What is this??

[Juniperblossom]

Doing my tank checks today and found this in my moss pit and on my wood. Is it mold? I'm not really sure. Should I boil things or what? What can I do to keep this from happening again? Thank you!!!







Sorry the photos aren't the best!


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[Giner13]

Doing my tank checks today and found this in my moss pit and on my wood. Is it mold? I'm not really sure. Should I boil things or what? What can I do to keep this from happening again? Thank you!!!







Sorry the photos aren't the best!


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Looks like mold to me, but someone more experienced in the crab world may know the best way to rid of it!

[BigglesLeCrab]

It is mould. Type of fungus really. I would remove the wood and moss immediately. And if you feel the substrate may be affected, remove a couple of inches of that as well. Where did you get the wood from? From your pics the wood looks like the culprit. I'd be very cautious about putting something back into a tank that has preciously shown signs of contamination. Safety first. And wash your hands thoroughly. Crabs aren't known for passing stuff on to their owners. But owners can easily pass on illness or worse to a crab.

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[DragonsFly]

That "furry" white mold is familiar to me. I would just take out anything that has that on it, plus anything that was close to it (scoop out substrate, get rid of all the moss, etc.). Make sure there aren't bits of food dragged around decomposing here and there, that's usually where mold starts (or on wooden climbing structures that have not been soaked in MSW and/or are placed directly on moist substrate).

After removing whatever the mold was on or near and starting over with new moss (it's a good idea to do the first moistening of moss with half-strength MSW rather than fresh water, and to soak wooden structures in full-strength MSW for a while, then allow them to dry COMPLETELY before putting them in the tank, to help prevent mold growth), I would highly recommend looking into a small FAN to put in your tank. We used to have constant mold growth on the wooden climbing structures, until I put a little fan in the tank. Moving air is the best thing to stave off mold (well, that and keeping old food cleaned up). Plus, the crabs clearly love the moving air. They will position themselves on the climbing structures in front of the fan and just "enjoy the breeze." If you think about it, they are from tropical islands, where there would almost always be wind. Still air above ground must be bizarre to them.

I put the fans on timers so they are not on all the time; you have to balance how much they are on with how much you have the bubble pools or fountains or whatever your humidity helpers are on, and with temp. When the fan is running, it can tend to bring your humidity down some; but I just make sure the bubble pools and fountains are running whenever the fans are running (everything is on adjustable timers, it's a total sanity saver for keeping tanks balanced), and for a bit longer after the fans go off, to replenish the humidity. Since we've had fans in the tanks, I've not seen mold again--except in the iso, where there isn't a fan.

[DragonsFly]

P.S. I doubt if the wood is the "culprit," in terms of introducing the mold--it's just a good substrate for the mold to grow on (like the moss, or bits of old food), if it is moist.

P.P.S. Mold spores are all around us, all the time, just looking for an opportunity (usually, a warm, humid, "airless" environment--dark is good, too) to grow on something. Since your crabitat HAS to be warm and moist, and also has to be dark at least 12 hours a day, taking out any mold you see, pre-treating moss and wood to help resist mold growth, and getting the air moving around the tank is the best you can do to prevent (or at least minimize) it.

[DragonsFly]

P.P.P.S. Looking at your pics again, you have a LOT of condensation on your glass. A fan in the tank would definitely help that. Also, I would calibrate your humidity gauges, and place gauges here and there around the tank (put them on popsicle sticks or pieces of plexi or something, so you can move them from place to place, rather than sticking them to the wall) to make sure your humidity is really holding between 75 and 85%. If it is regularly a lot higher than that, that could definitely be speeding up the mold growth, too.

[BigglesLeCrab]

Agree to a point. Though ornamental woods bought from shops are normally gamma treated so as to kill off bacteria. If this growth is localised there may be an issue. Not all mold is good mold.
I had been given a terracotta pot which I thought I had cleaned thoroughly. Within 24 hours it had a film of mold on it. I took it out of the tank and discarded it. No mold was seen in the tank after that. Though I am aware that due to the condition of the substrate and climate conditions in the tank some 'good' bacteria must be in there.
Its what helps to keep the substrate 'healthy', stops it collapsing. I wouldn't encourage a surface growing mold in a crabitat.

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[Juniperblossom]

Thank you all! This corner is very humid, I have a gauge just outside of these photos to the left. It's on a Popsicle stick and I move it about. I think that corner is just extra humid usually reading in the high 90's. I'll get a fan for it. I have been pondering the idea of a fan for a bit anyways. Haha. My overall humidity is usually about 78-85 at the highest (except in that corner and near my other moss pit) I had humidity issues at first then I added more moss and now I have issues (figures that's my luck lol) I soaked my log in my Instant ocean mixed water before I placed it in there. I have a few other ones I could use and see if that helps. Any suggestions on fans? Thank you all again! I really appreciate this help!


