Large Disco Shrooms won't stay LARGE

[Constantine]

I need some tips. Mushroom coral mostly does well in my tank. Every variety I have will multiply very well. They all seem to fully open. My difficulty is that I sometimes buy large ones and they don't stay large in my tank.

I had a very standard 4" green rhodactis mushroom from a tank that grew them 4-6" in size. Mine slowly became 2.5" and there are now 4 of them in a couple years. It seems like it stays around 2.5" then splits or drops a baby.

I got two 4" purple discos that quickly became 2" discos. And they've stayed that way. Same for some red ones I recently brought home.

It seems like I can pretty much assume whatever mushroom I bring home will end up an inch or two smaller than whatever tank I see them in. They still fully open, they aren't shriveled, just fully open becomes a lot smaller.

I would really like to have some 5"+ shrooms. Anyone keep large ones and have any tips?

[Oldreeferman]

Do you ever feed them directly or just let them get what they can from the water column & light?
Most will survive without food but not grow much, They will grow if fed but its tricky & easy to pollute the tank, have to use a large long bulb feeder & just a wisp of food placed in the center with the power heads all off, water must be dead still.... you will see them curl up to eat it. Once a week will do & you will see results then.
Ive got a softy only tank as well as my reef & found this out same as you, they had many babys but did not grow until i began carefully feeding mine.

[Constantine]

Originally Posted by Oldreeferman

Do you ever feed them directly or just let them get what they can from the water column & light?
Most will survive without food but not grow much, They will grow if fed but its tricky & easy to pollute the tank, have to use a large long bulb feeder & just a wisp of food placed in the center with the power heads all off, water must be dead still.... you will see them curl up to eat it. Once a week will do & you will see results then.
Ive got a softy only tank as well as my reef & found this out same as you, they had many babys but did not grow until i began carefully feeding mine.

Thanks for the tip. I'll try feeding once a week. Do you have a favorite food for them?

[Oldreeferman]

Hi,
I use a few different foods depending on the mouth size of the mushroom.
My Ricordea has the largest mouth, actual a dual mouth ATM & i feed it regular adult brine shrimp, just 1-2 shrimp per mouth a week and once in a while ill feed a pellet or two of Coral Frenzy so its not the same thing all the time.
The green & metallic blue mushrooms have tiny mouths so i feed them a mix of Reef Chili & sometimes ill use a bit of the juice from frozen brine or mysis & blend that in with the Chili coral food powder they really go for that. Just a tiny squirt is all it takes with the water still then i turn everything back on once all the mushrooms are closed up & feeding usually 20 min or so. Ive tried baby brine & it is a good food also.

[Oldreeferman]

Oh,
I also was going to mention incase you didn't know to use tank water or pre-made saltwater when defrosting or mixing up any foods for corals, fish does not matter.
Reason is foods made with freshwater will float not sink a real issue when feeding something static & one wants the food to stay where its placed.

[Timfish]

You might try verifying the PAR levels they were grown under. I've seen tehm shrink like you've described from too much light and also from too much blue led light.

[pitmindi]

Hi. I have mushroom corals and they don't grow in size. The large ones are less than 2 inches. I never feed them. I didn't realize that I should. Now I know why they don't grow. I do feed some of my LPS corals the pellets but I didn't realize soft corals need fed too. Sometimes I will add some coral frenzy powder mixed into the water. What is a long bulb feeder? I use a long tube about an inch wide to feed the lps. Do you use a turkey baster to feed the smaller mushrooms? Recently I purchased some vivid red mushrooms from live aquaria that were costly, and I would really like them to divide and grow. Some of these red mushrooms have dislodged from their rock and I put a vertical rock barrier around the rock and hope the mushrooms will reattach. Any more advice about how to have my mushroom corals thrive rather than just survive? Thanks for the much needed help.

[Oldreeferman]

A bulb Coral spot feeder can be had online or at the local fish stores and is around 18" or so long.
Its a clear small diameter long plastic tube with a small baster like bulb on the end and the feeding end tapers to a point with a hole.
I have 2 of them since i feed 2 sizes of foods due to other corals i feed so i modified one to have a larger exit hole.
I only use a turkey baster to suction out my skimmer buildup or when dipping Corals not feeding ever, too large & messy.
I have fish in both tanks that also raises nutrients in the water also good for shrooms.
I don't bother feeding the baby ones just the larger ones & as was just mentioned too much light can have a neg effect on them also so try a new location that is shady if lighting is bright, if the lighting is already good for other corals then moving the mushrooms is the only choice to lower lighting & flow.
Without actually seeing ones tanks have to just guess about lighting, placement which should be at the bottom and water flow, most all mushrooms except Ricordia, like low flow & lower lighting.
I use T5HO lighting (set it & forget it for 6 months), i didn't have good luck with LED tech, its still evolving and not plug & play by any means and finding the sweet adjustment spot can be taxing to make ALL the different corals content. So that may also be an issue as mushrooms are photosynthetic even tho they prefer dimmer pars & everyone is jumping on the LED bandwagon these days since its offered with many new systems now as a package deal and many of them are not adjustable that is a red flag right there for anything but a fish only tank.
One will get better answers 10 fold if they include more info about their tank & its inhabitants.. such as how long setup,water parameters & stability, filtering, what exactly is in them, size, lighting, & flow in a question query.

