Is my hairy mushroom dying?

[jmkruby]

My Aquapod 24 is 23 days old, details,
19.5 lbs of live rock
20 lbs of live sand.
sapphire protein skimmer
No bioballs or ceramic rings
70W HQI
Stock pump
Maxjet 400

Cycled in less than a week currently water quality
Temp - 78.8-79.9
NH3 - 0
NO2 - 0
NO3 - 0
SpG - 1.023
Alk - 4.3 meq/l
Ca - 425 ppm

Inhabitants
5 Zebra Hermit Crabs
5 Blue legged hermit crabs
10 Astraea Snails
1 Small Metallic Torch LPS
1 rock containing six small hairy mushroom corals

All inhabitants doing fine, nice Colline Algae growing on the rock, none on the sides of the tank, copopods all over the place, only problem is the Hairy Mushroom Coral.

I have had the Hairy Mushroom Coral for a week now and some of the polyps are still scrunched up, they never opened. Three open and close periodically. One looks like it is falling/peeling off the rock. I though it might be in the wrong spot so I moved it today when I did a water change.

I have included a picture, can anyone tell me what is going on and if I should do anything or just it alone and see how it does?

My Small Metallic Torch LPS looks fine.

 

[trido]

The mushrooms will open when they are ready. They look pretty good. I wouldnt worry too much yet. They all look a little bleached to me. IMO lack of light for an extended period of time. The one in the midlle that is coming off of the rock looks like it is splitting. It may just be a spawning of new mushrooms. If it is dieing and the rest are doing ok then there probably isnt much you can do for the one. You will have corals die from time to time and it sucks but unfortunately that is part of reef keeping.

The brown spot is a flat worm. It is likely not harmful to the coral but can possibly reproduce to plague porportions if left unchecked. I would leave the flat worms until the mushrooms make a recovery before giving them a freshwater dip.

 

[trido]

And BTW :welcome:

 

[jmkruby]

Thanks for the reply, I am new to saltwater.

If they die do they change color?
I have been told that they can peel off the rock and still live?
If it does die how quickly do I have to get it out of the tank

I see you are from Seattle, so am I, Mill Creek to be exact.

The Mushroom is from Saltwater City.
I have a Mettalic Torch from Blue Sierra, I also got my Aquapod 24, 70HQI, live rock and live sand from Blue Sierra also .
Bought some dry goods from both Saltwater City and Denny's Pet World.

Do you have any other suggestions on buying livestock in Seattle?
How about livestock off the web.

I have heard of a place called GARF in Idaho, that can supply propogated corals, any information on them?

Lastly, are any of the local reef clubs worth joining?

Thanks
JMK

 

[trido]

If they die do they change color

Usually they will quickly melt or slowly shrivel and die.

I have been told that they can peel off the rock and still live

Sometimes this is a way of reproducing. The mother colony will shough off the rock and leave a little of the foot behind. The foot will grow into a new coral and the mother will reattach somewhere else.

If it does die how quickly do I have to get it out of the tank

Unless your tankis real small it probably isnt neccesary to remove it. I would wait. You might be surprised.

Mill Creek to be exact

I am in the Lynnwood/bothell area.

Do you have any other suggestions on buying livestock in Seattle?

Come on by my house. LOL I have a whole tank of things for sale. You can see some of them here after you register. http://www.reeffrontiers.com/forums/sho ... hp?t=25473 These corals are all 50% less than retail price. The other local places to buy are Barrier Reef in Renton, Reef Mystique in Lake Stevens, (I have never been there) Also "The Fish Store" in north Seattle by Green lake. There are others as well.

How about livestock off the web

.
Unless you are buying alot of corals or a rare/hard to find fish IMO it isnt worth it.

I have heard of a place called GARF in Idaho, that can supply propogated corals, any information on them?

Just what I have read on thier web site. http://www.garf.org/

Lastly, are any of the local reef clubs worth joining?

I just joined PSAS (Puget Sound Aquarium Society) and went to the frag swap. I am looking forward to the picnic coming up in hopes of meeting more frag trading reefers and possibly winning some prizes.

The link I provided to RF has ALOT of Seattleite Reefers browsing it. I still like this site better for information and straight to the point threads.

 

[Len]

If they don't open up in a couple of weeks, you might want to try repositioning them somewhere else in the tank. Lighting and water movement can play big roles in how they behave. A water change might help as well.

 

[Anonymous]

The mushrooms look like they were bleached out a bit to me.

 

[jmkruby]

Here is a post of the latest on the Mushrooms.

I am planning to jsut wait and see what happens. They may be bleached, I would not know what color they are supposed to be, but that is the color they were from the LFS.

I removed the flatworms with a disposable pipette and it worked well. BTY trido there is a great store call the Creation Station in Lynnwood that sells a lot of hospital and medical seconds that have pasted their experation but were never used. A great place to get small valves, tubing, etc. all plastic of course.

I have also included a pic of my system so far