Mushrooms growing in snake tub....-_-

Hi guys,
I checked on my ball pythons today and in one of the tubs, I found what looked to be a MUSHROOM???? At first I thought it was a broken off piece of a urate, but when I picked it up I noticed there was another one nearby and both were sea-shell shaped (almost like a clam, with white lines running through it). We do have moss in the tubs to help with humidity but we rarely mist anymore as the humidity has been terrific without. The moss we have was from The Bean Farm I believe.
After searching the tub a bit more I found a urate covered in blueish white moldy stuff that Madison had cleverly hidden at the bottom of her aspen. :rolleyes:
So do mushrooms just grow in dark, humid areas with waste (i.e. from a snake) in it? Or did this moss come with spores already?
We got it like 4 months ago.
I also found a small maggot on one of the mushrooms. I'm positive it was too big to be a mite, and it had a wormy body, not a mite/tick body. How did he get in there??? NOTHING we have in the room has maggots on it; again, do they just blossom near mushrooms and waste or did he come as an egg with the moss??
Should I throw all the moss/aspen in the tubs away and put fresh in? I've been spot cleaning mostly but now that the mold is there maybe I should take it all out?
I do know that maggots won't hurt animals that are alive as they only eat dead tissue, but what about Madison breathing in whatever that fungi gave off? Is that bad? Should I take her to a vet?
Thanks. I'm really confused as to how this happened, lol.

You need to change things like moss once a month...

Yes you need to pull everything out of the tub and give it all a good scrub/disinfecting Then replace the substrate with new substrate.

You need to completely redo the tub once a month to prevent things like this.

If you leave any organic matter in a warm moist environment for too long things will start to grow.

Thank you, I feel like an idiot, I did not know spot cleaning was insufficient for long term cleaning. :oops:

Well, mushroom spores are very very small and can easily be airborne, so it's entirely possible a few could have been in your bedding or moss. And yes, mushrooms as a rule like warm, dark and damp, pretty much like a ball python does.

The maggot could have come from anywhere. Pretty much any species of fly, no matter how small, has maggots as a larval form, so it's completely conceivable it could have just been a stray fly larva. And since most mushrooms have a slightly earthy smell, it's natural a fly would be attracted to it to lay it's egg.

Or I could be way over analyzing it and the egg was already in the bedding or moss.

Any time I find mold, and it happens to the best of us, I discard everything in the tub, clean the tub well and put in new bedding.

Chances are the mushroom was harmless unless ingested, so I think Madison will be fine. You can also phone the vet for an opinion if that makes you feel better.

I have kept animals long enough to know, sometimes no matter how careful you are, weird stuff happens.

Gale

Thank you Gale :) That makes sense.

Ahaha, never heard of that before. That's weird and gross.

Probably just means your substrate is holding in too much moisture from urine and urates. Do a full substrate change-out and try to clean more often is all I would recommend.

NEWSPAPER.

This rarely happens with newspaper. Moss is a nice friendly place for mushrooms

Too much humidity! Do you have enough ventilation?

Well, we have the fan on in the room most of the time but there's barely any space between the tub and the top shelf/lid of the rack to prevent escapes. :tears:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by shelliebear

Well, we have the fan on in the room most of the time but there's barely any space between the tub and the top shelf/lid of the rack to prevent escapes. :tears:

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You have holes in the tub right...?