Glow in the dark mushrooms

javsto

New Member
I was picking up some feeders this evenng at my local store and I noticed that they had this new item for sale on the counter. The guy said it was some sort of glow in the dark fungus/mushroom but he didnt know anything about it outside that it glows once the lights are turned off. Does anyone have any additional knowledge on this like does it smell bad, since my cham cage is next to my bed, is it toxic in case my cham eats it, does anyone here use them in thier cages ?
 
I was picking up some feeders this evenng at my local store and I noticed that they had this new item for sale on the counter. The guy said it was some sort of glow in the dark fungus/mushroom but he didnt know anything about it outside that it glows once the lights are turned off. Does anyone have any additional knowledge on this like does it smell bad, since my cham cage is next to my bed, is it toxic in case my cham eats it, does anyone here use them in thier cages ?

one of the sponsors of the site sell them if they are the same thing theyre nontoxic imma go see if i can find it now

edit*

found it!

http://www.pangeareptile.com/store/glow-in-the-dark-mushroom-kit.html
 
i think thats cool if you have enough foliage you should be fine they wont be able to see though there leaves just put them where your cham does not sleep
 
stop the bus, everybody get off ! +farewell my friend.

no, imo, glow in the dark mushrooms should be considered a visual novelty only and are not suitable for a cham in cage environment.

the xanthoman , has grown one buttload of mushrooms in his life of many different kinds. ive never actually grown any of the glow in the dark varieties. but this is what i can tell you.

*most shrooms whether edible or not, are extremely high in phosphorus, which is not cham friendly. agaricus bisporus, typical store white button mushrooms , typically have an inverse Ca:p ratio as low as Ca:p 1:18, thats 3600%, (or 36x more phosphorus) than the desired cham nutritional target of Ca:p 2:1.

ive never actually researched glow in the dark mushrooms, but as a wild guess id say it would seem likely that glow in the dark mushrooms have a significantly higher phosphorus content than agaricus bisporus, meaning MORE than 36x too much phosphorus.

the 2 most likely available varieties of glow in the dark mushrooms
are the jack-o-lantern mushroom (omphalotus illudens) and the luminescent panellus (panellus stipticus) both cause severe gastrointestinal distress and considered inedible. the panellus stipticus is mildly toxic, but personally, i would be more worried about their beyond astronomical phosphorus content. http://americanmushrooms.com/coolest.htm

a couple of other things to consider. all gilled mushrooms put out large volumes (literally clouds) of spores, that like to grow in warm moist environments (like cham lungs) and imo in the enclosed sometimes damp environment of a cham cage, especially with a species as delicate as chams could pose a respiratory issue. chams are noted for getting respiratory infections anyway. so imo, as general practice, the idea should be to do our best to provide an environment that discourages mold/spore/fungus production.

another thing to consider is that mushrooms are mostly water, and may have an alluring moist look, even when the rest of the cage is dry. to be honest, i think its probably unlikely that the chams would actually eat the mushrooms, because both are considered impalatable, but then for the most part so is dirt, which is not uncommon for chams to eat. but i think the possibility that under some circumstances, they might drink from them, poses a real threat due to the extreme phosphorus content.
plus, cricks will eat anything, and i would be real concerned about cricks chewing on the fungus before getting eaten. even if you cup feed, its not uncommon for an escapee or two to go unoticed overnight giving them plenty of shroom munching time before breakfast. ok, maybe not likely. but i wouldnt want to rule it out or bet my chams health on it, just something to consider.
i dont see anything wrong with setting up an aq or exo-terra and growing them in the same room (as long as there is some exchange of outside air) but i wouldnt be comfortable setting it right next to the cham cage.jmo

i learned how to grow mushrooms in 1975. after a year of failed tries. a friend of mine stepped in to show me all of the little things i was doing wrong. in the 20 years that followed we had many large successful grows of different varieties both together and independently.
i think that shroom growing is a lot like cham keeping in that respect just having a few things not quite right can mean the difference between success or not.

