# Slime mold crawling around my vivarium. Safe?



## SpaceMan (Aug 25, 2013)

I got what seems to be a pretty standard slime mold in my vivarium. There may have been more than one. One was white and was moving it's way across some leaves before it disappeared. Then a few days later I found this green/yellow one on a piece of drift wood, and now it has made its way over to the glass. 

I'm trying to take a timelapse of it right now, we'll see how that goes. Anyone care to ID?


----------



## Pumilo (Sep 4, 2010)

They are viv safe and very cool. Enjoy it while you can. They seem to come and go in short blooms. You may see it come and go for a couple months, only to disappear for a year. I've seen them in whites and yellows.


----------



## rigel10 (Jun 1, 2012)

I see them often in my vivs, on the glass, especially in spring and autumn.


----------



## frogface (Feb 20, 2010)

Well I was going to tell you that it's safe and cool but Doug beat me to it


----------



## hypostatic (Apr 25, 2011)

enjoy it while it lasts! or if you _don't_ like it, throw in some springtails and they'll help get rid of it sooner. Or I guess you could just wipe the glass


----------



## SpaceMan (Aug 25, 2013)

I don't mind it one bit, so long as it doesn't crawl its way out and invade my room!

I also saw a white slime mold earlier in the week, but haven't seen it lately. 

Here's about an hour and a half of time-lapse footage of the slime mold in question. The frames are 15 seconds apart and played at 12 frames per second.

Can anyone identify the micro-fauna I have crawling around in this video? I have not seeded the tank with anything, but I did use charcoal from what seemed to be a dead/non-producing springtail culture. 

Watch in 1080p -- it might help identify the little guys.


----------



## LoganR (Oct 25, 2013)

Looks like _Physarum polycephalum_, a rather common slime. I have students bring in wood samples each semester, and we set them up in humid chambers to try to encourage slime mold growth, and _P. polycephalum_ is pretty common to find on our samples.


----------



## jdgators (Oct 27, 2012)

Not sure this is slime mold, but found this on a vivarium I ordered while quarantining and conditioning it. Any thoughts on what it is?


----------

