Color morphing shrooms-wow

[watchguy123]

I have two tupperware sand boxes in my bare bottom frag tank. On one side, I have had a thick batch of chaeto sitting on top of one of the tupperware boxes. I had a rock with two shrooms in it and it has been covered up by the chaeto for some weeks now. Decided to take a look today and move my couple shrooms over to the lit tupperware box.

I also had kept one shroom of the same color in the normally lit tupperware box.

So, I moved the rock over and couple surprises. First of all, three babies. And then I placed the normally lit shroom on top of the rock and wow, check out the color differences. I found it pretty striking.

First pic, chaeto covering one of the two tupperware sand boxes.



Next is the tupperware sand box that gets light. You can see the junk i keep in there plus the lit shroom and the two big "unlit" shrooms




Close up of normally lighted shroom, and of the two morphs which had been in the dark covered with chaeto are now yellow-green



This is where all mushrooms originally came from in my display, lower right hand corner, should be able to see mushrooms on rock



I expect the morphed shrooms to return to their original orange color now that they are once again receiving light. Thought this was pretty interesting change nonetheless, even if temporary.

 

[DallasNYC]

Interesting, so you think it' a permanent change, or they will color back up once the get enough light again. I have definitely had the same shroom display different shades based on the amount of light they were getting in the tank.

 

[watchguy123]

Interesting, so you think it' a permanent change, or they will color back up once the get enough light again. I have definitely had the same shroom display different shades based on the amount of light they were getting in the tank.

I imagine they will color back to their normal orange color with the return of light. Just thought the change was pretty striking.

 

[syrinx]

They will color up- they are just a little bleached. Very cool looking though!

 

[watchguy123]

They will color up- they are just a little bleached. Very cool looking though!

My views are based on 40 years as an aquarist, 20 years as a pro reef consultant, 10 years of owning a LFS, and the results of thousands of customers tanks. But I am always learning.

I love your comment about always learning. What a wonderfully humble comment.

And I agree, I do believe they will color up. But they may be the opposite of bleached, not too much light but light starved.

Interesting they did not shrink in size that i can tell and they had daughters. Wonder if they were moving, looking for light and dropping daughters under the stress of too little light.

Anyway, I am indeed always learning. And humbled by how little I know, regardless how much I profess to understand.

 

[philosophile]

The yumas I have can't really vary in color sometimes depending on their position on the rock... Sometimes a a yuma will move to the side of a rock, or in a nook, where it isn't getting as much light, and it will change color like yours did. I like the way it ends up looking. Similar textures, but varying shades and intensities.