Red mushrooms?

Hey Sara!

I have a question for you. Today in a shop I was looking at batch of various mushrooms in a coral tank. Now what caught my eye was the fact that all the red ones on various rocks in this tank seems to be shriveled up but not any of the others (blue, green, brown etc)?

Why would only the red ones be affected?

 

The red ones might likely be a different species with different sensitivities. I have also noticed this "trend" (anecdotally/personal experience) ... some of the bright red ones just seem to be more "delicate" than some of the blue/brown ones. I couldn't tell you exactly why (or even if the red ones are all one species)-- I doubt anyone could tell you for sure. These things are very difficult to ID to a species. In fact, in some of these marine inverts, it's hard to say what even makes for a separate species or not. You'd almost have to do some kind of genetic history tests/comparisons.

Anyway... it might also be a chemical warfare (allelopathic) thing going on. I personally think my out-of-control hairy mushroom played a role in the demise of my red mushrooms.

But you have me curious now... let me do some research and if I find any more info, I'll post it.

 

i figured it might be something like that... i'll await the research

 

Got another one (01) for you if we can make a plan on shippin as well as your star Viper

 

Dean- Yeah, it's also worth noting that some coral types/species ship and acclimate better than others.

 

Hey Henk, sorry I kind of forgot about this thread... I'll post what I found tomorrow. I'm still a bit jet lagged at the moment.

 

Hi Sara / Henk - just a possible suggestion:
Could it not perhaps be that the "red mushrooms" are possibly "deep water" corralimorphs, that is affected by strong lighting? I noticed my mushrooms open up more in less light, but also "shrink" in size if they are placed under my metal halides?

 

It's possible... but in reality, most the corals we get for the hobby are from generally the same water level. But! It's also the case that corals from the same water level can have different abilities to adapt to a sudden change in lighting. So this could also be a factor here.

 

well the red ones are fine now.... its the expensive red and blue spotted ones i am worried about now

 

Any pictures?

 

i'll take some... my apprtment is a mess... started packing for my move

 

Speaking of mushroom issues... someone wrote in to WWM asking what was happening to their "mushroom coral" here:
http://www.saltbucket.com/d/12563-2/Picture+014.jpg

That can't be a mushroom coral. Or, if it is, it must have something growing on it... but the photo isn't clear enough for me to see what's actually going on. Anyone ever seen anything like this before?

(Sorry to hijack your thread Henk... but I thought you might find this interesting too since you're into 'shrooms.)

 

IF they are mushrooms Sara, it seems that they are completely "droopy" and "inside out"... I have seen something similar with corralimorphs that are busy dying... The mushrooms become "stringy" and then later on "just dissappear"... I can only imagine that this would happen if the mushrooms have been hassled by fish, crabs, perhaps the rock they are on that keep on falling off a pedestal somewhere (where it was placed) - too much water flow (they don't like too much water flow), not enough light (even though I have noticed that corrallimorphs don't like TOO much light, they should get SOME light at least), perhaps not enough "food" in the water (zooplankton).... etc....

 

Yeah, I agree (have seen that too), but it's not the droopy, curving, etc. that's puzzling me. It's those two little things on top... they do look like they might be polyps but it's hard to tell. I guess that's why I/we need more pictures...

 

Yeah - more pictures would definitely help.... BUT, I think that it might be the "mouths" protruding (the little "polyp"-type things)... ;-)