good stuff beneath. Remove the larger pieces of wood, and you're good to go: Essentially a full-blown free bioactive setup, with the additional benefit of you getting some exercise in fresh air, which is healthy.

I am using this stuff for a while now, at the moment in my A. geniculata enclosure, for my Caribena versicolor sling and for my Psytalla horrida colony. I also have it in my new Chromatopelma cyaneopubescens terrarium, which from the bioactive perspective is pointless, because it's dry... The properties are awesome. Great texture, looks and feels great, very stable, not acidic (like peat), it takes in water like a drain (no puddling whatsoever). Very pleasant scent as well, even with the Assassins, which are usually regarded as messy and smelly. Seems like those carcasses I can't find and pick out of there are not an issue. Plants are not merely existing like they did in my former setups, but they are thriving.

I am following the conclusion of many keepers in my neck of the woods: There is no such thing as an "inert" substrate (to use a term the OP was using). You can cook, boil, bake your stuff as much as you want (without burning it or your home) - you will not kill everything in there. Well, maybe everything that's actually beneficial. The nasty bacteria, spores and stuff like that will eventually return and take over. More easily than before. So I stopped treating any of the terrarium interior altogether, apart from a quick rinse.

Now, I am probably in a privileged situation. I live in a moderate climate area where no really dangerous inverts are to be expected in the soil. Couple earthworms, one of the local pillbugs here and there. Very welcome in my terrariums, actually. Also, I do have a suitable forest area in bike range (for topsoil, leaf litter, wood, moss), and widespread use of pesticide is not an issue where I live. So yeah... I have told my wife to hit me in the neck with a stick if she ever catches me buying a block of coco fibre or overpriced dirt from pet shops again. To people who have similar conditions near their home, I recommend to at least try it out.

[ / TANGENT ]

 

[ArborealLotus]

Yah so...
update on the hyphae.

Nothing happened. As pictured, is as dramatic as it got haha. A few other minuscule fruiting mushrooms appeared underground, opened up, then melted. Some threads remain, but I love them and want them to continue mildly.

Just a healthy topsoil!! Any white that has breached the surface, I’ve made sure to look at closely...

And it’s all just the seemanni’s poop.

All is as it should be : ).