Constantly mouldy food??

[Romy]

So I feed my gecko Arcadia earth pro sticky foot gold, which is a brand with a good reputation. I pop it in the tank and within the hour.. mouldy! :-x Its this dark blue/green mould.

I have a bioactive tank, which isn't too mouldy atm. The springtails are doing their job well. However, it does mean it's constantly warm humid in there, with natural bacteria milling about probably. Also the packet of food actually says pro-bio on it,

My gecko won't touch mouldy food, nor do i want her eating mouldy food so this needs sorting

Any advise? Am i doing something wrong?

 

[Elizabeth Freer]

Welcome to Geckos Unlimited!

How often are you spraying? It's very important for a crestie's enclosure to dry out between mistings.

I usually spray mine heavily once daily in the evenings and let it dry until the next evening.

 

[Romy]

I have a fogger, which i usually turn on for about an hour a day. I also have a background waterfall/pond area, which i keep minnows in. It doesn't get very dry in there to be honest. I'll cut back on the fogging and lower the water level see if that helps

 

[Aimless]

mold won't form within an hour. it takes time for the spores to develop and even more time for them to divide into enough to see. likewise, even though bacteria grow much faster than fungi, I'd still maintain that it's not bacterial if you're seeing it within an hour.

I think something else is going on to cause the discoloaration and I would contact the company.

 

[Romy]

I pretty sure it's a living thing growing on the food, seeing as it appears in circular, spreading colonies. Also, I had a day or two when i thought the problem was solved. Then i took a closer look and saw that the springtails were actually eating the blue/green spots off of the food. It still smelled pretty ripe though so i considered the remaining food inedible and chucked it.

It definitely takes under an hour to develop though

 

[Aimless]

I promise, if it develops that fast it isn't mold or bacteria. can you get a good clear photo, before and after?

 

[Romy]

I promise, if it develops that fast it isn't mold or bacteria. can you get a good clear photo, before and after?

So these attached photos are exactly an hour apart, freshly made when I saw your reply. And dish was placed on top of the tank

 

[Hilde]

So these attached photos are exactly an hour apart, freshly made when I saw your reply. And dish was placed on top of the tank

Looks pretty much like the freshly made version in their video.
There's no way that's mold, it's more likely that some dehydrated food (say the blueberries) have increased in size from the water in the mixture. It would also explain why the springtails picked those spots first.

I took two screen caps of the mixture they as they showed in the video, you can see the larger blobs, which I assume is what you're talking about. I included the time on the video, in case you want to check it yourself.

 

[Aimless]

definitely agreed. if not something like blueberries, it might be simply that an ingredient is oxidizing a bit.

 

[KattsKritters]

Are you still having issues? Or have things settled with their food now?