Can't keep mushrooms alive

[wyw]

I'm embarrassed to admit it but I have again lost an entire colony of florescent green mushrooms. I should have given up after the first colony I bought held on only a few months before they all shriveled up turned white and died.

These are mushrooms for gods sakes not SPS. So I waited a year then bought another beautiful rock full of them. Now 3 months later only 2 remain. One I have set under a shelf to give it less light the other is higher up getting full light, but as before both are shriveled up and a pale white green color. They always turn pale a few weeks after I buy them. I move them in more light then out of direct light. I move them away from the current then towards it but nothing helps, they all slowly die.

Every thing else is thriving and multiplying. The other shrooms seem happy, the LPS', all my softies even my one SPS is fine!

After over 10 years of reef keeping I have learned my lesson, NO MORE GREEN MUSHROOMS, I am just not experienced enough to handle them

 

[Anonymous]

What are your water params?
~wings~

 

[Anonymous]

Whats you lighting and flow?
_________________
Mercedes 400

 

[Sugar Magnolia]

Chemical warfare?

 

[Anonymous]

Predation?

(keeping in line with the other questioning posters )

 

[RicardoMiozzo]

Low water movement and light.
That's almost all they need.
The rest is - if you can keep corals, you can keep mushs. It's pretty easy. Take care only with the fact that they multiply very fast in good conditions, and can damage other corals by "rubbing" on them.

 

[wyw]

"Low water movement and light. That's almost all they need. "
Ya, that's what I thought!
The water quality is excellent. No detectable nitrite, nitrate ammonia or phosphates. PH is good. The rest of the tank is fine. The other times over the past 5 years, the water quality was also good. This tank only has PC lights. I think the second set of green shrooms I had melt down were under MH. When they begin to look bad (the green seems to wash away to a clear milky white) I usually move them to a different part of the tank or with these last 2 mushrooms I have moved them to a new tank with just xenia for tank mates.

I have bought most, if not all, of them from Jeff's and were probably wild caught. The turnover there is quick and I wonder if that played a role in their demise? Maybe the beautiful light florescent green that attracts me is actually the beginning stage of bleaching?

 

[Anonymous]

FWIW, I use PC's and they are huge under them. I would suggest you move them to a lower lighted area in the tank. Interestingly enough, you can also spot feed them mysis and prawn. Mine actually will curl over and cover the mysis completely to feed. Pretty cool.

~wings~

 

[Anonymous]

What else is in the tank? I found when I put mine "downstream" from a huge colony of leather coral they shrunk and wouldn't expand. Maybe some chemical warfare going on in the tank?

 

[sangell153]

i had the same thing happen with those shrooms, all but one died which hasnt grown but doesnt look ill either. A shame because under actinic lights they glowed an eerie green colour. My purple knobbly mushrooms have always done really well and in the year ive had them they multiplied five fold at least. Water parameters are excellent and the tank only has a few sps 1 brain coral and a huge bubble tip anemone which hasnt really moved more than a few inches since it was introduced months ago, only grown.

 

[trilinearmipmap]

IMO your excellent water quality is killing these mushrooms.

Dirtier water (more nitrates) makes them grow IME.

Shrooms do lousy in my tank because I have a low nutrient load. When nutrient levels spike (eg. overfeeding when I was away on holidays) the shrooms and softies proliferated.

 

[Ben1]

Excellent water quality won't kill them, thats for sure.

Sounds more like they are expelling their zooxanthellea and then dieing. This is most likely caused from some other stress. I would also agree with Lawdawg that it could be some predator. Try looking at the colony at night after the lights have been out. Maybe it is a shroom eatting nudi or shroom eating snail.

 

[NKT]

You really should pinpoint the source of your mushroom-killing efficiency and market it. People have generally tried and failed miserably to kill mushrooms with any success....

 

[Anonymous]

You really should pinpoint the source of your mushroom-killing efficiency and market it. People have generally tried and failed miserably to kill mushrooms with any success....

NKT off topic but I love that fish in your avatar...what is it besides expensive :lol:?

 

[wyw]

while I'm not sure my good water quality is causing this one species to die off I have to admit my softies and LPS look much happier when I am over feeding the the tank a bit.

expelling their zooxanthellea- that is exactly it! I just didn't know how to describe it. They expel their zooxanthellia over weeks then slowly shrink and die.

I should have admitted defeat a long time ago but they just look so good under the actinic at night.

 

[NKT]

Lawdawg, to answer your question, that's a run-of-the-mill mystery wrasse . It's about 2.5" long at the moment and is the king of the tank

 

[Anonymous]

Lawdawg, to answer your question, that's a run-of-the-mill mystery wrasse . It's about 2.5" long at the moment and is the king of the tank

It's a beauty!!!