[Constantine]

Originally Posted by Oldreeferman

One will get better answers 10 fold if they include more info about their tank & its inhabitants.. such as how long setup,water parameters & stability, filtering, what exactly is in them, size, lighting, & flow in a question query.

Here are my lights:
ATI 54w Coral Plus T5
ATI 54W Purple Plus
ATI 54w Blue Plus T5
ATI 54w True Actinic 03 T5

Flow:
2 Jebao OW-10 set to low.
Opposite sides of the tank up toward the top, set to alternate flow at about 2-3 seconds.

75 Gal aquarium setup in January, but I moved things across the livingroom from my 55 that I've had for 7 years. New sand, but all the healthy live rock is the same. My tank is probably "dirty" by most on here standards. Got a bit of algae and always some phosphate. But the water chemistry is always very stable and I prefer to keep it that way instead of chasing numbers. Mushrooms located center of the tank at the bottom. I've got some black tool (plastic mesh) laying on glass top to shade the area a bit. I think anything blue/purple discos fair the worst.

My rhodactis and ricordia eat, but I haven't gotten any discos (no matter how large) to eat mysis or small coral food from sicce.

Coral: Euphylia, Duncans, GSP, Pavona Maldivensis, assorted discos, rhodactis, ricordia mushrooms. (All growing really well, and mushrooms multiply, but just won't grow or stay as large as when purchased)

[Oldreeferman]

Sounds like a very nice tank setup you have there.
10 months acclimating is so close hmmmm........................one has to wonder when is a tank is really mature fully i guess? Ea. tank is so different, most will say a full yr. or more with rock stable prams, that being said i don't know what the dirty standard is you mention since acros isn't high on the corals list. Im assuming nitrates & phosphates and water change schedules since you say you have some algae.
Even mushrooms tho enjoy water changes, i see it on all mine but especially on the Ricordia, so once a week is a must do, at least here... and 10-20% a min.
What is your water change schedule?
If your changing water out weekly then id bet you just need a bit more time to mature for better stability as say when the algae is gone, & don't know what CUC you have but sounds like a few Scarlet hermits & some Certs snails would be very welcome & help immensely & are very reef safe.

[Constantine]

Originally Posted by Oldreeferman

Sounds like a very nice tank setup you have there.
10 months acclimating is so close hmmmm........................one has to wonder when is a tank is really mature fully i guess? Ea. tank is so different, most will say a full yr. or more with rock stable prams, that being said i don't know what the dirty standard is you mention since acros isn't high on the corals list. Im assuming nitrates & phosphates and water change schedules since you say you have some algae.
Even mushrooms tho enjoy water changes, i see it on all mine but especially on the Ricordia, so once a week is a must do, at least here... and 10-20% a min.
What is your water change schedule?
If your changing water out weekly then id bet you just need a bit more time to mature for better stability as say when the algae is gone, & don't know what CUC you have but sounds like a few Scarlet hermits & some Certs snails would be very welcome & help immensely & are very reef safe.

I guess I wouldn't have really thought of it like a new tank, since the rock is so mature. However, the sand bed is all new except for a few cups I moved over. Maybe I underestimated the importance of that? My water change schedule is pretty bad. I'm trying to do 15% once a month, but I've skipped a bunch this year (3, 2, .5 year old kids). On the other hand, GSP, Duncans, Frogspawn, and Pavona have been growing really fast this year. Pavona much faster than ever before. Maybe the tank is now better for LPS/SPS and not as great for shrooms anymore.

I have had 5 astrea snails and 2 red leg hermits for years. 1 Urchin and a huge brittle starfish. I have 1 fighting conch added 4 months ago. And two weeks ago added 3 atrea snails and 2 turbo snails.

I appreciate the analysis.

[Constantine]

...my sand (bit dirty tank) looks like this guys sand in the picture starting this post:

https://www.reefcentral.com/forums/s....php?t=2700981

(sorry, easier than figuring out how to post pics)

[Constantine]

Originally Posted by Timfish

You might try verifying the PAR levels they were grown under. I've seen tehm shrink like you've described from too much light and also from too much blue led light.

I think it was the lights. Even though they are just T5's and the shrooms are literally at the bottom, AND I used black plastic mesh (two layers) to shade that area... too much light. I pulled out my purple and blue discos and placed them in my spare tank/frag tank. It has crappy cheap marineland LEDs and is way above the tank. The shrooms love it. After a week, a blue one is about 8 times the size it was in my other tank. I also moved my kryptonite under a ledge and it appears to be happier, but hasn't started growing yet.

My large green ones are still very healthy and look happy. I think they just prefer to split rather than becoming as large as they once were.

Thanks for the help everyone. I just didn't think it was possible they were getting too much light.

[treesprite]

Originally Posted by Oldreeferman

Oh,
I also was going to mention incase you didn't know to use tank water or pre-made saltwater when defrosting or mixing up any foods for corals, fish does not matter.
Reason is foods made with freshwater will float not sink a real issue when feeding something static & one wants the food to stay where its placed.

Good tip, thanks.