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- Mar 25, 2015
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Since the topic has come up a few times recently I thought I'd make a post about some basic facts about mold, specifically slime molds.
Slime molds aren't really molds at all, despite the name. They belong to their own taxon Mycetozoa and besides that the systematics of these strange things is a mess I'm not getting into. If you find something like this in your tarantulas enclosure:
that's a slime mold. (Sorry the pic was taken through the side of the enclosure.) Actually these are the sporangia (spore containing bodies). The vegetative phase may look like this:
A slime mold actually and unbelievably consists of one single cell. It has plenty of cell nuclei, but no cell membranes separating them. It moves around in an amoeboid way, forming pseudopodia all over. Actually I think the tiny dots in the second pic may be the tips of the pseudopodia. It eats about everything it can engulf, but usually bacteria, algae, and rotting plant matter. In your tarantulas enclosure it can easily survive by eating bacteria and microscopic alge in the substrate. It may actually also eat real fungus. In this active phase it does depend on moisture, though. As soon as conditions dry out it will form sporangia (see first pic, but they come in all kinds of shapes). These sporangia can withstand bone dry conditions - they even need them to release the spores. As soon as it gets wet again the spores will hatch and form new tiny slime molds. This way they can even survive in a desert.
What does this mean for your tarantula enclosures? Well, once you have slime molds they are practically impossible to get rid of and slime molds are very common. Drying out? Fine, the slime mold will form sporangia and multiply. Increase ventilation? Oh, your slime mold will love that, it can spread its spores all the better. It doesn't need humidity after all, not like real fungus, so fresh air will not affect it at all. Just a waterdish overflown once in a while will be heaven for a slime mold - use the moisture, grow, eat, form sporangia, done.
From this it should be pretty clear that they are not actually harmful for a tarantula, although it's not impossible that they may try to eat a very small molting sling. Still, I don't want them to take over the enclosures, so I scoup them out once in a while when I can reach them and put a bit of fresh dry substrate in it's place. It's enough to keep them in check.
Slime molds aren't really molds at all, despite the name. They belong to their own taxon Mycetozoa and besides that the systematics of these strange things is a mess I'm not getting into. If you find something like this in your tarantulas enclosure:
that's a slime mold. (Sorry the pic was taken through the side of the enclosure.) Actually these are the sporangia (spore containing bodies). The vegetative phase may look like this:
A slime mold actually and unbelievably consists of one single cell. It has plenty of cell nuclei, but no cell membranes separating them. It moves around in an amoeboid way, forming pseudopodia all over. Actually I think the tiny dots in the second pic may be the tips of the pseudopodia. It eats about everything it can engulf, but usually bacteria, algae, and rotting plant matter. In your tarantulas enclosure it can easily survive by eating bacteria and microscopic alge in the substrate. It may actually also eat real fungus. In this active phase it does depend on moisture, though. As soon as conditions dry out it will form sporangia (see first pic, but they come in all kinds of shapes). These sporangia can withstand bone dry conditions - they even need them to release the spores. As soon as it gets wet again the spores will hatch and form new tiny slime molds. This way they can even survive in a desert.
What does this mean for your tarantula enclosures? Well, once you have slime molds they are practically impossible to get rid of and slime molds are very common. Drying out? Fine, the slime mold will form sporangia and multiply. Increase ventilation? Oh, your slime mold will love that, it can spread its spores all the better. It doesn't need humidity after all, not like real fungus, so fresh air will not affect it at all. Just a waterdish overflown once in a while will be heaven for a slime mold - use the moisture, grow, eat, form sporangia, done.
From this it should be pretty clear that they are not actually harmful for a tarantula, although it's not impossible that they may try to eat a very small molting sling. Still, I don't want them to take over the enclosures, so I scoup them out once in a while when I can reach them and put a bit of fresh dry substrate in it's place. It's enough to keep them in check.
