Mold???

[ukfan1976]

Thank goodness I took the advice of some seasoned dart keepers! I set up my terrarium, added plants and logs, moss, etc. Looks great! This was 2 nites ago. I did not add the frog yet, taking the advice of some other members of this forum to let the terrarium cycle, see how it does, etc.

Today I get up and turn on my plant light and found this white, stringy moldy?? looking stuff on the logs I added. It was only on the logs. Admittedly I did not wash them off before I added them to the terrarium (I dunno why!). Anyways, now I have this white stringy stuff on the logs, looks like fine white hair, or that polyfill stuff that quilters use. I immediately removed the logs and rinsed under hot water. I'm including a pic. Anyone have any idea what it is?? have I ruined my terrarium??

[DigitalPunk]

White mold in a new terrarium is common and is natural. It will run its course and go away in a few days. Cork bark gets this white mold very quickly when it is first introduced into a humid environment. One thing you can do is add some Springtails to the terrarium. Them LOVE to eat mold and will help keep the tank clean. On top of eating mold they LOVE to eat frog poop and decaying leaf litter or plat leaves. Eating all that waste in turns makes the soil healthier for your plants and will make your soil last longer.

[ukfan1976]

Oh thank goodness I thought I had introduced disease LOL where would you suggest getting springtails?

[DigitalPunk]

There are a couple of good online shops. I like to get mine from here. They have cheaper shipping rate on live insect and they come in a modified ABG mix so you can just dump it straight into your tank under the moss. After a couple weeks the population will boom and you will have all the Springtails you will ever need. If it will be a while before you add frogs to the tank (2 - 4 weeks) than I would add the "Springtail food" to your order from NEHerp. It is just brewers yeast. You put a small pinch in the terrarium and lightly mist it. The yeast will mol dover night and the Springtails will flock to it and eat the mold. Just add more yeast every couple days or when you see all the previous yeast is gone.

If you are getting a Dart frog for this tank than the Darts will snack on the springtails from time to time .

[ukfan1976]

There are a couple of good online shops. I like to get mine from here. They have cheaper shipping rate on live insect and they come in a modified ABG mix so you can just dump it straight into your tank under the moss. After a couple weeks the population will boom and you will have all the Springtails you will ever need. If it will be a while before you add frogs to the tank (2 - 4 weeks) than I would add the "Springtail food" to your order from NEHerp. It is just brewers yeast. You put a small pinch in the terrarium and lightly mist it. The yeast will mol dover night and the Springtails will flock to it and eat the mold. Just add more yeast every couple days or when you see all the previous yeast is gone.

If you are getting a Dart frog for this tank than the Darts will snack on the springtails from time to time .

Great info! Exactly the site I was looking for! My frog is kinda tiny right now. Would I need to add more food to the soil for the springtails until he's big enough to start pooping enough to feed them? I'm also considering getting him a friend for the tank but want to wait til he's big enough that I can try and sex him (I really have no idea if its a "him" i just refer to him that way haha). The tank is definitely big enough.

[DigitalPunk]

The issue I see with waiting till he is bigger is he may be to big to add a friend in there with him, smaller frogs can look like food.

Once the frog is in the tank I would stop putting the yeast in. I don't know that it would harm the frog, but I would just in case. If you have leaf litter in the tank the leaves will start to break down and the Springtails will feed on those as well as any parts of the soil that start to break down. Any feeder insects that die in the tank will be eaten by the springtails as well. Basically once the frog is in (2 weeks or so after the springtails are added) the tank will be primed to support the springtails on it's own.

I love NEHerp and Josh's Frogs. NEHerp has become my favorite for terrarium supplies and such. I find Josh's shipping prices to be much more expensive. Jessica at NEHerp is an absolute pleasure to deal with and is very quick to respond to emails. I have even placed an order and then contacted Jessica to tell her how I was planning to use the pieces I ordered and she did her best to pick the perfect items for me.

I added a Springtail culture to my Red eye tree frog tank and they is a **** ton in there now. I have even pulled some springs from that tank to seed 2 other tanks. Breeding them is simple too. Buy 2 cultures and a breeding kit from NEHERP. Dump one culture into the tank and follow their instructions on setting up the breeding box. In about a month you will have plenty of springtails to start other breeding cultures or restock your terrarium to help keep the population up enough so the frog or frogs can find them easily and eat them . It is actually pretty cool to watch the Springtails do their thing in the tank

[deranged chipmunk]

LLL is an awesome company. Loren and the gang really know their stuff and actually give a krap about the animals they offer. They are the only people I buy frogs from on the net.

[deranged chipmunk]

I agree with Paul, while not pretty, cinder blocks are the best and cheapest stand out there.

As far as using the old tank, sterilizing should be done. You would just be inviting a cross contamination nightmare to happen.

[ukfan1976]

I agree with Paul, while not pretty, cinder blocks are the best and cheapest stand out there.

As far as using the old tank, sterilizing should be done. You would just be inviting a cross contamination nightmare to happen.

Ok thats cool. So in the meantime just a regular plastic shoebox-like container with some bedding and pool of water should be ok for quarantine? for 30 days? seems pretty long

[deranged chipmunk]

Yup. Unbleached, unprinted paper towels, a small water bowl and some air holes and you're good.

30 days seems like it's a long time, but they will be in their new home for a long time, what's 30 days? Better to be safe than sorry. Oh and don't forget to keep the humidity up in their quarantine tank. You can even throw a cutting of a hardy plant like pothos for them to hang out in and around.

[DigitalPunk]

Yeah I use Pothos in my Quarantine bins. I use the mesh pots commonly used in terrarium back ground and stuff a bunch of Sphagnum moss in it to secure the plant. The moss also doubles as a great humidity tool since it can hold a ridiculous amount of water, and an added bonus the Pothos LOVE being planted like that! My quarantine pothos are doing better than the ones on the window seal lol.

30 days will fly by. It will be hard once the tank is ready to roll, but just keep telling yourself... This will give me time to dial the tank in. This will help me identify any issue with the tank setup and correct. This will help me learn how to tweak the settings in my tank to simulate seasons. This will help me identify the eating habits of my frogs.

As I have said I have 3 Red eye tree frogs in quarantine right now. 2 of them have been in their quarantine setup for nearly 60 days now. The other one just finished his first week. I left the first 2 in longer they got just a little bit bigger, but at the 32 day mark I did move them into the same quarantine tub.

I am glad I have been able to be even a little helpful in your process. I am thoroughly addicted to this hobby... Heck I don't even consider it a hobby any more. This is something I will be doing for the rest of my life.

[deranged chipmunk]

I just want to be clear on this lol so when you have cork bark for example in a tank and it gets those white mold spots/patches you're suppose to leave it alone and it'll go away in a couple of days and it's normal in humid environment?? i know it's a silly question but i everytime i see that in my tarantula tanks i always remove it and discard the cork bark lol......

That is correct. The white mold will go away on it's own. May take a few days, may take a couple weeks, but it will go away. Isopods will eat it, if your t's don't eat them first lol