Schrooms, how close to SPS before they are bothered?

[Anonymous]

My Hydnophora has not been expanding it's furring polyps for several weeks. The nearest shrooms are at least 6" away. Both the mother colony and a small frag on the other side of the tank look the same.

I have read the shrooms and SPS don't mix. Of course the schroms were one of the first things I ever purchased, before I new what being a reefer is all about. Now I have are green striped, blue/purple, and red mushrooms scattered around the tank.

All other SPS in the tank look terrific!

Do you guy's (and gal's) think the shrooms are the problem? Should I purge my tank of shrooms, and if so how?

Louey

 

[texman]

KILL ALL SHROOMS AND OTHER POLP TYPE VARMINTS! I have recently begun an eradication program using hot kalk paste! Seems to work.

 

[Anonymous]

Hmmm... Really? Dang?

It sounds like I may need to take similar measures.

Oh boy!

Thanks tex. :wink:

Louey

 

[CraigLampe]

Well, I am NOT A BIG FAN of mushrooms, I know they have the capability of becoming reef weeds, but never had a problem unless they touch!!!

 

[Anonymous]

bump

 

[64Ivy]

Likewise here. I usually leave them alone unless they begin to encroach. But as they DO breed fast I'm contemplating a formal declaration of war.

Gotta run it by the other animals though. :wink:

 

[reefland]

Mushrooms are masters of chemical warfare. But I haven't seen them actually kill a SPS until they touch. And generally mushrooms will win everything.

I suggest you remove them now. It will be to late when they get close. Mushrooms are running rampant in my tank and killing just about every SPS I have. Kalk injecting them caused them to multiply like rabbits.

 

[64Ivy]

Kalk injecting them caused them to multiply like rabbits.

Seriously, Rich? Because that's exactly what I've been doing and it seemed to work. Never thought to check if it accelerated the growth of others nearby though. If so, what's the next best way of getting rid of them, because cutting them absolutely caused them to multiply like rabbits.

 

[Len]

Hehe .... again, NaOH kills all. Of course, you have to be extremely careful with it, but if you want something dead (people included 8O ), NaOH will do the trick.

Never had shrooms kill anything until physical contact.

 

[texman]

Leonard, I never did try the NaOH, mostly, because I could never find any, but I tried the boiling kalk, spread on top of aptasia, anemonea, and brown button polyps, and it worked like a charm - they are all DEAD DEAD DEAD!!!

 

[Lynn]

Gosh! why don't you just sell them? and make some money?? A small rock here with about 4 mushrooms on it sells for around $55.00

 

[M_Phobos]

Guys,

I agree with Lynn on this...why are we killing perfectly good corals? Sell them and make your money back. Never been a big fan of the "take it out back and shoot it" method of keeping animals.

Later....

 

[Anonymous]

I'm definatley going to sell the original rocks that they came on and any others that are easily removable. Quite a few have grown on the base rock and would be nearly impossible to remove. I'll have to kill the ones I can't remove.

Leonard,

Could you post a link to the NaOH directions. I'm feeling a little lazy right now! :wink:

Thanks!

Louey

 

[reefland]

You just can't have a "kill the shrooms" thread anymore without people jumping in with "sell them to me". You guys are missing the point. There is no way to remove them from the rock without them growing back. Even if the caps are cut off and still we need a way to kill the base to prevent them from reaching and killing other prized corals.

Personally I have something in the order of several hundred mushrooms I'm looking to remove. If you want some caps, send me a PM to work out the deal.

 

[reefland]

Seriously, Rich? Because that's exactly what I've been doing and it seemed to work. Never thought to check if it accelerated the growth of others nearby though. If so, what's the next best way of getting rid of them, because cutting them absolutely caused them to multiply like rabbits.

I don't think I've been able to kill a single smooth red mushroom with direct kalkwasser injections (using a syringe with needle). I inject into the base and oral disk. It makes them grumpy for a few minutes but in 4 to 5 hours they look fine again.

Kalk does work fantastic with frilly shrooms however. These are very wide and simply can't be removed without destroying the animal or completely selling the massive rocks they are on.

I'll look into NaOH.

 

[reefland]

Hehe .... again, NaOH kills all. Of course, you have to be extremely careful with it, but if you want something dead (people included 8O ), NaOH will do the trick.

Never had shrooms kill anything until physical contact.

Leonard,

I have some NaOH (Red Devil Lye, you can get it at Home Depot or plumbing stores). You have a recipe you can share? How strong of a solution?

What kind of limits on use before you see a pH swing?

 

[texman]

I'm sorry, but I really don't feel sad about killing some of the polyps and mushrooms which have grown to epidemic proportions. I am not a granola eating naturalist, but am concerned about the environment and have contributed lots of money and time to good environmental causes. If I have to kill something in my tank which is destroying something else more rare or beautiful, I wil not lose sleep about it since I contributed to its growth in the first place. It kind of makes me feel like GOD in a tiny little way - don't tell me that you people out there don't feel the same way to some degree. Every gardner gets some satisfaction about being able to control lower life forms in some way or other. Selling the stuff is just too much hastle.

 

[Lynn]

Gosh guys, I didn't mean that I felt sorry for the mushrooms...I just thought that he could sell them, not realizing the problem with the attachment rock! :lol:

 

[Anonymous]

For those who want the NaOH method - go to the FAQs. bReefcase posted something about aiptasia control. His method was NaOH. He has a great description of how to do it. Somebody asks if it would work on shrooms. The answer was "yes."

Here's a direct link:
http://reefs.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=7860