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[DragonsFly]

No, I wouldn't encourage it, and do all I can to discourage it (especially since even mold that is no problem for the crabs can be very injurious to the health of the HUMANS involved); I'm just saying that it isn't possible to eliminate all mold spores; we just have to be pro-active, understand that "mold happens," and both prepare and respond accordingly.

[DragonsFly]

Thank you all! This corner is very humid, I have a gauge just outside of these photos to the left. It's on a Popsicle stick and I move it about. I think that corner is just extra humid usually reading in the high 90's. I'll get a fan for it. I have been pondering the idea of a fan for a bit anyways. Haha. My overall humidity is usually about 78-85 at the highest (except in that corner and near my other moss pit) I had humidity issues at first then I added more moss and now I have issues (figures that's my luck lol) I soaked my log in my Instant ocean mixed water before I placed it in there. I have a few other ones I could use and see if that helps. Any suggestions on fans? Thank you all again! I really appreciate this help!


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I use small fans I first found at Walgreens; they are "clip" fans for clipping to a desk or something; I take the clip part off and hang them down in the tank from zip ties. They are about 6 inches across, though, so depending on the size of your tank, that could definitely be overkill (I've used one of these in each of my tanks 55g and up). These have a "high" and "low" setting, so you can actually adjust them to blow more or less when they are on, as well as putting them on a timer so they aren't on all the time. If your tank is pretty small, though, you might look for some smaller fans--I found some tiny ones on eBay that were solar-powered, we used two of those on one side of the 35g. It's good to put the fan on one side and allow it to blow across the tank "longwise." I like to put it over the MSW source, to simulate a bit of an "ocean breeze" sort of thing.

If you soaked your wood in MSW and dried it thoroughly before it went in there, other things that can help:

-- propping the wood off of the substrate--I always try to put my wood climbing structures on a big shell, or propped on the rim of my terra cotta planters, or otherwise not directly on/in the substrate.

-- redecorate every now and then; take wood that's been in there a while out and let it dry thoroughly outside the tank (scrub any noticeable mold off with MSW and allow to dry THOROUGHLY before putting it back in), put in other, pre-treated dry wood; take turns so nothing stays in long enough to get soaked and moldy. (Always assuming that you are careful about it so you don't put pressure on the substrate and possibly collapse molting burrows.)

-- rearranging your decor so that corner gets more air flow should help, too. But of course, that's likely to be most successful when the air is actually flowing! So, back to our friend, the fan.

[DragonsFly]

Oh, and when I refer to "letting wood dry THOROUGHLY," I don't mean a couple of hours. I mean weeks. Wood gets penetrated by moisture, into the grain, so to really dry it out, it takes a long time. Welcome to crabbing--best practice for the virtue of patience I know.

(You can bake wood in the oven to dry it out, too--but I've never tried that. With my luck, I'd start a fire. I'd rather wait a month and still have a house next month. )

[Juniperblossom]

Thank you so much! I'll keep all of this in mind! Off to find a fan now...hahaha.


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[wodesorel]

I get that hairy mold in new tanks. Pulling out what you can and adding some air flow will help to get it under control faster, but it is temporary in my experience. You might want to try using a bit of saltwater on the areas that are really bad, but don't go overboard as the salt doesn't evaporate so whatever you add to the tank stays and there can be too much over time.

[Juniperblossom]

Thank you so much! This tank has only been running (with crabs in it) for around a week or so. Not long. I'm going to hook a fan up today and see what happens. I took everything out last night and put in fresh moss. It seems to have helped. I vented my tank a bit more too. I also scraped up some of my sub too. I think I have one little guy down molting (haven't seen him since the day after he was released into his new home) so I didn't take too much but hopefully it was enough. Y'all rock! I seriously don't know what my crab babies and I would do without you all!!!!


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[DarthKrab]

I get that hairy mold in new tanks. Pulling out what you can and adding some air flow will help to get it under control faster, but it is temporary in my experience. You might want to try using a bit of saltwater on the areas that are really bad, but don't go overboard as the salt doesn't evaporate so whatever you add to the tank stays and there can be too much over time.

I seem to have this problem every other day when the food starts going bad. This is also when I change out the food because I've read from someone else on here that they change their food every other day. Since this happens so frequently, (been at it for about 5 months now) should I try to get more air flow I'm my tank as well? I'm just tired of removing it when they take some food outta the dish lol. They got it on my net bridge and I'm unsure about how to get it off...

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