Hey, my coworker found a really nice piece of driftwood on his property and gave it to me for my crabitat! It obviously needs to be disinfected--it has a few ants and spots of white mold. But it also has a really lovely huge patch of moss that I don't want to kill. It's too large to boil and I'm worried that spot-wiping it down with a bleach solution or rubbing alcohol would be a little dangerous for the crabs and wouldn't clean it out properly. I could heat it in the oven, but I'm sure it'd dry out the moss.
Maybe I could pull out the moss and grow it in a planter and just keep misting it to keep it alive, disinfect the wood without it, and just place the moss in the tank seperatly? Or would the moss survive that? Idk. I'd like to save it when I clean the wood but if I can't, it's no big deal. Was just wondering if you guys had any solutions.
Sterilizing driftwood with moss
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AlliCrabbi
Topic author - Posts: 4
- Joined: Sun Jan 26, 2020 8:37 am
- Location: NYC
Re: Sterilizing driftwood with moss
I wouldn’t want ants in my crabitat but that’s me. I don’t know if they are a problem or not.
I scrubbed all my drift wood with a stiff brush and then baked it at 300°F for maybe 20-30 min. It might have been better to soak it for a few days in water to help further clean it. I then collected moss from clean area. And tied it to the wood with fishing line. It won’t stay alive without misting with water which can be a problem over saturating the crabitat. So now I don’t water it as much as it needs because I get some water that does splash onto the substrate. It’s been in there for a few months and it is still green. At least what they haven’t eaten of it they will more than likely eat it.
I scrubbed all my drift wood with a stiff brush and then baked it at 300°F for maybe 20-30 min. It might have been better to soak it for a few days in water to help further clean it. I then collected moss from clean area. And tied it to the wood with fishing line. It won’t stay alive without misting with water which can be a problem over saturating the crabitat. So now I don’t water it as much as it needs because I get some water that does splash onto the substrate. It’s been in there for a few months and it is still green. At least what they haven’t eaten of it they will more than likely eat it.