Ricordea Anemone Coral Moving

[Banana Man]

Hi,

I thought the Mushroom Coral i got a few weeks ago was, well, a Coral. I have just done some reading up on it online and it turns out it is an Anemone. It's name should have given me a big hint :)

Anyway, i have a rock with about 6 or 7 of them closely packed together and they seemed to be doing well. A few days ago i noticed that one was missing so i presumed it had died. Then today i noticed it sitting under a rock on the sand a few inches away. It turns out they can detach themselves and move. How can i tell if it has actually just decided to move and hasnt died? I dont want to leave it their rotting away if it has died and i'm going on holidays for a week next week so it could go unattended for some time.

Thanks!

 

[Cheeser]

Mushrooms are known to move around and detach from rocks. They'll go where they like. I'm not sure what u mean by its an anemone?

 

[little_fish]

If it dies it won't cause any big issues, but although they are related to anemones, they aren't actually anemones.

 

[RockStacker]

Technically although mushrooms are closely related to anemones, they are neither true corals nor true anemones. They are corallimorphs (order corallimorpharia).

Mushrooms are known to detach (bail out) from their colony if they are not happy with their location, or if the population density is so high that some need to move on and start their own colonies.
I have had some mushrooms that disappeared for weeks, only to turn out that they started a new colony under a rock in the very back of the tank.

 

[Bifferwine]

+1 RockStacker. It's not an anemone. It's not a coral. It's a corallimorph. :)

 

[Banana Man]

Interesting little buggers. I have moved the main colony now because after checking a photo from when i first got it i notice 2 have actually moved, so they must not like where they are. They were in a low flow area but whenever i try and put them in larger flow they seem to get forced out of a natural shape so im not sure what to do with them. Do they like light? I have moved them higher up now but dont know if that's a good idea.

 

[Banana Man]

Ok, after reading up on it i have put it at the bottom of the tank in the shade so i'll see how it gets on with that.

On a side note i just found my Bicolour Blenny stuck to the water overflow inlet so presumed he had died. After giving it a prob he darted off so maybe he was just asleep. Would they be happy being suctioned up against an inlet like that or is it more likely he is about to die and is just very weak?

 

[Big K]

I have 4 colonies of mine throughout the tank because the original rock is a bit overcrowded: