discosoma (mushrooms) and sps dont mix?

[NALCOMIS]

I was reading through the SPS information on the Reef Central home page and it said that you cant have Discosoma with sps?
Does this mean that if i want to start adding sps to my tank the mushrooms gotta go? I have about 17-20 individuals less than 1 inch polyps in a 65 gal tall tank.

I also have 1 sacrophyton toad stool in the tank as well (small/med size)

 

[NicoleC]

Three things:

-Discosoma mushrooms are VERY chemically aggressive, and this chemical aggression will inhibit other coral growth

-Also, they are quite willing to overgrow other corals, killing them by direct contact.

-Once they are established, they will let fly baby polyps and you'll have them pop up all over the tank, so sequestering them to a rock or two doesn't work.

Since discosoma are also very hard to erradicate permanently, if you seriously want to go SPS the wise thing to do is remove the mushrooms now while you still have a good chance of succeeding.

Sarcophyton is also aggressive, but not to the same degree and it does not have the overgrowth properties of discosoma. It does bud off babies, but the babies don't usually go far and are much easier to remove from the tank.

A species-specific tank is the best way to go, but few people do that. Next down is a biotope, then a family group tank, and then finally the "garden" style tanks which get the least growth and health (all things being equal.) The more you can narrow your species selection, the better long term success you will have, but few people do it.

 

[stryker]

i have sarcos and discos mixed in my sps tank with no problem, just don't let them touch and run carbon.

 

[NALCOMIS]

THANKS NICOLE for clearing that up for me!

stryker: I always thought of running carbon as counter productive, as it removes needed elements from the water. I think I will just do what you are doing tho, I like em too much to part with em.

Maybe I should just cut back on the ammount of the "baby flying" discos I have. I do notice that only the blue ones have been doing that.

 

[badbones]

From experience, avoid them at all cost. They will spread before you know it and climb up the sps base, killing anything they touch. And you will never get them out. I pulled every rock and plucked them off. I now have more than ever!!!!

 

[bergzy]

i had ONE mushroom that hitch hiked on a rock...

needless to say that it wonderfully got next to a sps, had little mushies, impossible to get off and...well, just basically killed the sps.

there are always going to be be those who are the exception to the rule...

 

[pecaco34]

Mushrooms were so much of a plague in my old tank that I completely bought all new rock to make sure i wouldn't have any when I upgraded. They definitely do not mix with sps from my experience.