I find that covering the substrate in my fbt tank with moss helps prevent substrate from getting in the frogs water. The problem is that my local pet store only sells sphagnum moss, which poses impaction risk. would it be safe to collect and use wild moss? I know not to use moss with long fibers because of impaction risk, but are any species of short fibered moss toxic/likely to carry disease/unsafe? How do I make sure the moss doesn't bring any diseases or bugs into the vivarium?
i've had this problem, it's very annoying! high quality sphagnum isn't too bad, especially compared to the green moss sold at pet stores
It must be decontaminated before use. Most wild mosses will not tolerate a vivarium setting unless they are tropical. Java moss can be purchased and will grow on wood or hygrolon fabric. You can pre-grow it on wood before adding to your vivarium by using a 10 gallon or so extra tank with a 6500K light and plenty of misting.
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How would I decontaminate it?
We to thrpugh a process of 10:1 bleaching, thorough rinsing, and drying a few times before we use native plants. Ours is starting to "brown" over for the season. Fall is sure an odd one here this year.
But we use the moss with the snakes and frogs alike. Our fbt tank is at about 3 years now.
Is there a way to decontaminate it without bleaching? Bleaching sounds risky.
You can use dry ice in an extra tank. Be sure to set the dry ice up on a riser so it does not ice burn the moss.
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Co2 bomb. They are effective, but i never recommend it because you can get seriously messed up with dry ice. It doesn't take much contact to do damage to skin.
I always let my mosses dry out completely, then rehydrate before putting them in a tank.
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All this bleaching and dry ice and drying it out talk sounds like it would kill the moss too and not just the germs/parasites.
Moss is very resilient. If it dries out, it will grow once it is rehydrated. They have even regenerated moss from the polar ice caps that has been frozen for 600,000 years. Tough stuff that moss.
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1.0.0 Oophaga Pumilio 'Black Jeans'
0.0.10 Phyllobates Vittatus
0.0.3 Phyllobates Terribilis 'Mint'
0.0.3 Dendrobates Tinctorius 'Patricia'
0.0.5 Dendrobates Leucomelas
0.0.2 Dendrobates Tinctorius 'Powder Blue'
0.0.2 Ranitomeya Variabilis 'southern'
0.0.3 Epipedobates Anthonyi 'zarayunga'
1.2.0 Phyllobates bicolor
0.0.3 Dendrobates tinctorius 'azureus'
0.0.1 Avicularia Avicularia
0.0.1 Gramastola porteri
0.2.0 Canines
1.0.0 Tabby/Maine Coon Mix
2.1.0 Genetics Experiments
0.1.0 Bed Bully
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