One Lone Shroom

[dansd]

A while back I picked up some live rock and one had a lone hitchhiking mushroom. It shrinks down to almost nothing at night and opens each morning. Am I supposed to be feeding it or doing anything special? Will it every multiply or branch out? My tank is about a year old and only has live rock/Sand and a light load of fish/cleaners.

It's nothing too exciting, but I've attached a picture so you will know what kind it is.

Dan

 

[Sugar Magnolia]

Be glad that it's one lone shroom. On the other hand, it won't be alone for long. Eventually it'll either split, or more likely, move leaving a bit of flesh behind which will form a new shroom. (pedal laceration) I've never target fed mine, in fact, I just eradicated my 30 of about 30 green striped mushrooms. I certainly don't want my tank looking like this guys.

 

[Len]

After it settles in, it will reproduce like rabbits. As SM said, be careful. My tank got overrun by mushrooms.

 

[FilthyMcNasty]

Seriously, I had only one rock with these guys. They were stable for about two years, then suddenly took over. The rock gets crowded, mushrooms start "letting go" (its actually kinda funny seeing them suddenly start floating around to settle somewhere new), but they can choke off all your corals and leave no safe place to put new ones. I'm resigned to having a mushroom tank until I can upgrade, but seriously murder the bastard if you plan to have other corals. If you don't, a mushroom forest can look kinda cool - in fact, if you cut back on the light a little they grow longer stalks and look a little like a forest.

 

[Len]

Seriously, I had only one rock with these guys. They were stable for about two years, then suddenly took over. The rock gets crowded, mushrooms start "letting go" (its actually kinda funny seeing them suddenly start floating around to settle somewhere new), but they can choke off all your corals and leave no safe place to put new ones. I'm resigned to having a mushroom tank until I can upgrade, but seriously murder the bastard if you plan to have other corals. If you don't, a mushroom forest can look kinda cool - in fact, if you cut back on the light a little they grow longer stalks and look a little like a forest.

Same here. I am forced to start over (was going to anyhow, but it speeded up the process) because shrooms went out of control in my tank. My new tank will have no mushrooms or polyps. They are beautiful, but they also grow like weeds and are often hard to control. It's one thing for them to spread in an orderly fashion, but my mushrooms would traverse the tank and sprout new populations everywhere.

BTW guys ....
:welcome:

 

[m-fine]

I have the same problem. One green mushroom on a rock about 4 years ago. About a year ago I had maybe a dozen of them on the rock looking real good, now I bet there are 100+ and they started to kill off other corals.

How does one control such outbreaks, and is there any safe simple means to eradicate them? I guess I could Kalwasser them like aptaisia but that is a LOT of injecting!

Thanks for any tips,
m-fine

 

[Len]

I'm glad to see so many new faces

Sadly, I have found nothing that effectively rids mushroom outbreaks. I've tried various solutions, including 50% NaOH (stuff they use in labs to chemically burn flesh). While I am able to rid some of the polyps, they always grow back faster then I can take care of them.

The only viable solution is to find a predator that will consistently eat it. People have reported various butterflyfish that will, but they are a risk for your other inverts too. I recall Richard Miozza had butterflies that ate all his shrooms, so it's worth a shot.
http://web.archive.org/web/200010291932 ... efault.asp

 

[Diana]

AH! I had the opposite problem. I had a mushroom meltdown! All my gorgeous green striated mushrooms shrivelled and died, my umbrella polyp, and one of my ricordia. All my other (more sensitive) corals were fine. !!! The tank was fairly new, but i suspected my other corals and inverts would be the first to go if something happend, not the shrooms. Ive added a few more single polyps since then to see how they do and so far its okay.

So.... if anyone in the Vancouver area is gettin rid of some shrooms i will gladly adopt

-Diana

 

[zonkers]

I find this thread...... disconcerting

I have been keeping some shrooms for the past 10 months or so, & during the last 3 or so I have had a few offshoots pop up. I had been taking this as a sign of some success & generally a positive indicator about my tank. As I understand it, mushrooms feed primarily dissolved organics in the water. Perhaps their increase in 'activity' is a sign that my water is too rich in nutrients? Phosphates are less than .1 & nitrates hang between 7-10ppm. I do have some cyano & hair algae going on, but its not exactly overunning the tank.

Maybe more prolific species of shrooms should be considered as a fuge type of critter for nutrient export? Seems such a shame though, if I can't find local homes for them, I don't know if I can bring myself to be hacking & trashing them should they really start going out of control.

 

[Len]

Mushrooms will uptake nutrients and use photo energy which likely constitues most of its energy requirements. They're very easy to care for .... too easy in some cases

I really love them, but they simply get out of hand after a while.

 

[dansd]

Thank you for all the input. I don't think I will have an problem with too many mushrooms because yesterday my giant hermit crab ate it. It's completely gone. I guess I'll have to find a new home for him if I ever decide to add some corals and/or more mushrooms.