Mushroom puking up white matter

[horseflesh]

The shrooms on this rock have seemed very happy, getting bigger since I got them. But tonight I saw something strange, the biggest, fastest-growing guy started ejecting some chunky white bits. It was coral bedtime when I noticed so he is partially closed up. Whatever it is, it happened over just a couple of hours, because I looked at the tank a lot tonight.

 

 

That's the best pic I can get without rearranging the rock. Any ideas?

[Surfzup2k4]

it will be ok, its just ###ed at something. How are the rest of your corals doing?

[horseflesh]

I have one other nearby shroom who looks a little funny... he shrunk a bit and it looks like his foot is spreading out. (There is a pic in this other post.) Aside from that, everything else seems perfect. Torch, candy cane, GSP, pulsing xenia, and other shrooms are all doing great.

 

I just checked back on the green shroom and now it looks like the chunks are stretching out into tentacles. I guess he is ###ed at something! Didn't think mushrooms did that.

 

[horseflesh]

This morning (well, noon, when the lights come on) everything looks normal. Huh.

[HotRod68Camaro]

yea 2 of mine did that a couple days ago and they are fine now.

[c est ma]

This topic reappears from time to time whenever someone notices this phenomenon in their shrooms. Because I'm too lazy to retype or copy, I refer you to this thread in which I posted a snippet from Sprung & Delbeek about it:

 

http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=75630

 

However, I must say, your first picture sure looks like an extreme example compared to anything I've ever seen from my shrooms. Are you aware of any disturbance, physical, chemical, biological, etc., that could have upset the shroom? Very interesting pics, anyway. Keep us posted.

 

--Diane

 

Edit: Well, on looking more closely at your first pic, I realize that I hadn't noticed the shrooms were closing up for the night--which makes the relative amount of innards per disc size more normal. Still would be nice to know why, tho, wouldn't it? "Some things we'll never know..."

[horseflesh]

Very helpful, thanks. And I'll have to get that book to go with my copy of Borneman's.

 

AFAIK there should have been no disturbances to the tank. Maybe a hermit tapdanced across the shroom. If it happens again I'll get some better pics or set up a timelapse.

[Phil F]

When I first put one of my mushrooms in my tank it did the same thing, not as much but alittle of that white stuff (probably was mad because I was trying to put it on a rock) after an hour it was gone.

 

The same mushroom closes at night, but opens very big during the day. I've only had it for 2 days so I'm not sure if this will continue or not.

[c est ma]

I like to hear how other people's critters behave! Have you noticed whether your shroom stays closed all night or periodically opens and closes while it is dark?

 

Mine do the latter. A comment Icyuodd/Icyoud2 once made in another context got me to thinking about why this might be so. He was wondering about nocturnal pods cleaning up around his chiton, and at the same time I noticed lots of Stomatella activity around one of my closed up shrooms. It occurred to me that maybe by closing up the shrooms make it easier for the night-time clean-up crew to get rid of any detritus that might have accumulated underneath them. And maybe they can't stay closed for too long lest something decide to permanently settle underneath them!

 

Or maybe they close in response to the jostling of the cleaners...

 

Of course, they could just be finding stuff to eat at night, or taking advantage of not needing to photosynthesize...

 

Fun to speculate about, anyway!

 

--Diane