when the 90s came we both had other things going on, and so the mushroom days sort of faded into history, but the memories never did. for the next dozen years or so, we always talked about growing some more shrooms, but we never did. he was diagnosed of inoperable lung cancer in 2006, i was with him when he died one year later. he was an amazing dude, i remember about a year before he was diagnosed and we were in the bar together and a grizzled homless lady that most guys would never even talk to came into the bar wanting to bum a smoke and change for a candy bar, he bought her a pack of smokes and a deluxe cheese burger.

he taught me how to razor clam, salmon fish, he taught me a sense of adventure, and also outdoor survival, but most of all, he taught me how to laugh, something i have done very little of since he has been gone. he was my life long friend and i miss him dearly.

after a sharing a life of every conceivable self abuse with him and after handling many dangerous lab chemicals and thousands of infected cultures, it was finally cigarette smoking that got him in the end.////

flash forward... in 2010 i ran into a mutual friend that i hadnt seen in since my other friends death. and he suggested we do a grow as a tribute to our friend. these pics are from that grow. sorry for the thread hijack, imo, nix on the in cage glow in the dark mushrooms. jmo
 
Last edited:
no, imo, glow in the dark mushrooms should be considered a visual novelty only and are not suitable for a cham in cage environment.

the xanthoman , has grown one buttload of mushrooms in his life of many different kinds. ive never actually grown any of the glow in the dark varieties. but this is what i can tell you.

*most shrooms whether edible or not, are extremely high in phosphorus, which is not cham friendly. agaricus bisporus, typical store white button mushrooms are typically have an inverse Ca:p ratio as low as Ca:p 1:18, thats 3600%,(or 36x more phosphorus) than the desired cham nutritional target of Ca:p 2:1.

ive never actually researched glow in the dark mushrooms, but as a wild guess id say it would seem likely that glow in the dark mushrooms have a significantly higher phosphorus content than agaricus bisporus, meaning MORE than 36x too much phosphorus.

the 2 most likely available varieties of glow in the dark mushrooms
are the jack-o-lantern mushroom (omophalotus illudens) and the luminescent panellus (panellus stipticus) both cause severe gastrointestinal distress and considered inedible. the panellus stipticus is mildly toxic, but personally, i would be more worried about their beyond astronomical phosphorus content. http://americanmushrooms.com/coolest.htm

a couple of other things to consider. all gilled mushrooms put out large volumes (literally clouds) of spores, that like to grow in warm moist environments (like cham lungs) and imo in the enclosed sometimes damp environment of a cham cage, especially with a species as delicate as chams could pose a respiratory issue. chams are noted for getting respiratory infections anyway. so imo, as general practice, the idea should be to do our best to provide an environment that discourages mold/spore/fungus production.

another thing to consider is that mushrooms are mostly water, and may have an alluring moist look, even when the rest of the cage is dry. to be honest, i think its probably unlikely that the chams would actually eat the mushrooms, because both are considered impalatable, but then for the most part so is dirt, which is not uncommon for chams to eat. but i think the possibility that under some circumstances, they might drink from them, poses a real threat due to the extreme phosphorus content.
plus, cricks will eat anything, and i would be real concerned about cricks chewing on the fungus before getting eaten. even if you cup feed, its not uncommon for an escapee or two to go unoticed overnight giving them plenty of shroom munching time before breakfast. ok, maybe not likely. but i wouldnt want to rule it out or bet my chams health on it, just something to consider.
i dont see anything wrong with setting up an aq or exo-terra and growing them in the same room (as long as there is some exchange of outside air) but i wouldnt be comfortable setting it right next to the cham cage.jmo

