Help. Fuzzy Mushrooms dying off.

[scallop]

Help. My "fuzzy mushrooms" a dropping like flies.
I'm not sure if thats their real common name. I'll try and describe them. They have a whitish mushroom base with hundreds of small fluorescent tenticals green in color.
I have them in a 75 gallon, w/ 20 gallon sump. 80 lbs of live sand with DSB. They are under 4 X 55W PC bulbs, 2 Super daylight, 2 Actinic. Amm: 0, Nitrite: 0, Nitrate: 0, pH:8.3, Calc:500. Two brians, a lot of zenia and hammer coral are all healthy, as well as other asstd mushrooms. Asstd. fish.
There is no predation, they simply begin to turn white and shrink. Then they fall and die. They were all healthy and all attached to one rock. I had around 10 and now have five with two sick. There was no crowding at the time, as far as space is concerned between them on that rock.
Is it possible that they have too much light?
Sorry about the long post. I appreciate any help ahead of time.

 

[Anonymous]

Sounds like a bacterial infection. I would dose a half dose of iodine and a full dose of vitamins. Iodine seems to help protect wounds just like it does for us. Vitamins are also good for the resistance. Bacterial infections are usually caused by lack of water changes in high nutrient systems and from a lack of sufficient water flow.

 

[Rich-n-poor]

I will guess from the description but is it possible they are ricordia shrooms ?

mushrooms will eat if target fed and I think certain types (those with bumps/tenecles) are more dependent on food than most.

my shrooms do like the darker areas of my tank but they are purple shrooms.

HTH

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[scallop]

Thanks a bunch guys I'll try both suggestions. I'll target feed with brine, of some other type of food. As well as direct another power head in that direction. They are in a low flow area of the tank.

Thanks again.

 

[danmhippo]

Not too much!! Ricordia doesn't like high flow area either! For feeding, I fed mine with 1/4 cube of frozen meaty foods. Get an iodine test kit if you are going to proceed with dosing

 

[reefhope]

scallop

I too had difficulties with shrooms but success with other soft corals in the same tank - strange given that shrooms are supposed to be one of, if not the, easiest coral to keep. Mine eventually turned white too and never came back.

I did learn something researching vol.2 of Sprung and Delbeek. Flourescent lighting high in UV such as powercompact which I had and you also have can cause a buildup of too much oxygen in the tissues of the mushrooms and lead to superoxide or something to that effect and the shroom will not tolerate it. Basically I think hydrogen peroxide forms and burns the tissue causing it to shrink.

Anyhow yours may be a lighting issue. People using MH seem to have more success with shrooms. As far as nutrient in the tank mushrooms will tolerate levels far beyond what most other soft corals will. And be careful if you dose iodine, you don't want to overdose. I did usually notice a temporary difference for a couple days after dosing Lugol's but after a few days or a week the shrooms would start downhill again. HTH

 

[tazdevil]

Reefhope-So if you have PC lighting, you can't keep shroom's? Or do you just need to relocate them to other areas??

 

[Rich-n-poor]

I not only keep shrooms with PC's I propagate them.
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