More Newbie problems.

[Michael Seils]

I was on holiday for a while and when I returned I found that my spiders tank had a massive yellow mushroom in it, and there was also a little mould sprouting elsewhere in the tank. I had my family taking care of the spider and they were doing a good job, they kept me informed of anything that happened and the mould pretty much came on very quickly over the course of a day. Luckily it was the day before I got back and not in the middle of my trip.

I didn't have any backup substrate and as its a weekend the nearest pet shop is closed. I got my spider into an empty cricket tub for now as I'm pretty sure the mould cant be good for it. I just want to know if it would be ok in there untill monday when I can get to the nearest store, or if I ought to try and find something sooner.

[Bryan_Dennis]

I got my spider into an empty cricket tub for now as I'm pretty sure the mould cant be good for it.

Your spider will be allright mate.....It's not like they live in fungal free, antisepticized world in the nature.

You could just remove the mushrooms and scrape the top inch off your substrate off....Then empty the rest into a microwave container, give it a blast and hey presto.....fresh substrate.
Alternatively if it's a bit soggy you could give it a baking in the oven..

[Michael Seils]

Thanks for reassuring me. I'm still new at this, always scared I'll make some stupid mistake that'll hurt it.

[Tomas Whitehouse]

Indeed

Thanks for reassuring me. I'm still new at this, always scared I'll make some stupid mistake that'll hurt it.

Amen to that! I'm in exactly the same boat, the last thing I want to do is make some silly mistake that results in hurting the spider!

Best Regards

Tomas

[Stanley A. Schultz]

... when I returned I found that my spiders tank had a massive yellow mushroom in it, and there was also a little mould sprouting elsewhere in the tank. ...

The mushroom is a species of Lepiota. It's completely harmless. We used to get them all the time in tanks in which we were keeping T. blondi. It'll dust gray spores over everything in the cage and that will make your tarantula look old and grizzled until it has a chance to clean itself off. I was rather amused by them.

I assume, because you are apparently keeping your tarantula's cage quite damp, that the mold is a pale gray-yellow-green and looks like small granules growing on the substrate. If so, it's also harmless.

The truly dangerous fungi that infest tarantula cages are not the ones you can see, but the ones you CAN'T see. You can avoid all of them by drying the cage out. Almost all tarantulas will acclimate to a dry cage if given the opportunity, and most prefer it.

[Michael Seils]

Yes after a short time it did pretty much cover the whole substrate and I wwas keeping the tank quite damp. After clearing it out I kept it much dryer and I'm finding the spider doesn't mind at all. Thanks for all the extra info.