i learned how to grow mushrooms in 1975. after a year of failed tries. a friend of mine stepped in to show me all of the little things i was doing wrong. in the 20 years that followed we had many large successful grows of different varieties both together and independently.
i think that shroom growing is a lot like cham keeping in that respect just having a few things not quite right can mean the difference between success or not.
when the 90s came we both had other things going on, and so the mushroom days sort of faded into history, but the memories never did. for the next dozen years or so, we always talked about growing some more shrooms, but we never did. he was diagnosed died of inoperable lung cancer in 2006, i was with him when he died one year later. he was an amazing dude, i rember about a year before he was diagnosed and we were in the bar together and a grizzled homless lady that most guys would never even talk to came into the bar wanting to bum a smoke and change for a candy bar, he bought her a pack of smokes and a deluxe cheese burger.he taught me how to razor clam, salmon fish he taught me a sense of adventure and also outdoor survival, but most of all, he taught me how to laugh, something i have done very little of since he has been gone. he was my life long friend and i miss him dearly.
after a sharing a life of every conceivable self abuse with him and after handling many dangerous lab chemicals and thousands of infected cultures, it was finally cigarette smoking that got him in the end.////
flash forward... in 2010 i ran into a mutual friend that i hadnt seen in since my other friends death. and he suggested we do a grow as a tribute to our friend. these pics are from that grow. sorry for the thread hijack, imo, nix on the in cage glow in the dark mushrooms. jmo

WWWWOOOOOOOWWWWW first off sorry for your loses but just curios im very interested in growing shrooms now can you shoot me a pm bout getting started? but if you dont because it was your friends thing i totally understand but thanks either way
 
Wholy Glow in the Dark Mushroom Batman!!!

Those things are redonkulously awesome!!

I'm going to do some research and then I'm getting Some!

Glow in the dark mushrooms!! What the crap!
 
just so you guys know, i have seen these mushrooms in action and first of all they will only glow if its COMPLETELY dark, no light whatsoever, if its not, the ammount of light it gives off is pathetic, second, if they arent in a room that gets alot of light in the day, they dont give off much night light, and finally they are a pointless purchase for a cham
 
glow in the dark mushroom videos

im sort of hesitant to mention this because i dont want people to loose sight of the fact that all mushrooms should be considered cham poison.
but ill admit that the glow in the dark ones do look cool and i have considered growing them myself. just not in cham cages.

for those that are interested in glow in the dark mushrooms there are several vids of them on youtube as well as vids that give an overview of mushroom growing.

that being said there are a couple of other things to consider. even if buying in a kit heres something that kit sellers dont tell you.

FACT; whether in a kit or starting from scratch, growing mushrooms involves cultures. (dowel culture not usually an issue)

FACT; CULTURES CAN AND DO GET INFECTED. (dowel cultures rarely get infected in the pre-innoculation phase ie fairly safe)

FACT; THE HANDLING OF INFECTED CULTURES CARRIES A VERY REAL SERIOUS AND SIGNIFICANT POSSIBLY EVEN FATAL HEALTH RISK, PARTICULARLY FOR THOSE THAT HAVE NOT STUDIED BIO-LAB PROTOCOL FOR PROPER INNOCULATION AND CULTURE HANDLING/DISPOSAL PRACTICES.
FACT; AN INFECTED CULTURE COULD CONCEIVABLY RELEASE AN AIRBORNE (possibly fatal or worse)BIO-HAZARD INTO YOUR HOUSE.

SO, WATCH THE VIDEOS, EVEN GROW THE MUSHROOMS, BUT LEARN AND BE SURE OF WHAT YOU ARE DOING FIRST.

i wouldnt rely on you tube videos as your final teacher, as always in depth research is the best place to start. do dry runs until you are confident of your technique.

that all being said, even if growing from a kit, all innoculation/culture/pre-fruiting requirements should imo be carried out in an area far separated from human or cham living space.

if you dont happen to have a bio-culture lab located inside a $40,000 class 100 clean room, you can makeshift, usually inside a visqueen closet with lots of lysol/alchohol plus doesnt hurt to have a powered nuclear grade hepa or ulpa filter of at least >99.99.97% efficiency <0.3 microns. <.001penetration.

