What is the best way to kill green stripped mushrooms?

[Anonymous]

I took all of the mushroom rocks that I bought when I was a newbie back to the LFS for a credit. Some of course, grew onto adjacent base rock. I'd really like to get rid of it since I want my tank to be SPS dominate.

Any ideas on how to get rid of them?

Louey

 

[Anonymous]

stripped mushrooms?

8O

just kidding, my dear. you know i had to...

wish i could tell you myself but i don't know.

 

[brandon4291]

That's my kinda humor.


I just had to kill some brown mushrooms so I suspect this way will work for green ones as well...removed four of them like this. Just rip them off the rocks with a pair of forceps and if those aren't available large tweezers will work if you pick long enough. Id turn off powerheads for a few minutes so it will be eaiser to catch all the slime.

yes they will leave pieces behind that can regenerate, but if you pick for awhile and get all the slime off only one or two will come back. when those are small, after about a week just pick them back and no more will come. It was nice to get that area of my rock cleared, Ive heard injecting kalk does well for another approach. During the two picking phases, crabs and pods were eating on the slime in the rock cracks, that helped too I bet.

 

[AWD]

I think the easiest way is to take out all the rocks with mushrooms and drop ship them to me. :wink: . I've seen them and sps's do well together. They don't grow very quickly, so I'd imagine you could scrap them off.

 

[Will C1]

yea i'll take some also :wink: :wink: i like my green striped an would love to add more

 

[wombat1]

My mushrooms never seem to live when my maroon clown flips their rock upside down onto the sandbed and buries them. Hope this helps , Matt

 

[Wrassman]

A lot of you know me; I post on a lot of boards. I see several names on here that I recognize.

I have to say that I am appalled. I have never heard of such complete disregard for the life in our tanks. We are responsible for the critters that are under our care. I've seen posts pages long about being a responsible reefer, because the reef life is disappearing. And not one of you say a thing to this poster?

Louey, what does it matter if you have a couple of mushrooms in your SPS tank? You know, you also have 'pods, dusters, hydroids, bryzoans, foramiferians, sponges, tunicates, and tons of other lifeforms in your tank that call it home. Are you planning on getting rid of them too?

If you don't like the mushrooms, take them back to the LFS and trade for a rock that doesn't have any shrooms on it. Don't kill the shrooms. It's not their fault that they wound up in the tank of an insensitive, uncaring, irresponsible, goon with a tank.:shock:

Geeze, man. Why are you IN this hobby???????

 

[shalegac]

8O

 

[Len]

Wrassman,

Your rationale should likewise suggest that killing aiptasia, flatworms, valonia, byrposis, and all other forms of reef life is equally unethical.

There are times when specific species in captivity thrive so greatly that they endanger the welfare of other species within the tank. And due to the incomplete biome of a captive ecosystem, we're sometimes forced to intervene to keep things in balance. I can assure you that if it were not for my careful pruning of mushrooms in my tank over the years, my tank would be a monospecific mushroom aquarium by now.

The way I see it is I'm sacrificing a few (that will regrow in a very short matter of time) for the betterment of the whole.

I do agree, however, that if you're able to find a home for these shrooms, it's best to donate them away instead of throwing them away. The less taken from the reefs, the better.

 

[Marrowbone]

... If you don't like the mushrooms, take them back to the LFS ...

Hey, easy there Wrassman. I don't think Louey is out of line, he did take the bulk of them back to the LFS. I am all for having as many different species as I can in my tank, but when you are dealing with a species where having one can quicky lead to having more than you can control, I like to reserve the right to rid my tank of them.

