# Fungus Infestation - do I need to start over?



## connorp (Nov 22, 2017)

As you can see below, I have a bad case of fungus in one of my vivs. It started out with a few yellow mushrooms, but has now bloomed into this.









All the soil in the viv looks like this. I add new springtails every few weeks, and have tried to cut back on misting, but no luck. The soil isn't waterlogged either, and there is a false bottom.

The frogs all seem to be doing very well, and no plants seem to be doing any worse. But I worry that the fungus will soon take over everything. Should I start over? If so, how do I go about cleaning everything? I would prefer not to replace all the plants (and can't really afford to do so).


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## varanoid (Jan 21, 2011)

What you are showing looks like a side pic of the substrate and the drainage layer to me. If it is, than its hard for me to say with certainty if you have a problem or not. My kneejerk reaction is that it may not be that bad. I see molds and such under the substrate from time to time. But if you are concerned, I can offer two suggestions. The first is to improve ventilation, and the second is to cut back on misting/watering. Both of those, if not proper, can be conducive to mold, whether you have microfauna or not. That is your starting point.


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## Okapi (Oct 12, 2007)

Given time the fungus will exhaust it's food supply and stop forming mushrooms. I get excited when I see fungal growth in my vivariums as it is usually a natural part of a new vivarium's break in process. They grow, spore, then die. Afterwards the plants start absorbing the nutrients that the fungi released and start growing as well. Whenever you add new wood, substrate, or leaf litter the process might repeat itself but as long as the plants and frogs are fine I would let nature take it's course.


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## Pumilo (Sep 4, 2010)

Adding isopods would also help, but they reproduce slower, so it's more of a long term thing unless you can get your hands on a big master colony. 

People don't think of isopods right away when thinking about mold, as isopods, for the most part, would much rather avoid eating mold. They do, however, absolutely thrive on decomposing matter, you know, that nasty stuff about to feed the mold.
Remove the mold's food supply...

Another thing you could to for a while, to help get the upper hand, would be to remove any dying leaves before they can decompose, and being careful about overfeeding. Whatever is not eaten, fuels the mold.

edit: I didn't mention passive ventilation, and possibly an internal, recirculation fan, as somebody already mentioned it, but I agree those are important...especially passive ventilation.


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## Bork (May 22, 2011)

I also can't really see what's going on from the photo, and you've gotten a lot of solid advice already. Though it also bears saying - some mold and other fungus in your tank isn't necessarily a bad thing. We automatically associate fungus with deadly chytrid infections, but most are completely harmless. It's rare to get a viv WIHOUT something weird growing in it. I think you've got enough advice here to troubleshoot any looming issues, but unless it's causing problems I wouldn't stress much about it, and certainly not start over without a real good reason. The occasional mushroom and slime mold is a pretty cool addition to a viv.


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## kimcmich (Jan 17, 2016)

Greetings,

Fungi are a natural part of your tank and they arrive at *every* viv. A yellow fungus sounds like "yellow houseplant mushroom" which is ubiquitous and utterly harmless. It will stop making mushrooms when its preferred food supply is exhausted and/or when other fungi or microfauna out-compete it.

Don't let the cut-away view into the substrate spook you. Fungal threads grow through soil in all environments and, especially in compost-rich substrates or under leaf-litter, they can grow quite densely.


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## Dragonflylady (Jan 6, 2009)

A bit more air circulation perhaps? I occasionally got shrooms but that's normal.


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