it should be noted that some biomed/culture/cleanroom items and some chemicals and apparatus sometimes used in mycology is on both dea and dept of justice watchlists, for illegal drug manufacture and bio-terrorism concerns. so before anyone goes ordering culturing supplies willy-nilly off of the web be sure to best do some in depth research to make sure you are on solid legal ground. generally speaking, anything that comes in kit form, from an established us company, is legal.

growing shrooms is a great experience, shrooms have many medicinal qualities and there are many health supplements based on various varieties of mushrooms, but dont go adding them to your gutload because stated or not. they are high in phosphorus and death to chams.

shitakis are one of the easier to grow technique wise, but can take years to produce, but often also produce for years once started. you can buy a bag of pre-inoculated dowels <$30 (most mushrooms cannot be grown this way) drill a bunch of 3/8" holes in soaked hardwood log rounds, pound them in with a rubber mallet, seal them with beeswax and your growing shrooms.

anyone seriously interested in growing mushrooms wont need to ask xanthoman a bunch of questions because they will of course have already started their own IN DEPTH research ;).

info is all over the web but a good place for anyone to start is paul stamets site fungiperfecti , paul stamets went from being a nw hippie to being one of the premier mushroom authorities in the world. legal varieties only.

my current project is to grow lions mane mushrooms said to have many remarkable medicinal qualities a local naturopath has asked me to help them learn how to grow this species, but first i must learn to grow it myself as i have never grown it before and it is one of the harder shrooms too grow. id post some pics but i dont have any that i own but they are ultra cool looking. if anyone cares to check them out. they are sometimes said to look like a frozen waterfall. jmo

nuclear grade hepa filter, i know sweet isnt it
 
Last edited:
Alright, I'll jump in here. Hi everyone, I'm new to chameleon care so I can't really say too much about the toxicity of these mushrooms, but I do have one of those kits (or one like it) they are wood loving mushrooms meaning you are sent inoculated wooden dowels. You then drill some holes in a fresh cut piece of wood, shove them in and wax it shut. The species sent to me has escaped me for the moment but I do not think it is one of the two listed before. I will check when I get home. They kit reports (as do the anecdotal reports I have read) that the culture takes several months to reach fruiting. I have not gotten to that point yet myself so I cannot comment on the brightness. I can say I paid about $30 for my kit, shortly thereafter I realized if you order the inoculated dowels from a mycology supplier you can get them much cheaper.

I'll post more info when I get home. I'll have lots of questions about my new veiled cham as well
 
Ah, I have Panellus Stipticus. It was one of the two mentioned. I think I have that exact same kit that was linked.
 
I think those would make glow spot roaches glow like in the wild! Now that would be a neat set up! Glow in the dark mushrooms with glow in the dark roaches! :)

I wouldn't put them in a chameleon cage though. Mushrooms can be touchy and I wouldn't want my chams near them.
 
your the one who is uneducated, people get addicted to the stuff, i know people who have if anyone is being ignorant and uneducated it is you, there is a line between propaganda and truth, you have blown the line way out of proportion, arguing marijuana shouldnt be illeagal, you can make fair points, but your points arent points, all you are doing is saying its all natural, which is untrue, the actual mushroom was not very hallucinogenic before there was genetic modification, second thing you say is its amaerican propaganda, shrooms is one of their lowest priorities according to studies shown on american budget only 0.5 of US narcotics budget goes to shrooms, 96% for weed. and your other point is saying im uneducated and fat, you have never met me. Im 3 years away from getting my degree in cryptography. You dont even seem to know anything about the drug itself. Stop being rude, and base your points on some true FACTS

Cryptography huh? Cool. I'm 3 months away from my M.S. in Mathematics (I do work as an IT developer though and have written some basic cryptography software- mostly for fun).
 
Back
Top Bottom