# Beautiful morning surprise



## Mer_ (Sep 11, 2011)

I wake up this morning, 9am, to find a tiny slime mold on my glass. It was about a third of the size it is now at 3:30pm.










This is a picture of it. 

It is growing so fast! How do I manage its spread?


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## GRIMM (Jan 18, 2010)

Mer_ said:


> It is growing so fast! How do I manage its spread?


Just wipe it off....


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## Mer_ (Sep 11, 2011)

haha, yes but wont it just come back?


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## Mitch (Jun 18, 2010)

Slime mold will come and go. It can move around which is pretty cool. It helps you out by breaking organics down, so I'd definitely leave it. You could scrape it off of the glass if you want to take pictures or if it is obstructing your view but other then that I'd leave it.


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## tclipse (Sep 19, 2009)

It'll be gone in a few days on its own and won't harm anything. Occasionally, a viv will have them intermittently for a few months and then they'll disappear for good... I've noticed it seems more common with new vivs than older, established ones.


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## Woodsman (Jan 3, 2008)

Slime molds were my study organisms at school. They are not fungi, but massive single-celled amoebae that move forward and leave a non-living trail behind (the slime). Slime molds are a very good thing for a vivarium, as they hunt down and eat other organism, such as nematodes and many small mites.

Once the living portion has moved back underground, just wipe away the tray to keep the glass clean. No need to kill such awesome organisms!

Take care, Richard.


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## DragonSpirit1185 (Dec 6, 2010)

leave it!....they look really awesome and are harmless.


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## Mer_ (Sep 11, 2011)

I will refrain from killing it. It is lucky that I came to this decision 

I do agree that they are really neat looking...now if only it had decided to grow on the sides or back instead of the front glass.


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## GRIMM (Jan 18, 2010)

Mer, if it were me, I would capture a timelapse of it growing....Then of course clean that sh*t off cuz my ocd tendencies would kick in haha


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## Mer_ (Sep 11, 2011)

GRIMM said:


> Mer, if it were me, I would capture a timelapse of it growing....Then of course clean that sh*t off cuz my ocd tendencies would kick in haha


Woah, woah, woah!! That is a great idea!! I wish I was good with technology and knew how to do that! 

My OCD acts up every time I look at it haha


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## billschwinn (Dec 17, 2008)

Didn't I see this on an episode of the X Files?


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## Woodsman (Jan 3, 2008)

If you have a good hand lens, you can actually see the cytoplasm streaming up and down in the slimemold. There are literally millions of nuclei embedded in the cytoplasm and they all divide at the exact same time (which is why they are a major research organism in folks who are studying how cancers cells replicate).

It's worth a google to see the various fruiting bodies they can produce (based on which species you have).

Richard.


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## Mer_ (Sep 11, 2011)

Well that was short lived. I woke up this morning to find that it mysteriously disappeared; only the extreme top of it was still stuck to the glass all the rest was gone.


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