mold keeps forming

[david70373]

I am looking for tips on controlling mold. I have a 10 gal zoo med glass enclosure, a screen top, with eco-earth substrate, and some sphagnum moss off to each side to keep moisture. A zoomed uth keeps the temp around 79 to 83 f and i keep moisture level at 70 to 75% by misting every day. I spot clean when I see its dirty, and I don't feed my packman inside of the enclosure, but i am getting formations of white fuzzy clumps on the substrate. I was thinking of adding springtails or other types of isopods i know they work in high humidity dart frog enclosures to control fungus and mold spores. i have started to mist less frequently, and removed some of the moss but the clumps are still forming. any tips or advice

[Mentat]

Hello David! Need to remove the moss; it's an impaction hazard with a Pacman frog. The substrate should be shredded coco (Plantation Soil or EcoEarth) mixed with dechlorinated tap water until slightly damp and clumps in fist without dripping water out. If you loose humidity after removing moss. can cover part of screen with aluminum foil to help retain it. That will also hold heat in, so might need to adjust that too. More on Pacman care in here: Frog Forum - Pacman and Horned Frogs - Ceratophrys - Care and Breeding .

[GrifTheGreat]

Mold will grow in tropical enviroments it just the nature of things. You could seed the enclosure with isopods to help control the mold spores, but you will have to get tropical isopods. They live in environments with 100% humidity which will be inside the substrate and under the water dish. I am unsure how well they will reproduce in a Pacman enclosure though since dart frog enclosures are vivariums that are actual pieces of what the animal's natural habitat is. Sometimes a little extra ventilation helps, but the moisture levels in your tank are not excessive.

Scoop the mold out. Mix the substrate up once a week. This will reduce mold growth.

[WakaWaka]

Hi, what I do to keep the mold out and to keep the swampy smell away is every so often just mix up the substrate a bit, make it a bit loose. Hope this can help.

[Randy]

i remove the cocohusk , wash it drain it and put it back( i use boiling water for this thus no worries of chlorine poisoning my animals ) . a few times a year i toss it out and get new .I never get mold .i have utheaters infrared lights and a full spectrum light .the only time i use moss is in the water tank as an island and i never feed my frogs in it .moss can cause impaction and kill your frog .By the way mold loves moss get rid of the moss you get rid of the mold.I use glass tanks for my frogs . my lighting system has a high dome on it for 1 to keep the heat high enough as not to harm my frogs and 2 the vents allow for air to convect through my tank ,i also have a plexigalss piece to keep the moisture in and a zoo med fogger for humidity .My frogs prefer it a bit more on the dry side , At night the temperature can be reduced. In the wild, they experience contrasting wet and dry seasons and because of this, are not as sensitive to humidity levels as many other commonly kept amphibians.i usually keep it around 50 percent .The aquatic tank i use makes up for any humidity issues id have with them( keeps their skin healthy) and allows them to absorb water like crazy and discharge water as well .they also use the wet tank for dumping their stool they hardly go in the dry tank anymore so it stays cleaner .Mold will accumulate on feces and urine .The indoor water tank has no moss whatsoever in it so i feed them the occasional bullfrog tadpole in there .

[GrifTheGreat]

i remove the cocohusk , wash it drain it and put it back( i use boiling water for this thus no worries of chlorine poisoning my animals ) . a few times a year i toss it out and get new .I never get mold .i have utheaters infrared lights and a full spectrum light .the only time i use moss is in the water tank as an island and i never feed my frogs in it .moss can cause impaction and kill your frog .By the way mold loves moss get rid of the moss you get rid of the mold.I use glass tanks for my frogs . my lighting system has a high dome on it for 1 to keep the heat high enough as not to harm my frogs and 2 the vents allow for air to convect through my tank ,i also have a plexigalss piece to keep the moisture in and a zoo med fogger for humidity .My frogs prefer it a bit more on the dry side , At night the temperature can be reduced. In the wild, they experience contrasting wet and dry seasons and because of this, are not as sensitive to humidity levels as many other commonly kept amphibians.i usually keep it around 50 percent .The aquatic tank i use makes up for any humidity issues id have with them( keeps their skin healthy) and allows them to absorb water like crazy and discharge water as well .they also use the wet tank for dumping their stool they hardly go in the dry tank anymore so it stays cleaner .Mold will accumulate on feces and urine .The indoor water tank has no moss whatsoever in it so i feed them the occasional bullfrog tadpole in there .

50% is too low. Ambient air humidity should never go below 70% for extended periods. This can be detrimental to their health.

