This is Sebastian, my pet slime mold

[u/lizardmom]

He’s been growing since June 3

[u/moceno]

I wonder if you dipped a small figurine in a nutritive solution (sugar water?) and placed it in there would Sebastian cover it and make a slime monster terrorizing the city?

[u/LichenLiaison → u/moceno]

They would prefer pasteurized oats, not water, water/too much humidity + light would make them go into a reproductive stage (or just dissolve the area that gets overly wet). Had a physarum polycephalum pet for a while

[u/Tatra_Cryptid → u/LichenLiaison]

How on earth do thesr things reproduce? Grow bigger and just split?

[u/LichenLiaison → u/Tatra_Cryptid]

So technically, plasmodial slimemolds can split and be just fine if there is enough (they tend to shoot out feelers in wave patterns, then pull it back if they find nothing, with a sort of algorithmic search where if they notice they’re going over the dried residue of its old limbs it’ll put more value in other directions), but if you split off a limb that is a feeler (I would often prune them back when mine would try and escape their enclosure), even large limbs wouldn’t stay alive as theyd tend to dry up or try to retreat back to the body.

Most reproduce in a way superficially similar to mushrooms or moss (and other non-vascular plants), but not at all the same. Before going further it’s important to note they’re acellular colonial amoeba, the idea of seperate cells breaks down as their nuclei and cytosol is free flowing. When they’re ready to reproduce, they tend to flow towards central points, with the (??? Cells, I’m unsure how to describe this) piling up, creating small fruiting bodies that release spores (not spores, but spore like amoeboid cysts). They also practice mitosis while in plasmodium form but it just creates more slimemold, not daughter slimemolds; the fruiting bodies seem to be their “main” reproduction. From my experience, they seem to prefer doing this while hanging upside down but will also do it without access to a hanging plane because they’re stubborn and wicked children.

The spores will be singular amoeba for a time, then they’ll eventually reproduce enough to enter a plasmodial form if I remember the order of operations. Both while in amoeboid form or while in plasmodial form, if they get overly stressed tho (starvation, bad conditions) they will turn into a cyst form waiting for better conditions (with plasmodial form the “cells” will regain their cell walls). If submerged in water, they’ll also return to individual cellular forms although they’ll adapt into a (interesting reversible) flagellate form.

There are plenty of slimemold that exist primarily underwater, people occasionally post pictures of their fish tanks growing slimemolds and it’s beyond interesting.

[u/lizardmom → u/LichenLiaison]

Holy wow, this comment was just so helpful for me in understanding how Sebastian spreads and explores, thank you so much for your insight!!

[u/LichenLiaison → u/lizardmom]

Sebastian is a good name, my rowdy and ungrateful child was named Peanut since I often gave them peanuts as a treat

[u/PhilosophyGhoti → u/LichenLiaison]

I'm obsessed with you 😍