What is the best way to help hairy mushrooms regain color?

[vanna101]

I bought 10 hairy mushrooms yesterday and 3 of them are semi-bleached.

What is the best way to help hairy mushrooms regain color?

I am currently keeping them in my nano under 26watts of 10000k PCs.

[chrisstie]

stick em in the shade or just wait if they were under more intense lighting when ya got them

[geoxman]

feed them and give them as much light as possible.

[kiknchikn]

Yeah, I also suggest giving them as much light as you can and give them some mysis shrimp or other small meaty food once or twice a week. My hairy shroom loves the light.

[vanna101]

Thanks for the info...I will try feeding them shrimp later tonight.

Geoxman,I love your tank! I have always enjoyed viewing coral and fish from above and thought of making a shallow tank for better viewing purposes.

Chrisstie, Kiknchikn...Thanks for all the input

[chrisstie]

I think there's a little bit of conflicting info here - Bleached is generally lacking color from too much light... Sometimes there are corals which also need to "color up" because they have been in low light but haven't fully aquired all of their zooxanthelle which help produce those brilliant colors that they would have in higher light.


If its bleached from being burned by too much light shade will do the trick - if it has just been lacking light then everyones suggestions for more light will work but you may want to slowly acclimate it to higher light

[kiknchikn]

Bleaching doesn't happen because of lighting alone, it happens because of stress. As I understand it, many factors (including too much light) cause stress which results in the coral/corallimorph expelling its xooanthellae AKA bleaching. Bleaching can also occur when the shroom is not getting enough light and xooanthellae die off.

I have a feeling the 26 w of PC lighting is far less than it was subjected to in the fish store (IF too much light was the problem)and it will color up under it just fine. My hairy shroom does just fine near the top of my tank, though it is off to the side and isn't directly under the full brunt of my PCs.

Regardless of where ever you stick the shroom, feeding it will provide it some extra energy and should help it make it through I would think.

Disclaimer: I'm not an expert! So don't blame me if I'm wrong :D

[kiknchikn]

By the way I meant zooxanthellae in my previous post... I can never spell that darn word :D

[geoxman]

I agree with kiknchikn. The reason I said as much as possible is because vanna101 only has 26w of PC.
Most bleaching is caused from shipping stress, lack of food, and crappy water conditions at the LFS- not too intense of light.
If it were mine I would throw it directly under a 400W 20K about 5 inches under the water surface, feed it, and watch it prosper.

vanna101 thanks for the compliments on the tank. I am debating about taking it down and doing a 4ft x 5ft x 10in tank with 2 400 w MH lumenarc, it would fit the space better. good luck with your shroom! As long as your water chemistry is all good and you feed it and it gets plenty of light and little flow-it should be huge in no time.

[chrisstie]

Great clarification guys :)

I think the connotation to me bleaching is more of a white or opaque appearance due to stress\too much light etc but I see things "brown out" when they aren't getting enough light and more light will stimulate its color..

Hopefully we haven't gone and confused the OP :)

[vanna101]

Thanks again for all the info.The light that the mushrooms were kept under at the LFS was 65x2 watts of PC 10000k/Actinic over a 55 gallon I do believe.

To my relief all of the mushrooms ate when I fed them shrimp last night.I am also planning on buying more PCs, 24-36 more watts, with a higher kelvin rating when I get a chance.(college student budget ughhh)It is a little hard to find PC bulbs in the 18000k - 20000k spectrum but I'm sure there is something out there.

I aslo keep the iodine levels elevated.Do you think that will help with the healing process?

Thanks again for all your help!

vanna101

Geoxman,the new tank idea sounds awesome.I am thinking about making a shallow nano 24x12x6 to fit my 20 gal stand w/fuge,sump,skimmer,ect...

[kiknchikn]

I'd be VERY careful dosing iodine. I hope you're testing your tank for it with a good test kit before you dose or you risk overdosing.

Are you sure you need to dose it at all?

[vanna101]

Mabe I should have said slightly elevated.I am in the process of getting an iodone test kit for that reason.I supplement the tank with about 1-1.5cc of Kent iodine once a week in between water changes.

I guess I really can't be sure I need to use an iodone supplement until I get the test kit.The addtion of iodine has made a difference in the color of the red mushrooms in the tank and minimizes frag healing time.

Do you think supplementing iodone is a good idea?

I have heard that in order for iodine to stay elevated you need to dose daily or it is better to dose daily to help keep levels elevated.

thanks again.

vanna101

[kiknchikn]

My opinion is don't dose anything you don't test for. You should do some reading about the subject to see if you even need to dose (you probably don't):

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/mar2003/chem.htm
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/april2003/chem.htm

If you really want to dose it then I suggest getting a Salifert Iodine kit, which is a bit expensive, but less so than losing livestock from overdosing.

[kiknchikn]

Here's a passage from the first article above that you should take note of:

I would strongly advise people to not try to maintain 0.06 ppm iodine using supplementation and a test kit.

Why you ask? Isn’t that what we do for most other chemicals of interest? Well, if we could easily and accurately determine the concentrations of the different forms of iodine in aquaria, then I would recommend doing just that. However, if you combine the complexities of having multiple iodine species present with the uncertainty of having hobbyists use very complex test kits that may readily yield incorrect or difficult to interpret results, the stage is set for people driving their total iodine to levels far from what they actually intended. I do not know what levels of iodide or iodate become apparently problematic to real aquaria, but the risk of overdosing in this fashion is not insignificant. Both of the ICP studies reported above found some tanks with substantially elevated total iodine levels. I have no way of knowing how those levels got there, but overdosing of a supplement is one likely way.

[vanna101]

Thanks for the links and everyones help!

vanna101

[dendro982]

I'm keeping the hairy mushroom under low light, more than half of year, no problem with color or growth.
Photos on different stages and description in in this thread (http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1029685).

It's in 6g Nano-Cube with 18W PC (9W of them actinic, 9W 10,000K). IO salt mix in tap water, no iodine or any other supplements, other than food for a wrasse and other corals.

I placed (right after purchase) the rock with a several mushrooms in better lit 10g tank (27W 6,500K plus sunlight), they ribboned off and desintegrated within hours. Something with water chemistry, I guess. One survived, not much progress over time, until I moved it into Nano-Cube. Now it's 2" in diameter, but not so rich in color, as was at store.

[vanna101]

I recently put the mushrooms in my 10 gallon.The flow is relatively high and I only have 45 watts of NO lighting with 2-18000k bulbs and 1-6700k bulb.

They are doing alot better in the 10 gallon.The mushrooms can't fully extend because of the flow,but they are less stressed.I have been feeding them shrimp once a week and that gives them alot more energy and I am starting to see the bleached ones regain some color.

I do not dose my 10 gallon with anything and do water changes once every 2 weeks.

Thanks for the reply dendro982


vanna101

[dendro982]

I thought, that the flow was a reason for melting too, but the surviving mushroom was placed in the tank with 25x turnover - where the flow is less - below the pump.

Hopefully, your mushrooms will be OK.

[vanna101]

I placed the mushrooms near the powerhead too.I think they will be ok.They have been doing better in the 10 gallon and continue to show progress.

Thanks again for everyones help.

vanna101