Setting up a terrarium.

[scarral]

Hi! I got my baby (a. fulica probably) snails about a month ago. They were born at the end of may, and are growing like mad!

I've been watching lots of pictures of snail's homes here and in other websites, so when I went for a walk in the forest with my son, and I saw a really nice piece of old tree trunk, I decided to bring it home and put it in our terrarium for our snails to climb on. I washed it as best as I could and put it in the oven at 200 degrees Celsius for about 15 minutes before putting it anywhere near the terrarium, to make sure local bugs are dead before my snails touch it (I understand that African snails are not used to local bugs, I live in Austria). However, a week down the line, and I can see already fungal growth (like mildew) on the surface. Is that bad for the snails/terrarium? Should I put the piece of wood in the oven or throw it away? Or is this harmless to the snails? Can the snails eat the fungus? Should I be worried about it?

Also, I put an already growing dandelion plant inside the terrarium, but it's not doing well at all. Could it be that dandelion doesn't like damp environments? The humidity in our tank is about 80 to 85%.

Any comments will be really appreciated.

[pinkunicorn]

Most spores from the forest should have died in the heat but there's always some in the air and they start growing in suitable places. It's possibly something that was already present in the tank. A lot of snails eat fungi and unless your GALS are wild caught they're probably used to the local spores. They might in fact get sick if now put into a rainforest. Tolerance and resistance to spores, bacteria and viruses is not inherited from generation to another but acquired by each individual based on their particular environment.

Well, actually viruses do inherit and other creatures can inherit resistance to viruses... but in general if it's a local irritant it's acquired resistance. If you're a Brit born in Thailand you will have resistance like ethnic Thai people in terms of allergens. But if you move as an adult you might get all sort of funny new allergies and intolerances.