Sick Mushroom

[wontonflip]

I have a couple of plain old Red Mushrooms in my 10g. It was a hitchhiker on a rock I bought (in which my goby and pistol shrimp were hiding in and wouldn't come out, so the lfs sold me the rock). It's been 2 or 3 months in in my tank now, and I recently noticed it wasn't opening up as much as it used to. I also noticed some browning areas. So I know it's sick.

The tank has no special lighting...just plain old 8w flourescent (again, this was a hitchhiker on the rock, so I did not really seek to buy one). Would the low lighting be the cause of it getting sick? Or is it hungry? I had some cyclopeeze, but haven't put any in the tank in a while.

Now, since it's sick, should I just give up and pull it out? The rock it's on has another smaller mushroom that is so far, ok. But I'm not sure if this large one is secreting anything dangerous at this point. The tankmates are 2 hermits, 2 snails, a firefish, and a clown goby. Any help would be helpful.

 

[yote]

This is from Aquarium Corals by Eric Borneman.
" Mushroom condition 1 affects corallimorphs,primarily from the genus Actinodiscus,which fail to thrive.They shrink,their tissue becomes mottled and pale,and they seem unable to regain the ability to expand.This behavior seem remarkably like the wasting of certain anemones.As in zoanthid condition 1,no amount of water chemistry manipulation seems to have a pronounced effect.The enviroment of the corallimorphs may have remained virtually unchanged in terms of normal additions,lighting,and water flow for long periods of time when this condition occurs.Individual mushrooms or whole colonies can be affected.Affected mushrooms may remain in such a state for many months,or they may die fairly quickly.Occasionally,individuals or colonies may spontaneously recover,though this is rare."
Hope that helps.

 

[wontonflip]

Yes/no....so basically, it's saying that if nothing had changed in the tank, it could just be dying or sick for no reason? It sounds like "no will to live" or something :) I just hope it's not poisoning the water.

And there's nothing about what I should do, or if there is anything I can do. I don't have his book...come to think of it, I don't have any fishie books, except a very old reference book that I got for my freshwater (it has minimal saltwater info).

 

[Alexander]

I had a similar thing happen as what is described in that little addition there above with a zoanthid colony. could not get them back at all. no matter what. And i currently have some mushrooms like that too except i almost buried them in rock so they are not happy but there is a seriously heavy rock on top of it and i also dont feel like doing any re aquascaping so i will be seeing what ends up happening to them.

 

[wontonflip]

Do you guys think the dying shrooms pose a threat to the tank? Do they secrete poisons while dying? I have one of those ammonia detectors in the tank. Hopefully it works if the mushroom leeches ammonia! I normally only test for nitrates. But I've been testing Ammonia now, too, just in case. I'd hate to kill off the goby, firefish, and pistol shrimp. I know my daughter would be bummed. It's her tank, tecnically.

Is there a dying-marine-life support group I could attend?? LOL

 

[Alexander]

I don't think there is really much to worry about there

 

[yote]

+1 Alexander
I doubt the shroom would cause any problems.The bristle worms will take care if pretty quick when it actually starts dieing.

 

[wontonflip]

Yeah, so today, my daughter runs upstairs to let me know "My mushroom is HUGE today!!!!" Sure enough, it was FULLY opened. Then I noticed all the skim on the water surface...my koralife was running, but for some reason the flow was weak. I pulled it out and cleaned it, and it's back to full power. i wonder if the shroom finally decided it didn't like such strong flow on it. I just wanted it as high up close to the light as possible....seeing as how the light sucks right now (it's just a plain ole 8w flourescent).

 

[yote]

Could have BEEN the flow.Mushrooms dont like a lot of flow.

 

[wontonflip]

Must be. HAlf an hour after I put the newly cleaned koralia back in, it started to look smallish again. I pointed the koralia further up and towards the back so it's not directly on it. we'll see how that goes.

 

[wontonflip]

Update....looks like it was the waterflow. The shroom looks great now...back to its old self, after i shifted its rock and the powerhead.

 

[yote]

Good deal.