Mould issues with Peat/Moss

[zakalwe]

I've been using store bought "Tropical Forest Moss" in my Terrarium and I've noticed that after two weeks or so it goes brown and starts to develop mould. Should I worry about this, or is it safe or even beneficial to the snails.

I've been thinking about switching to loam and using just a little moss on top to make things interesting, would this by any chance help solve the problem?

Thanks for you help.

[coyote]

Do you have a hygrometer in your tank? Do you know what the relative humidity is? It may be just a humidity problem and not a moss problem.

[lucyjames]

I found that the peat I used to use would go mouldy occasionally in the summer when it was warmer, however I have never noticed this with the moss...

As Coyote says, perhaps it is a humidity problem....

I *do* find, however, that sometimes snaily poo goes mouldy if they have been eating certain things - perhaps there is some of this in the areas where the mould grows?

[zakalwe]

I do have a hydrometer but I'm not sure how well it works. The humiditiy never really gets above 70%, which the snails seem to like fine. At first I thought it was maybe me leaving the watermelon in too long, but now that I'm looking through the substrate I can see little bits of mould starting in several other places that are actually deep under the surface, so I'm thinking that maybe the moss itself is too wet.

[Rachel]

the only thing I can suggest is soaking it in warm water for an hour then squeeezing it out and spraying a little till its the right wetness. That and rinsing it very thoroughly first.

[zoe1011]

i get this with my moss and i have discovered its minute bits of food thats been left there and the mould grows of that then expands. could be this.

[zakalwe]

I think that might be what it is, but I'm still not sure how it got so far down into the substrate when the snails haven't dug down there.

I think I'll switch to using loam on the bottom, with a little bit of moss on top. I hope that that will make it harder for the mould to grow and make it easier for me to find the snails eggs (I have quite a few of them in the same tank and they've all become sexual deviants )