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Unread 06/30/2020, 11:58 PM   #1
Sk8r
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I've decided to do a mushroom and zoa tank...

...which I hope will be easy care.

I've got a few recommendations from past and present experience, number one being, if you have massive, complex rockwork or if you just want specimens to stay put, buy ones that come on a small rock. Unhappy shrooms migrate. And seem very adept at leaving frag-plug attachment, and unless you have a tank where frag-plugs are in a grid or predrilled holes, they are also prone to come loose from the plug and float away into some rocky cave: some fish will try to help them, I swear.

At least with discosoma/actinoidiscus types, if you can retrieve the fugitive shroom, one trick to get it reattached to something is to lay a fairly light chunk of rock on it, like a 2" piece of old coral branch, pinning the shroom to the sandbed. Leave it overnight, and by morning the shroom may (with luck) have gotten its foot onto the rock and crawled up to the light. Let it alone a bit. By afternoon you should be able to put the rock and shroom in an advantageous position re light and appearance.

An unrelated note: small fish that perch on things (like mushrooms) can be killed by a few species of mushroom that have reactions like anemones, notably the elephant ear types, and other giant mushrooms which I wish I could precisely identify for you. Blennies, gobies, and dragonets are particularly at risk. They become entrapped and suffocate, as their struggles make the shroom close tighter. It will finally release the trapped fish, after it demises.


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Salinity 1.024-6; alkalinity 8.3-9.3 on KH scale; calcium 420; magnesium 1300, temp 78-80, nitrate .2. Ammonia 0. No filters: lps tank. Alk and cal won't rise if mg is low.

Current Tank Info: 105g AquaVim wedge, yellow tang, sailfin blenny,royal gramma, ocellaris clown pair, yellow watchman, 100 microceriths, 25 tiny hermits, a 4" conch, 1" nassarius, recovering from 2 year hiatus with daily water change of 10%.
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Unread 07/04/2020, 09:46 AM   #2
Apercula
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Amplexidiscus fenestrafer, the giant cup mushroom, will grow huge, and will eat fish.

Mine was 16inches in diameter, that is a yellow plastic ruler I put on it for the picture. Second picture is it balled up in feeding mode. I removed it from the tank because of space issues, it left behind tiny bits of foot on the rocks, 6 months later I had 5 of them 4inches in diameter. The large one ate a maroon clownfish in my propagation system after it was removed from the display.


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Unread 07/04/2020, 10:09 AM   #3
Sk8r
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Scary creatures. It's awful to watch a fish trapped in one, because what do you do? I only belatedly thought---maybe a needle or pin might cause the shroom to open a bit, but I'm not sure it would work. Surely it wouldn't hurt the shroom too much. The one that got my blenny, back in the day, was an elephant ear.

You do, do, do have to consider the habits of your fishes when going to mushrooms, because more than one species of shroom has this unhappy reflex.


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Salinity 1.024-6; alkalinity 8.3-9.3 on KH scale; calcium 420; magnesium 1300, temp 78-80, nitrate .2. Ammonia 0. No filters: lps tank. Alk and cal won't rise if mg is low.

Current Tank Info: 105g AquaVim wedge, yellow tang, sailfin blenny,royal gramma, ocellaris clown pair, yellow watchman, 100 microceriths, 25 tiny hermits, a 4" conch, 1" nassarius, recovering from 2 year hiatus with daily water change of 10%.
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Unread 07/06/2020, 07:20 PM   #4
rogersb
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Got any pics of your mushroom/zoa tank?


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Unread 07/07/2020, 06:44 AM   #5
Sk8r
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Not yet so's you could recognize the specimens from the rocks. I will after it's had time to color up and grow out so you can actually see them: it's a 105 gallon tank, so the rocks are presently a lot bigger than the specimens, except for the purple discosoma, which is a rock with about 8 mushrooms, each over 2" in expanse: it's tough stuff, discosomas. I'm scattering the specimens to different areas, with orange up top (zoas), purple and red spotted green and rhodactis bullseye purple and blue; a green ricordea, and what claims to be a red, though it's being reluctant and slow to color up: right now it's grey-green to blue. I will remember to get those pix when I have something more grown out.


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Salinity 1.024-6; alkalinity 8.3-9.3 on KH scale; calcium 420; magnesium 1300, temp 78-80, nitrate .2. Ammonia 0. No filters: lps tank. Alk and cal won't rise if mg is low.

Current Tank Info: 105g AquaVim wedge, yellow tang, sailfin blenny,royal gramma, ocellaris clown pair, yellow watchman, 100 microceriths, 25 tiny hermits, a 4" conch, 1" nassarius, recovering from 2 year hiatus with daily water change of 10%.
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