# Shrooms...anyone tried to grow them?



## jkinsey (Oct 7, 2004)

http://www.kalyx.com/store/prodpage5.cf ... 0/file.htm

This link has tons of edible mushrooms on it. Just wondering if anyone has tried to grow mushrooms on purpose in their vivs.


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## booga (Sep 19, 2004)

I've never tried but I did search on google for mushroom spores after reading about "mystical mushroom". I felt like I was commiting crimes with all the sites selling spores for illegal mushrooms. The majority had them and finally I read the the spores themselves arent illegal but growing them is in the US.


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## Guest (Mar 24, 2005)

I threw a few small mushroom caps that I gathered in my backyard into my galac vivarium about 6 months ago. Now every other week I have a flush of 'shrooms in one corner of the tank. I'm not sure what kind they are, but they're only about 6 inches tall and bright white. I wish I could get "shelf" mushrooms to grow on the cork-panel background. I think that would look really nice.


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## geckguy (Mar 8, 2004)

They are fun to grow, and you can buy spore syringes and prints for tons of *legal* varieties. http://www.shroomery.com has lots of info on cultivating mushrooms, if you get good at it some gourmet stores will buy your rare mushrooms, it can become quite profitable.


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## mbrutger (May 23, 2004)

I know a family who's kids go to my school, and they raise mushrooms for a living. They supply mushrooms to most of the grocerie stores in my town. The funny thing is two of the kids don't even like mushrooms!


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## OneTwentySix (Nov 11, 2004)

Shroomey.com doesn't seem to work; is this the correct url?


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## geckguy (Mar 8, 2004)

Sorry about that I forgot an r the link is http://www.shroomery.com


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## Guest (May 15, 2005)

*shrooms in vivs*

I used to go out and collect as many unopened mushrooms as i could from parks and my college campus. that alone was fun. But a few species did eventually give off spores that made it to shroomhood. But they didnt continue to do it  
I think I'll go out and try again!


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## unbrokenchain42 (Dec 18, 2004)

i collected a bunch of small mushrooms last fall in a wooded area near my house. i was looking for salamanders, but the closer i looked in the leaf litter, the more mushrooms i found. the variety and quantity was just amazing. anywho, i threw a few into each of my viv's and sure enough, they all have one or two different batches of shrooms that flush out now and then. it is very nice to look in and see what new fungi has fruited, and its just another natural cycle to witness within our mini ecosystems.


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## Auhsoj27 (Jun 3, 2005)

something to watch out for...

i harvested a bunch of mushrooms from the wild, hoping to place them in my viv. anyway, my viv construction took a little too long and many of them wilted. once the mushrooms became significantly mushy they became infested with countless tiny white worms. they were in a box separate from the moss i collected, so I'm assuming there were some sort of eggs laid in the mushrooms when they were in the forest. it was just freaky nasty when i found them. when i went to sleep, the mushrooms were fine, except for some bruises. in the morning, all i can really see is a writhing mass of maggot-like tiny worms. gross gross gross.

i'm thinking about skipping mushrooms in the tank now.


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## Blort (Feb 5, 2005)

Auhsoj27 said:


> all i can really see is a writhing mass of maggot-like tiny worms. gross gross gross.


LOL. I hope maggots don't gross you out as you will get to see tons of them when you culture fruit flies. :wink:


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## Auhsoj27 (Jun 3, 2005)

I'm not so much grossed out by the bugs, more so that it was a complete shock to find them there. I mean literally, I had mushrooms when I went to sleep. I had a maggot farm in the morning. I was also a little concerned that the bugs might have been in the moss too, but that doesnt appear to be the case.


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## unbrokenchain42 (Dec 18, 2004)

in costa rica a few years ago, a few friends and I picked some psylicybe cubensis out of some horse manure for kicks, mostly just to see if they would bruise blue like they should (and thus confirm identification). well, i stored them in a small plastic container, which sat in a warm area and heated up big time. the next day when i opened it up, it was absolutely swarming with a variety of maggots. they covered all of the mushrooms and most of the plastic container. it was a good reason not to ingest them :wink:


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## cbreon (Apr 25, 2005)

just for kicks...right.... :lol:


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## geckguy (Mar 8, 2004)

That is not a sure way of identifying them, many mushrooms will bruise with improper handling. To the untrained eye amanitas can look like cubensis, and they are extremely poisonous. Do not ingest unknown mushrooms.


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## unbrokenchain42 (Dec 18, 2004)

yeah, for kicks. we had a good identification book with us specifically talored to these types of mushrooms, so we were sure of what we had. 

thanks to a gift from my uncle, i am growing shitake mushrooms out of an inoculated log under my wooden deck. they are gorgeous, and plentiful when present. you guys should try it if youre into mushrooms. they are also quite tasty and good for you....~


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## mnchartier (May 9, 2005)

I actually have what looks like a small white table shroom that is growing on an ExoTera Jungle Vine. I have not added any type of spores or materials that I have found outside. I do not know how the spore got in the tank. It has been there for about 2 months and has grown a little since the pics below.

from below the vine








from above


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## c'est ma (Sep 11, 2004)

Just reading some threads I missed and noticed the posts about decaying mushrooms becoming maggot-infested. That reminded me that my mycology professor once told us that an old herpkeepers' trick was to throw some wild mushroom caps into the animal habitats and wait for the associated fauna to emerge. (I tried this a few times when I needed small insects but it never worked for me.)

--Diane


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## Guest (Jul 20, 2005)

so would putting mushrooms in a viv be potentially dangerous to some dart froglets? or would the maggots perhaps act as a food source.

Also when collecting mushrooms for vivs any ideal things to look for?


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## c'est ma (Sep 11, 2004)

Most insect- and other fauna found in mushrooms would be there because they're fungus-eaters, at least at certain stages, especially as larvae. Many known frog-food critters can be found in mushrooms: drosophila, springtails, mites, fungus gnats...'Shrooms are also home to many beetle larvae. Unless you can free the larvae from the fungal fruiting body, however, your amphibians will be mostly exposed to the adult insects that emerge. Most of these should be ok for frogs but certain beetles might be too chitinous.

For the best chances of a well-infested mushroom/fungus fruiting body look for the longest lasting ones. These tend to be those with pores for spore surfaces rather then gills. They are the polypores (shelf fungi, bracket fungi, etc.) and the boletes (shaped more like a traditional mushroom but with pores, not gills). 

--Diane


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