Now, I recently aquired the contents of someone's tank that was riddled with beautiful blue and striped shrooms (as well as GSP, flatworms, and Valonia). The shrooms had seriously stung and marred some once beautiful LPS. I'm slowly cleaning them off the rocks and trying to consolidate them to sell to the LFS. Not only am I hesitant to leave a few well supervised specimens in my tank, but I may even feel guilty about unleashing them upon even more peoples' tanks.. but I guess they have their place. :lol:

I have to second Brandon429's advice. Scrape them off as best you can with a tiny screwdriver or a dental tool from the pharmacy, then wait a few days for any leftover stumps to pull themselves together and try to grow again, and then repeat... I know, the worst part is going to be getting to the buggers on your base rock

Oh, by the way, I'd be glad to send some to you guys that want them... when I can. Maybe trade?

 

[Will C1]

i'd love to trade some i have some yellow/green star polyps that i can frag pretty easily. let me know when. i will put some small pieces of rock near them now.

 

[Marrowbone]

:lol: :lol: :lol: Yup, see? No need to worry, these beautiful blue cockroaches will be around forever!

(gimme some time to get rid of the Valonia and flatworms, K Will? Oh, and I don't need any more GSP but it doesn't matter. I'm sure someone else will.)

 

[LFS42]

thanks leonard, I was about to hit the reply button.


But another suggestion would be to add a pepermint shrimp.
I know when I had one, it took out all my small soft corals.
(I'll never get another as long as I want softies in my tank)

 

[beerbaron]

well i also dont mind removing some problem sps. (thats an abbreviation for species not smoll polyped well you know) . here is how i finished them off. do as brandon suggested, and if they are very resilliant(sp) you can use some of that underwater epoxy to cover the remaining pieces that remain on the rock.
HTH
BB

 

[Wrassman]

I had heard that the philosophy here was quite different. I stand corrected and dutifully embarrased.

I will simply stay away from topics that I find offensive. I have several other forums where I can state my opinion without reprisal.

And no, I don't advocate that we let our tanks be overrun with aiptasia and flatworms and bryopsis. However, these animals and algae will take all of the nutrients from a tank, eventually killing even themselves. So good husbandry dictates that their removal would be in the best interest of the enclosed eco-system of which they are part.

I have been in this hobby for longer than most of you have been walking. However, I will limit my posts from now on, and will definitely kepp my opinions to myself.

 

[Will C1]

why keep your post to your self?? are you afraid of someone having a different opinion then your own? voice it loud and clear if you feel that way somebody will take it into consideration.

 

[Osama]

I tried to use Kalk injection & force pulling shrooms off the rock. I had limited attempts at both methods. I prefer the Kalk if I can succeed at it. I left everything co-exist for three years but some very precious SPS wee getting damaged so something had to go. I am clearing only the shrooms that are in close proximity to other corals that cannot be moved. The point I would like to bring out is that trying to remove shrooms by force ended up releasing nasty stuff. I have blamed that stuff on the total disintegration of a huge stony coral that must have received the brunt of the shrooms extracts (was just below the shroom colony I was tackling). So please be careful when you pull on the shrooms as it may cause damage to surrounding animals. Any similar observations or comments would be helpful to us all. Regarding the original question I would try the kalk injection...

 

[Marrowbone]

But Wrassman, isn't it hard to have a discussion without differences in opinion? ... I was just trying to defend someone I thought to be a prudent gardener, not so much a "goon" :lol:

Good point osama, I should point out that I've been working on my shrooms in a separate rubbermaid holding system. Far easier than scraping rocks at the bottom of your tank

 

[brandon4291]

I can understand your respect for marine organisms. IMO, throwing out a corallimorph that is endangering your other corals is not different than smashing a snail in a FW tank before it reproduces. I figure if he wanted to trade it in at LFS he would have done so already, he asked how to get rid of them.


I don't mean to sound callous to these animals, maybe I think like that because mushrooms are so common and often troublesome, I certainly wouldnt advocate dealing with a pesky millepora in that fashion!

b429

 

[brandon4291]

Good call Osama on the chemical irritation, I also did a large water change after their removal. FWIW< this was done in a very small pico reef with several other SPS and LPS corals present, so at least during the harvest there was no immediate irritation. The large water change helped Im sure.



Brandon