Fed mushroom (St Thomas), now it's dead

[fvandijk]

I fed one of my bubble mushrooms (Rhodactis sanctithomae) a fairly large piece of krill (0.25xo.5 inch), two days later it is dead (melted).

I've never noticed or heard of anything like this before. It's clone right next to it (which was not fed) is in perfect health.

Parameters in the tank are otherwise fine and everything else in the tank (155 gallon tank that I have stocked very lightly with three fish and a mix of softies and stonies, mostly as a frag tank) is in perfect health.

I don't feed the mushroom corals (Ricordea florida and Rh. sanctithomae) very often (maybe once a month, if that), usually some mysis, but had an extra piece of krill and just tossed it on the shroom rather than in the trash.

I can think of the following scenarios that may have cause this:
1. Fish (one blue damsel, one foxface, one starry blenny) or crab (blue leg hermits and green mithrax) smelled the krill and injured the mushroom- it got a secondary infection and died.
2. Krill was somehow bad, or else decomposed due to its large size which the mushroom was unable to digest fast enough, then the decomposed krill secondarily infected the shroom.

Any one favor one over the other, or have any other thoughts, similar experiences? I certainly don't want to repeat this scenario.

 

[Azurel]

I would put money on #2......In the ocean on the reef the mushrrom would never get a large piece of food that like that fish would get long before it hit the mushroom.....I bet it started to rot inside and that is what caused it to melt away.....I feed all of my ricordeas and few shrooms that will eat but nothing bigger then mysis......

 

[kiknchikn]

If anything I'd say the krill contained something in it that the mushroom didn't like. That is... IF it wasn't just a coincidence and something else caused it.

When my shrooms can't digest something they spit it out. I'm sure most shrooms do that.