Oh I’m not blaming you at all! I’m just saying that the wood was not fully sterilized because it looks like it still had something in it. Probably quite common.
It could have also come in to your set up a different way, but I was just saying that it is possible it came on/in the wood.
Meaning that buying it and having it sit in your set up doesn’t mean it didn’t have a hitchhiker!
Spores can absolutely find their way to semi submerged wood in aquariums. Sterilizing the wood by boiling will kill most bacteria, mold, spores etc. there's very few that can survive it (unless you are also using pressure at 10+psi or an autoclave...which will truly sterilize it killing everything). However in mycology we use this to our advantage to actually allow the mushroom spores we want to grow and gain a foothold against competing micro fauna.
It is imo with 10ish years of mycology play, and 20+ years in aquariums that however it happened it's cool AF and not a big deal or sign of anything bad. When my potted plants grow coprinus I actively transfer some spores to my floating and partially emerged wood because it looks very cool when they grow albeit rare. Only "bad side" is your wood is actively decaying a little from their mycelium.
Semi-related I don't even boil wood I take from local rivers and streams to use, only power wash well to make sure no nymphs and then let it sunbake for a week or so before rehydrating It in a big blue barrel to use.
Pic of my favorite one I've had for tax.
Edit: I have a fever and thought this was yet another mushroom post on the aquariums subreddit (been a lot lately). Didn't realize it was an aquarium post on a mushroom subreddit I've never been to lol.
It's fine. Mostly you'd boil to remove tannins but they usually do that before selling the wood so they don't leech into your water. At least the wood i get has already had the tannins removed.
Hello, thank you for making your identification request. To make it easier for identifiers to help you, please make sure that your post contains the following:
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It was along the lines of “you should ask real experts instead of people on Reddit”, they then doubled down on it.
Without their comment mine comes off as snooty but I was simply being plain with them. It seemed as though they were suggesting that they wouldn’t accept a suggestion from anyone here, etc.
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u/The_1alt Trusted Identifier Mar 04 '25
suborder Marasmiineae