Melting mushrooms :(

[sawyerc]

I just finished moving my 40 gallon reef to a 55 gallon tank with a HUGE refugium and filter system. I unfortunately rushed the setup a little because I need to leave for school really soon and this is a tank at my dad's office, but I'm not too worried because it was more of a move than a new tank setup.

All my corals look good - my ubiquitous mushroom corals that cover the rock have suddenly started melting - closing up and dropping off and rotting. All the other soft corals look quite happy. Fish are healthy. There's an amenone that I inheritated from a friend that left the hobby (I haven't IDed it but it's very flat, it bury's itself in the sand and exposes a flat disk about 3 inch diameter with unnatractive and web-like green tentacles.) He looks happy but he just moved to the other side of the tank. Perhaps he nuked the mushrooms on his way? Perhaps the new star coral is going to war with the mushrooms and winning? Perhaps the new chaetamorpha or caleurpa (I'm taking the caleurpa out - it was only temperary until I got the chaeta) is bothing it? New peppermint shrimp eating it? Doesn't like the chemi-pure that I started running constantly? Got some bug from the chaeta that I got at the LFS and risned in freshwater? Perhaps the clowns are trying to host in it and it doesn't like that? The weird thing is that the mushrooms were all over the tank and all of them look unhappy, even the ones in the fuge, so I expect that it's something in the water. Also, my new red and my new green mushroom frags both look like they're doing very well. I lost one little xenia colony in the move to a melt-down but besides that, all of the corals survived the transplant as well as most of the xenia colonies. Also, the mushrooms were doing very well in the new tank until about a week ago which is when I added the new fish, shrimp, and algae. Any ideas anyone? I always thought of mushrooms as the ones that would always win the battle against algae, sewage, and other corals. HELP!!

Thanks

Sawyer

 

[sawyerc]

Quick update: I just noticed one of the mushrooms that's foot is mostly hanging off the rock has hundreds of tiny white oblong rings on it. Parasite??????

 

[Len]

The strings are probably mesenterial filaments. Corals/cnidarians use this for digestion as well as defense. I doubt it's parastic worms. Something around its base is probably irritating the colony though. Is the star polyps close to the mushrooms? That, or the water conditions is causing them to react. A water change is always a good idea in these events.

Personally, I'd consider yourself lucky When mushrooms start to populate, you'll be in over your head trying to get rid of them. Mine became rampant that they killed many many corals. Saddest part is nothing I did to rid them worked.

 

[sawyerc]

The star polyps are a tiny frag colony and are probably about three or four inches from one of the larger colonies of mushrooms. But there are mushrooms all over the tank and all of them seem to be reacting. The white rings are very distinct and only present on one of the few mushrooms with exposed feet.

 

[Anonymous]

If the mesenterial filaments are out, like Len said, something is bothering them. They usually come out when they are bothered. It could be something chemical.

Was the tank cleaned before you added the corals?

 

[sawyerc]

yeah, I rinsed it out. And the other corals seeem fine. The first mushrooms to dissappear and melt were the ones near the top of the tank. If one group of them were melting and dropping off would the rest close up in response or act independently?

I think likely culprits are:

*The frag colony of star polyps that's a few inches a away from a group of mushrooms.

*The anemone that moved might have zapped them enroute.

*The light might be more intense near the top of the tank they they were used to and it took them a while to respond.

*The current from the wave2k is way too intense for the them and it took them two weeks to respond.

I'm not terribly worried about the mushrooms themselves but rather worried that this is a warning sign that something is VERY wrong. Thanks guys

Sawyer

 

[Anonymous]

Intense lighting could be the problem. I would suspect that if this were a sign of bad problem I would think that your other corals would show first.

 

[sawyerc]

Yes, this makes sense. Thanks for the reassurance.