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Comment by ian on March 11, 2015 at 10:00

It's either the oats or agar then. For bulking up I use filter paper add one colonised oat and two fresh ones, once they're mostly colonised ( a couple of hours ) I add more and keep topping up about twice a day - by the end of the week I've got a few tablespoons of colonised oats on the go and they're not hanging around long enough for contamination to develop.

Comment by Ryan Teh Han Rong on March 11, 2015 at 0:54

Hi guys. Thanks for the help. This plate was purely for obtaining oat that was covered in plasmodium for isolation for my experiment. But this plate did not contain any of the metal solutions that I sed for my actual experiments. 

Comment by ian on March 10, 2015 at 19:59

Try plating out oats and nothing else ( including physarum ), just solution,  oats plus solution and no physarum etc to locate the source. 

It's easy to clean up your physarum - move a chunk to filter paper, feed it a bit and when it's grown move the paper onto a bigger piece of paper, let the physarum migrate onto the fresh piece and it should be clean

Comment by Natalie Andrew on March 10, 2015 at 19:26

Hi Ryan, Is this a plate where you have put the drop of test chemical in and swirled it? In which case the water/chemical could have had a bacterial contaminant. Otherwise, your sterile oats may not be sterile - you can just buy some fresh from a store, wrap them in foil and toast them a little to sterilize your own. :)

Comment by Ryan Teh Han Rong on March 10, 2015 at 14:44

Yeah. They're smooth kind of spots and they can be wiped off almost. It's strange. And it just smells funny a little. But not too sure what it is and how to get rid of it and stop it contaminating ALL my cultures. 

Comment by ian on March 10, 2015 at 14:01

As Heather says, it could just be the oats breaking down, it's hard to tell from a photo. To me it looks like contamination, I'd give it a smell as physarum ought to smell just a bit earthy, if there's a yeasty or buggy pong then you know it's contaminated.

Are these spots raised, smooth spots and do they grow with time?

Comment by Ryan Teh Han Rong on March 10, 2015 at 12:32

Hi Heather. I am using Normal Non-Nutrient Agar. And my oats are sterile oats. And the whitish thing starts forming after about 1 to 2 days. Any ideas on how I may avoid this problem? 

Comment by Heather Barnett on March 10, 2015 at 12:03

What kind of agar are you using - nutrient, oatmeal or plain?

Are you using sterile oats? How long does it take for the white halo to form?

It looks like the oats are reacting to the agar as they break down.

Comment by Ryan Teh Han Rong on March 10, 2015 at 11:25

Can anyone please tell me what this whitish transparentish thing is and how to get them out or prevent them from growing in my slime mould cultures?