my version might be a bit expensive and time consuming, but it is surefire. i used this on green star polyps. i scratched off as much as possible.(in your case i guess cut off as much of the shrooms as possible.) and then cover the areas in reef cement(mine is the stuff thats white with a green layer on the outside.) depending on the amount of space, you may have to use a lot. and then wait. and wait. you can either cover it with other corals or if you wait long enough (+6 months) you can flake the stuff back off.
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How do you control mushroom populations?
- Thread starter Len
- Start date
Most of these suggestions seem good for a stray mushroom, but they will not help the person with a serious mushroom problem (like I have). Where you are talking about hundreds of shrooms that need to be removed. Snipping a head off for trade does nothing to solve the problem of where they are growing. Swapping rocks out certainly isn't an option for an established reef loaded with other corals.
I already remove about 50 to 100 shrooms at a time for trade. I kalk the remains and siphon out whatever will release. That only buys you about 2 months time before they are all growing back and in stronger numbers.
I'm doing my best to hold out for a biological predator be be identified.. some kind of nudibranch I hope. There have been indications that the Fiji foxface might eat them and a few kind of angelfish might. But if they have a taste for them they will likely have a taste for other fleshy corals and anemones. Solution would be worse than the problem.
I fully expect to have to just take my tank down in a few more years and start over from scratch and be darn careful to make sure shrooms and colonial anemones don't get established in the tank.
It's the classic Tortoise (shrooms) Vs. the Hare (SPS corals) story. Slow and steady growing shrooms will always win out.
I already remove about 50 to 100 shrooms at a time for trade. I kalk the remains and siphon out whatever will release. That only buys you about 2 months time before they are all growing back and in stronger numbers.
I'm doing my best to hold out for a biological predator be be identified.. some kind of nudibranch I hope. There have been indications that the Fiji foxface might eat them and a few kind of angelfish might. But if they have a taste for them they will likely have a taste for other fleshy corals and anemones. Solution would be worse than the problem.
I fully expect to have to just take my tank down in a few more years and start over from scratch and be darn careful to make sure shrooms and colonial anemones don't get established in the tank.
It's the classic Tortoise (shrooms) Vs. the Hare (SPS corals) story. Slow and steady growing shrooms will always win out.
Posted by Rich:
-I agree, thats why I listened to you guys about how bad they can get and got mine out in the nick of time.
Have I read that a Choclate Chip star eats these or am I imagining this. :?
Steve
Most of these suggestions seem good for a stray mushroom, but they will not help the person with a serious mushroom problem (like I have).
-I agree, thats why I listened to you guys about how bad they can get and got mine out in the nick of time.
Have I read that a Choclate Chip star eats these or am I imagining this. :?
Steve
I feel your pain Rich. I'm going through the same thing with Brown Star Polyps in my tank now, too. And to think, the guy gave me an Acro frag and pointed out the "freebie" I was getting w/ a few extra polyps hanging off the side of the thing...
See for yourself
http://reef.myip.org/7.12.02/middle3.JPG
I'm trying to cover them with Kalkpaste, and having marginal success. The problem is if I mix it too thick, I can't get it in the syringe. Too thin, it won't 'stick' to the coral, just get's blown around onto everything else once I turn the circulation back on. It's been marginally successful on Aiptasia, but like someone else said, sometimes it seems to make them reproduce more rapidly. The best suggestion I can think of was something else once said for Aip's... I forget the name of the chemical, potassium Hydroxide or something (don't quote me!), but it came in at a pH of about 14! Cooked the crap out of anything you got it on, instantly. I've also used "pH down" from my LHS, sold in the Hot-tub section... Does basically the same thing, has a pH of about 6, bubbles when it hits the water. I think the idea is the same (as using Hydrogen Peroxide, etc.) Unfortunately, w/o going to an extreme end of the pH scale (5, or 14), you'd have to inject the beast to effectively kill it. Anything more median, may just piss them off.
- Mac
See for yourself
http://reef.myip.org/7.12.02/middle3.JPG
I'm trying to cover them with Kalkpaste, and having marginal success. The problem is if I mix it too thick, I can't get it in the syringe. Too thin, it won't 'stick' to the coral, just get's blown around onto everything else once I turn the circulation back on. It's been marginally successful on Aiptasia, but like someone else said, sometimes it seems to make them reproduce more rapidly. The best suggestion I can think of was something else once said for Aip's... I forget the name of the chemical, potassium Hydroxide or something (don't quote me!), but it came in at a pH of about 14! Cooked the crap out of anything you got it on, instantly. I've also used "pH down" from my LHS, sold in the Hot-tub section... Does basically the same thing, has a pH of about 6, bubbles when it hits the water. I think the idea is the same (as using Hydrogen Peroxide, etc.) Unfortunately, w/o going to an extreme end of the pH scale (5, or 14), you'd have to inject the beast to effectively kill it. Anything more median, may just piss them off.
- Mac
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