[DVirginiana]

i remove the cocohusk , wash it drain it and put it back( i use boiling water for this thus no worries of chlorine poisoning my animals ) . a few times a year i toss it out and get new .I never get mold .i have utheaters infrared lights and a full spectrum light .the only time i use moss is in the water tank as an island and i never feed my frogs in it .moss can cause impaction and kill your frog .By the way mold loves moss get rid of the moss you get rid of the mold.I use glass tanks for my frogs . my lighting system has a high dome on it for 1 to keep the heat high enough as not to harm my frogs and 2 the vents allow for air to convect through my tank ,i also have a plexigalss piece to keep the moisture in and a zoo med fogger for humidity .My frogs prefer it a bit more on the dry side , At night the temperature can be reduced. In the wild, they experience contrasting wet and dry seasons and because of this, are not as sensitive to humidity levels as many other commonly kept amphibians.i usually keep it around 50 percent .The aquatic tank i use makes up for any humidity issues id have with them( keeps their skin healthy) and allows them to absorb water like crazy and discharge water as well .they also use the wet tank for dumping their stool they hardly go in the dry tank anymore so it stays cleaner .Mold will accumulate on feces and urine .The indoor water tank has no moss whatsoever in it so i feed them the occasional bullfrog tadpole in there .

I don't think you've got a good picture of how pacs react to hydration and humidity. Having dry seasons in the wild doesn't make them more tolerant of humidity; they go into estivation to AVOID the dry spells. Unless they are estivating, they are just as sensitive as any other common pet species to low humidity, and like Grif said 50% is way too low. Putting them in water doesn't make up for keeping them too dry other times (unless I'm confused and you're saying the frog has a wet area that it can choose to go to on its own, rather than waiting for you to put it there?)

[Randy]

I don't think you've got a good picture of how pacs react to hydration and humidity. Having dry seasons in the wild doesn't make them more tolerant of humidity; they go into estivation to AVOID the dry spells. Unless they are estivating, they are just as sensitive as any other common pet species to low humidity, and like Grif said 50% is way too low. Putting them in water doesn't make up for keeping them too dry other times (unless I'm confused and you're saying the frog has a wet area that it can choose to go to on its own, rather than waiting for you to put it there?)

Ill show you 2 current photos of my pacs . With too much humidity My pacs wont even come out from under the soil .They have a water bowl in the coco-husk tank . The second tank is just water , the outside tank(50 gallon ) which i am moving inside soon because of the weather change is water , some moss and coco-husk mix , a few rocks for them to climb on and a wooden tree-bark arch they can go under or on top of ( the ones sold at stores everyone seems to use) (my pacs seem to ignore it a lot). (Also they are never fed in the water tank with the moss as i do not want impactation) In the coco-husk tank One half is always moist the other a bit dryer giving them a diversity to choose from .the uth is on the bottom as my tank is on a stand which has rails but no bottom to hold the heat in(its actually better than using the silicone feet that come with the pad to keep it off the ground for air convection, it disperses enough heat that i have never had a frog burnt by laying over the pad ).So at the soil the humidity is much higher .the frogs pic and choose where to go for what actual humidity they desire .Like they would in the wild .The infrared lights are on top of the coco-husk tank in a raised dome on cold nights they like to bask under it .This has worked very well for my frogs , they aren't stressed or hibernating all the time and as you can see they are extremely healthy.Everything i raise is healthy and not at all underweight or scrawny looking .My afcs are as big as the palm of your hand my pacs even bigger . Judge for yourself they are healthy, happy , fat,well cared for frogs.The skin is moist lacking no humidity .common misconception is people do not account for the soils humidity .The soils humidity is probably 80 percent down to 60 percent .As my soil is 6 to 8 inches deep it varies upon depth . The ruler is a foot long to show the frogs length .the female is 6 in the male 4 .

[GrifTheGreat]

Too much humidity does not cause them to burrow down. The lack of it does and if you didn't know already 80% is their ideal humidity level. I'm not sure why you believe the frog being burrowed down all the way with high humidity levels are related, but I can assure you that this is not a correlation. Sure Ceratophrys cranwelli can handle a bit lower humidity than say C. ornata or C. aurita, but you don't house them in dry conditions just because they can cope with it for short periods of time. They should only be exposed to such conditions if you were aestivating them.

[DVirginiana]

Judge for yourself they are healthy, happy , fat,well cared for frogs.The skin is moist lacking no humidity .common misconception is people do not account for the soils humidity .

I once saw a ten year old goldfish, still in good health, being kept in a five gallon tank with dirty water over aquarium rocks. Just because an animal is in good health doesn't mean the conditions it's being kept in are correct. People that know a lot more about keeping these animals than you do are telling you that certain aspects of your husbandry are incorrect; I'm not sure why you insist that you've discovered better ways to keep them when you have no experience that would give you information that everyone else hasn't taken into account.
Pacs are tough to kill for frogs; that doesn't mean that any condition that doesn't kill them is correct.

[Randy]

its not desert griff lol

[GrifTheGreat]

its not desert griff lol

Just making sure.