Is my mushroom ok?

[neanderthalman]

Hey, I've had this hairy mushroom for a few weeks now, and it's been doing quite well. After a few days in the tank, it inflated to almost twice the size that it was at the LFS. Last week my blue-leg hermit was perched next to it for almost two days, and the coral shied away from it. I was also able to get an awesome macro of the crab because of where it was, but anyways.

 

The mushroom still hasn't recovered, and I'm wondering if something is wrong. I've been told that mushrooms don't NEED to be fed, but they do better when you do. I've been trying to feed it without success, although I did just read a post about a trick with a pop bottle that I am going to try. Here's a pic I just took. Compare it with a pic from last week in the next post.

[neanderthalman]

My water parameters check out ok, and I haven't changed my lights. It isn't spitting mucus out of it's mouth like I've often read they do when stressed, but I'm still rather worried.

 

Here's the other picture.

[neanderthalman]

Does anyone know whats happening to my coral? It's gotten even smaller today.

[neanderthalman]

Just an update, the mushroom has shrunk to about 20% of it's normal size and is spitting pink goo out of is mouth. Is that zooxanthellae? I've read about mushrooms spitting mucus when really stressed, but I thought it was always described as thin white strings, not a blob of pink spaghetti. Has anyone ever seen a mushroom do this before?

[davinaster]

DISCLAIMER: I HAVE NO EARTHLY IDEA WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOUR SHROOM. I HAVE BEEN IN THIS HOBBY FOR ONLY 3 MONTHS.

 

That said, I posted about a pink yuma that wasn't doing so well and was spitting stuff out. A few days ago I turned the temp up in my tank (from ~76.5 to ~79) and all my mushrooms look better - more extension, etc.

 

MORE DISCLAIMING: I AM NOT RECOMMENDING/ADVISING THAT YOU INCREASE YOUR TANK TEMPERATURE. I AM MERELY PASSING ON A ANECDOTE FROM MY EXPERIENCE.

[davinaster]

BTW, I googled "ecosystem", but I don't get the joke, if there is one

[ClarkiiClown]

If you start to see thick brown/maroon mucus around the shroom it is decomposing. You will know.

 

Shrooms do shrivel up on a regular basis. I had some frillys that were super big for a couple of weeks. Shrunk down to the dize of a dime. A crappy looking brown dime.

Then like magic they puff up again.

 

If it is dying your crabs will finish it off before you notice and it will just be gone.

[ClarkiiClown]

Also I see it is quite close to another coral- chemical warfare could be a problem

[neanderthalman]

Funny you mention that Clarkii - I had the same thought, last night, so I pulled the rock out of the tank and used a cold-chisel to break the rock. Unfortunately the rock cracked directly beneath the coral, but it didn't separate. I put it back in the tank, this time a safe distance from anything else. While I was at work today, the rock separated and fell about half an inch - probably given a push by my by Astrea bulldozer.

 

It stretched the mushroom, and it looks to be detatching from the higher rock, so I'm just leaving it alone. It's mouth is wide open, so I'm going to try to feed it again, just in case it helps it any. In other news, the breaking of the rock let me rearrange the aquascaping somewhat - I didn't really like the way it looked before.

 

Davinaster, thanks for the suggestion. A lack of experience shouldn't stop you from offering an idea. I keep my temps around 80 degrees anyways - In the six months or so that I let the tank cycle, I did a lot of reading on what actual ocean conditions were. They vary wildly, but it seemed like temperatures tended to be upwards of 80 degrees in the shallow coastal areas where corals live. I'm hardly an oceanographer or coral expert, but I figured I should try to duplicate the natural environment as much as possible. As a bonus, I don't have to worry about heat issues as much!

[neanderthalman]

Just an update - the mushroom wound up splitting in two today, and it hasn't shown any signs of decomposition. My guess is that I now have two smaller mushrooms, assuming both halves survive.

[sir winston mulligan]

same thing happend to me...one part of the ric was attached to a big piece if LR and the other half was attached to a piece of rubble...long story short, snail knocked the rubble over the ledge, and now i have 2 rics..the half without a mouth should develop one..just my experience

[mchammer]

Hi, how is your mushroom looking now? I just purchased the same mushroom myself. It's looking ok so far. The mushroom colony is attached to an odd shaped LR. I didn't think about when I was a the LFS, but when it got it home, it was very hard to place in my tank. Anyway, I was wondering where in the tank do you placed your mushroom? med flow or low flow area?

Also, mine did spit out a clear liquid the first day that I got it. It doesn't do that anymore.

[Paula]

I feed my mushrooms twice a week - use an eyedropper with brine shrimp - they are huge and happy!

[neanderthalman]

Hven't checked this thread in a while - both halves of my mushroom died, and I did figure out why. When I turned off the PH to remove the LR and scrub the shroom off, I noticed that it was still moving, like it was in a current. I actually saw a small bit of the shroom tear off and slowly move to the underside of the rock.

 

I pulled the rock out and once it was out of the water, I could see about a dozen hair-like tentacles attached to the shroom, and they all went around to the bottom of the rock to a little anenome about 2-3mm across that I hadn't seen before.

 

The ammonia spike from the death killed my new xenia frag and two of my three hermits. I've also heard that mushrooms release toxins when they die, like nudis, which would explain why it affected everything so much. I don't know if that's true or not.

[greatreef16]

Well isn't that a sad ending? Sorry.

[sir winston mulligan]

man that sucks...sorry for your loss...we had simular experiences minus the anemome.

[janasleah]

That's sad...now I"m thinking those tiny aiptasia HAVE to go....soon!