freedumbdclxvi
Arachnoprince
- Joined
- May 28, 2012
- Messages
- 1,426
Use to be 100% coco fiber, but now I use it only as a mix in. I use peat or a peat based potting soil mixed with coco fiber at about an 85/15 ratio.
So if you purchase a bag of substrate from a pet store you sterilize it?Substrate should be sterilized before use.
I seem to have two types of 'shrooms. One umbrella type on a long stem that prefers the damper enclosures, and a phallic shaped one on shorter stem in the drier enclosures. The umbrella type grows up quickly, falls over and turns to mush if I don't get them out. The other is now even showing up on cork bark in some of my dry habitats. Though, now that you mention it, I did find an umbrella one in the dry H. mac enclosure on one occasion. Usually the isopods take care of stuff like that in my damp enclosures. Guess they don't like these 'shrooms.I kinda like it I'm not certain yet but my recent reading suggests that these are spores common to Canadian peat. So far (in that reading) it seems that these break down the dead sphagnum even further. Curiously, my biggest infestation is in an H. maculata tank that stays dry except for a monthly spritzing. It started in the base soil but has really taken off where where the tube webs become more or less horizontal. I guess that the moisture collects in these spots and encourages spreading of the spores. I had a Phlogius tank infested with mycelia that produced mushrooms regularly. The inhabitant would break them off at the stem or flex them and cover with copious webbing.
It doesn't help with fungi. If anything, it promotes their growth.Substrate should be sterilized before use.
How?It doesn't help with fungi. If anything, it promotes their growth.
Fungi spores are everywhere. You're probably breathing them at the moment. Natural materials, like wood, soil and other stuff are usually more alive than you think, it's all full of microorganisms, that help in decomposition. When you sterilize the substrate, you kill all of these beings, so all that food remains in soil. When spores fall on it, they have everything available for themselves and they overgrow everything very quickly.How?
doesn't sterilization kill a big number of the spores in the soil too? If you use isopods the food avaible for spores is greatly reduced. More over If peat is used it should not be the ideal environment for fungi because it's slightly acid.Fungi spores are everywhere. You're probably breathing them at the moment. Natural materials, like wood, soil and other stuff are usually more alive than you think, it's all full of microorganisms, that help in decomposition. When you sterilize the substrate, you kill all of these beings, so all that food remains in soil. When spores fall on it, they have everything available for themselves and they overgrow everything very quickly.
We should start an enclosure fungi appreciation thread:laugh: People, in general, have such a weird relationship with it.I seem to have two types of 'shrooms. One umbrella type on a long stem that prefers the damper enclosures, and a phallic shaped one on shorter stem in the drier enclosures. The umbrella type grows up quickly, falls over and turns to mush if I don't get them out. The other is now even showing up on cork bark in some of my dry habitats. Though, now that you mention it, I did find an umbrella one in the dry H. mac enclosure on one occasion. Usually the isopods take care of stuff like that in my damp enclosures. Guess they don't like these 'shrooms.
My lividum enclosure, which is all peat:doesn't sterilization kill a big number of the spores in the soil too? If you use isopods the food avaible for spores is greatly reduced. More over If peat is used it should not be the ideal environment for fungi because it's slightly acid.
Not saying that this way fungi doesn't grow but i thought that it's more difficult for them to grow.
That's one of the kinds of mushrooms I'm finding.My lividum enclosure, which is all peat:
Incidentally, this is (was) the enclosure with the most fungi, though I haven't seen any pop up this past summer. Maybe the soil is finally depleted of nutrients?
Anyway, I don't use any cleanup crews (intentionally; there are mites and springtales and other things living in some of my tanks), so I just plucked out the mushrooms before they turned into jam. No problems.
Anyway, on this topic, I went from coir, to peat, and back to coir.
I thought peat was ok, but it was too "dirty" for my taste, and once it dried it was damn near impossible to moisten up again. I also didn't like how it "shrunk" or compacted after a while, leaving perfect gaps all around the enclosure for prey items to hide and die in. I found it's holding power was no different from compacted coir, which was the main point of my trying it. The two things I liked, were that it was cheap, and it looked nice. Oh, and sometimes, you found prizes inside!
I know that you wanted to nuke anything. You were just sharing your experienceNah, never bothered with sub, peat or otherwise.
I've read the benifits of "live" soil like natural peat, so I didn't want to nuke anything.
And yeah I know springtales are "cleaners" I was just saying I don't intentionally introduce them or mites into my cages. They just kind of find their way in there themselves.
That's how all of my coco coir behaves. Although, I think one from Ikea worked the best, because fibres were really short (and it was really cheap too).I've had the coconut coir behave similarly to the peat as far as shrinkage and difficulty to re-moisten.
Omg that seems more rubbish than soilPrizes included:
Random strips of plastic
String
Pieces of wood
Part of what I think was a bottlecap
A small bolt
A small centipede
Pieces of newspaper
Rocks
+1 Works Great!My vote goes for "other" - the coconut fiber EcoEarth.