# Mushroom Kits for Use in Vivs



## mattmcdole (Nov 28, 2006)

I was browsing Carolina Bio, and I came across the fungi section of the catalog and had a thought. It's quite the event when mushrooms sprout in our vivs, and it contributes that little extra something to the naturalistic enclosures we work so hard to build and maintain. Why not purchase a sporing kit for use in a viv?

I was particularly tempted to try the Oyster Mushroom kit, but my only major concern would be the size. Has anyone tried this? Has anyone given consideration to trying this and found a good reason NOT to do it?


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## UmbraSprite (Mar 2, 2007)

Oddly enough...I had the same exact experience today. Carolina, oysters and thoughts of Alice In Wonderland vivs.... 

Anyone know where I can get a Cheshire Cat?


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## Guest (Apr 19, 2007)

As far as I know, no one has ever tried it. How big are these shrooms, or how much space do you need for them? And in addition, you will probably only be able to get them to shroom once. After that the nutrients they need will no longer be around.


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## salvoz (May 10, 2004)

very cool thought. first thing im wondering is how much organic matter must be available to get them to "shroom" in the first place. shrooms pop up routinely in my vivs, but only in pulses; it seems like the frequency of their "flowering" is contingent upon the episodic accumulation of decaying matter. if you had to add _extra_ organic matter to the tank to get them to be visable, then maybe it wouldn't be worth it, since this addition could throw the whole tank out of equilibrium...but adding the spores, themselves, to the tank would seem ok...just let the shrooms fight it out for the available nutrient? Keep us posted on the results if you do this!


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## Corpus Callosum (Apr 7, 2007)

You more than likely cannot inoculate the spores in the vivarium. I'm not sure what the kit gives you, but keep in mind there are two stages for mushroom growth.

The first is the germination of the spores and subsequently the growth and spread of the mycelium onto a substrate (straw or gain in the case of oysters, some types of wood in the case of shittake, etc..). These substrates will promote the growth of various other fungi that are unwanted. Once fully colonized, the substrate is sealed by the mycelium and contamination won't occur. At that point you can expose it with a casing layer to the light and humidity of a vivarium and it will fruit excellently.

If the kit provides you with a sealed bag/jar of substrate where you can just safely inject the spores into and incubate that, only removing it once fully colonized to fruit in the vivarium, it will work excellently.

But if you try to germinate your spores inside a vivarium they might have some trouble colonizing. A vivarium is an excellent environment to fruit mushrooms, but inoculation and germination in an unsterilized environment is more difficult. That being said, Oysters are very hardy.


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## Dendrobait (May 29, 2005)

I think you'd have to provide quite a bit of organic material. I heard oyster mushrooms are grown commercially on newspaper. 

If things went to well you might end up replacing prized pieces of driftwood every few years but such is the cycle of nature. 

Does anyone think that throwing bought oyster mushrooms into a viv would work? Also, don't oysters need cold temps to fruit?


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## Corpus Callosum (Apr 7, 2007)

Incubation can occur around 80-85F so if your vivarium was around 75 that would be enough of a drop to fruit, along with the introduction of light assuming you incubate in darkness.

Aside from newspaper, oysters are also grown commercially on straw. I'm not sure how well oysters take to driftwood, but even if that was a good substrate, you'd probably want to remove the driftwood and sterilize or pasteurize it outside the tank and move it into darkness for the mycelium to colonize then after that put it back in the viv.. and after 1-2 fruiting sessions the driftwood would be spent and you just wasted it. Bulk substrates are much cheaper alternatives. If you did colonize a bag of pasteurized straw with oyster mycelium, you could put that in the viv and fruit it, rather than try to innoculate the driftwood.

This way you could remove the colonized material (straw is cheap so its not a big deal) and just introduce more colonized straw to fruit again, if you wanted the mushrooms to always be fruiting in the viv.

Keep in mind after they are done fruiting they will sporulate and drop spores all over the vivarium floor. I can't remember what color oyster spores are, but they will be all over the viv like a powder covering.

Another bulk substrate is sawdust and various wood pellets.. here's an example of a case where they sterilized/pasteurized the bulk substrate in a bag and innoculated that, then once the mycelium fully colonized took it out of the bag and put it in the fruiting chamber (which in our case is the viv)


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## Dendrobait (May 29, 2005)

Very Cool!

Do people ever sell inoculated straw ready to fruit? I could see he colonized material stuffed into some natural crevices in the background or better yet some crevices in wood so it looks like the mushrooms are growing out of a stump just as in the wild.

On the other hand, are mushrooms common in the rainforest?


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## Corpus Callosum (Apr 7, 2007)

I've never seen colonized material sold but what they do sell are some kits with presterilized substrate in a sealed bag, and a syringe full of spores. All you do is inject the syringe into the bag of premade substrate, wait a few days/weeks for it to fully colonize (depending on how much substrate there is), and then fruit it in your location of choice.

No idea on what types of mushrooms are commonly found in the rainforest.

I do sort of wonder how messy the sporulation in a vivarium would get though.


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## mattmcdole (Nov 28, 2006)

Good heavens. I have to admit I wasn't expecting near as much information as I've been given. Thanks for the replies!

It seems to be this may be something worth testing in a frogless viv to see what kind of effects it may have on the setup. 

What could it hurt to try?


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## SappyHucks (Oct 4, 2006)

From the Mushrooms I have popping up in the viv (1 or 2 a day every 3 or 4 days) I can say this. You will have spore spots all over the place.

Just before my 'shrooms die off, they shoot the spores onto the ground and make huge, white powder rings.


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## PDFanatic (Mar 3, 2007)

You guys must trip quite a bit!!! IM KIDDING!!! I thought the spores had to be grown in the dark or something?


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## Dancing frogs (Feb 20, 2004)

I saw a kit for sale once to grow oyster mushrooms on you're old coffe grounds...

Don't know what kind they were, but in one of my 18-18-24" exoterras, I had some huge mushrooms fruit (off of a big ghost log), and they dropped so much orange spores that everything in the viv was covered in them...so much I started to wonder if it would affect the health of the frogs (or even me).

In my experince, if you just wait long enough, you'll get a random mushroom surprize here and there.


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## Herpboyben (Mar 18, 2007)

thats what i was thinking is just wait when you have ghost wood. any how where can i buy ghost wood?


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## Dancing frogs (Feb 20, 2004)

I get mine at Midwest Dendrobate Group meetings...

There are several sponsers that sell it as well.

Here is a pic of the big mushrooms...the big one had a cap around 4":


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## Dendrobait (May 29, 2005)

The only way the spores would affect you/the frogs is if they were toxic right? I dunno if maybe the frogs could get respiratory problems breathing in spore laden air if that is what you are thinking though?

But ATM, those frogs are fine?


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## Dancing frogs (Feb 20, 2004)

Yes, the frogs are fine.
If you seen the amount of spores, you would worry too...I mean, everything in the viv was coated with fine orange powder, and the spores even managed to get out of the vents and build up on nearby surfaces as well.
It has been noted that frogs are irratated by stuff sticking to their skin...


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