umbrella mushroom ate small clown?

[genzod66]

my small clown has disappeared,checked everywhere,overflows ,rocks,fed the tank twice,he always eats,then i noticed,i bought a large 4inch umbrella mushroom,it was small when i got it,i noticed it was turned inside out ,like in a ball,as if something was inside,its big enough,well i dont know how long he could have been in there,i pried open the mouth of shroom and there was like this white stringy stuff,but no clown,im thinking that stuff was the clown,i have a book on corals,it shows a mushroom eating a bangaii cardinal,the pic looked just like my situation,could this be?anyone ever have this happen?any ideas,its a single polyp shroom ,bought on internet?? does this sound possible??

[Lance M.]

Yes it's possible. You probably got an elephant ear mushroom. Those will eat small fish.

[genzod66]

no its a uncommon umbrella shroom,sigle polyp,quite large,could this do it?

[Sk8r]

You're right that it's not an elephant ear:
http://www.saltwaterfish.com/site_11_03/product_info.php?products_id=362&parent_category=4&category_search=62&root_parent_id=4
This is a completely new species to me.
But it is highly suspicious.
I have found that strongly-reactive mushrooms, [as opposed to discosomas, which are pretty slow] somewhat suspicious. I lost several fishes to an elephant ear, including a 4" blenny. The most vulnerable fishes seem to be 'perching' or sitting fish that don't mind sitting on a coral, and dragonets, hawks, blennies, and clowns would be in that category, are the most vulenrable: what I lost were dragonets and blennies.
I caught the shroom ballooned out with something thrashing about violently inside. I rescued my large blenny, but he had been so stung and oxygen deprived he did not survive.
If your perching fish are above the size of the disk, probably no threat. If smaller than the disk, so it can close about them, I'd be concerned.

[Lance M.]

I have two of those carribean mushrooms. They do ball up like that whenever they get food. They will not eat fish.

[genzod66]

anyone else

[Madman133]

the white stringy stuff isnt your fish. All of my fuzzy and hairy shrooms do that whenever I hurt them in any way. Its kind of like us bleeding only not quite. Its still possible that he ate him but the white stringy stuff wasnt him and was just caused by you prying him open. Also noticed it when they split, again my guess is it some sort of healing mechanism.
Assuming it looks like this stuff(sorry not a great pic)
http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j117/Madmansfish/IMG_3091.jpg

[kiknchikn]

The stringy stuff is the corallimorph's mesenterial filaments AKA digestive organs.

[kwilson80439]

they can and do. If they can ball-up aroung it out come the eating tubes and into mouth. When they catch something they can really open up to get it in.

[Cornelius240]

My guess, Discosoma neglecta (http://coralmorphologic.com/xcart/product.php?productid=11&cat=15&page=1)

[black_majik]

I if can chime in for you Sk8r,

I have a umbrella mushroom. It waits for ( mainly my shrimp) to walk on its surface then closes quickly and stinging cells or sweeper tentacles come out and kill the organism and pulls it in its body. From there it looks like a ball and eventually spits out the remains.
It is a fast capture time but too slow for a clown unless he was hosting the shroom

[Russellaqua]

Large mushrooms can and will eat fish. Check out Borneman's book "Aquarium Corals." There's a pic of a Rhodactis eating a bangaii cardinal.

[nUgZ]

Like this??

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b222/drnugz27/New%20reef/Gettingthere.jpg

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b222/drnugz27/New%20reef/Almostfinished.jpg

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b222/drnugz27/New%20reef/Hairyeating.jpg