Feeding watermelon mushrooms. question + pics

[ghandidawgg]

I have posted this in the mushroom forum but noone has answered me yet. I will try my luck here.
What exactly do they eat? I hear phytofeast all the time but I hear people here feeding mysis etc... well I have had this rock with a few watermelon shrooms on it for almost a year now and have not seen any changes in the size or amount of mushrooms. Sometimes, one of them has this curly thing come out of the center but always thought it was normal until today, read a thread where it said they do that when they are stressed.
What can I do for my mushrooms to grow large and happy?

here are some pics

 

[BLKTANG]

IMO target feeding them is unecessary.I never feed mine,& give like 10 a month to my LFS for store credit.

Keep them in check they will kill certain types of coral if they come in contact.

 

[ReefStuff]

I feed ours frozen mini-mysis shrimp.

If you keep them in a heavily populated reef tank they will not grow as well.

Mushrooms in general like high nutrient tanks.


Ricky Soutas Jr.
-Soutas Saltwater & Reef Inc.-
www.ReefStuff.com

 

[ghandidawgg]

Keep them in check? they haven't grown or multiplied since they have been in my tank.. 1 year.

The tank is not very populated at all.

It is a 29gal, with a pair of clowns, and a royal gramma.

for corals, the shrooms you saw, a yellow fiji, and 1 duncan with 3 big heads and 3-4 baby heads.

I feed phytofeast daily for shrooms and fiji, and spot feed the big duncan heads every other days with mysis or squid.

My lfs told me that the watermelon mushrooms were filter feeder. and that only phytofeast was necessary. was it not true?

I will post some pics of the fiji and the duncan here in a little bit so you can see. I am considering a rbta for my clowns but only after I put foam around the power heads.

 

[SaltyDr]

What's your lighting. I don't feed my mushrooms anything. They will occasionally curl up around something that lands on them.

 

[ghandidawgg]

I went from pc's to a 30" sundial t5 4X 24w
my current is stong. 55X water turnover. 29gal moving 1600 gal/hr

 

[ghandidawgg]

more pics

fiji

fiji again

fiji again

duncan

duncan again

mushroom rock

full tank

full tank again

 

[ReefStuff]

Do you do frequent water changes?

I would never suggest using phytofeast even though they are filter feeders. I would only feed phytoplankton to things that only eat phytoplankton. Your just asking for more algae growth otherwise.

The mushrooms are also photosynthetic, and get much more out of this than phytoplankton.


Ricky Soutas Jr.
-Soutas Saltwater & Reef Inc.-
www.ReefStuff.com

 

[jbird69]

mine are borderline out of control. Ive never fed them, Im starting to wish I didnt have any. Same goes for my clove coral.

 

[ReefStuff]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14743673#post14743673 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by jbird69
mine are borderline out of control. Ive never fed them, Im starting to wish I didnt have any. Same goes for my clove coral.

"400w halide w/ 78w T6 actinic"

That amount of light on a 50 gallon tank will do it!

*Not too much, not too little.


Ricky Soutas Jr.
-Soutas Saltwater & Reef Inc.-
www.ReefStuff.com

 

[ghandidawgg]

what's the difference between phytofeast and phytoplankton? when I 1st got started, they said to feed the phytofeast to "feed" my live rocks and all the filter feeders. had feather duster at the time.

 

[ReefStuff]

Phytofeast is a marketing name. Phytoplankton is what it is.

Did he really tell you it would feed your live rock?


Ricky Soutas Jr.
-Soutas Saltwater & Reef Inc.-
www.ReefStuff.com

 

[jbird69]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14743711#post14743711 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by ReefStuff.com
"400w halide w/ 78w T6 actinic"

That amount of light on a 50 gallon tank will do it!

*Not too much, not too little.


Ricky Soutas Jr.
-Soutas Saltwater & Reef Inc.-
www.ReefStuff.com

I know, a little excessive:eek1: :bum: . When I upgraded to this light ensemble my mushrooms almost burned up. They eventually got used to it and started thriving again.

 

[ReefStuff]

Yeah, that's the thing I dislike about mushrooms. They seem to be pretty sensitive to heavy lighting changes.

But, if you have some of the really nice bright pink, orange, blue or green ones they are so worth it, in my opinion. :rollface:


Ricky Soutas Jr.
-Soutas Saltwater & Reef Inc.-
www.ReefStuff.com

 

[ghandidawgg]

yea, told me it would feed the live rock, the copepods, amphipods, sponges etc... he said just throw in some phytofeast and you will be good
I try to do water change weekly. 10 gal out of 29 everytime. I did my last water change last week. they checked my water and said everything was cool.
nitrate 2ppm
calcium 465ppm
alk 3.54meq
phosphate 0.03
my salinity was a little low at 1.022
I am using sundial t5 ho 4x 24w
actinics on from 3.30 pm to 11.30pm
daylights on from 4pm to 11pm

 

[ghandidawgg]

can anyone id that green thing behind the fiji? it's kinda leaning because it is taking direct hit from the K4. it use to stick straight up with fuzzy things on the tip. several more growing throughout the tank

 

[ReefStuff]

If your tank is properly set up and taken care of you should not have to supplement your tank with Phytoplankton.

It will generate it's own microalgae for your little guys on the live rock to thrive on.

Regarding Phytoplankton, I would never use it or recommend it to anyone unless they had a creature that specifically fed on it, and it alone.

This is a perfect example of the growing lack of knowledge amongst many new store owners these days. While it is somewhat their fault for not knowing, it also good to know that they were trying to help you out.

But, if they were doing it just to market you another product which has little effect on anything but creating more algae then I would recommend not buying from this store. I dislike stores that try to take advantage of newer and even older hobbyists.

It is a very good thing to read marine books, they hold much of the information that most hobbyists look for. Never trust your LFS to know it all or give you correct advice. The same goes for the internet though as there is plenty of skewed information here as well. All in all I'd recommend at least reading one good marine book before setting up a tank. It is very important to yourself and your tank.


Ricky Soutas Jr.
-Soutas Saltwater & Reef Inc.-
www.ReefStuff.com

 

[ghandidawgg]

does the fiji need phytoplankton? not a whole lot of microalgae is growing a little here and there but that's it.
I am not running a refugium either. wish I did though.
I started the hobby somewhat by accident. I use to keep freshwater cichlids for ever. when I met my wife, she just had started a tank with saltwater and some live rock. I took it over and got hooked into the hobby. I always had wanted to get into saltwater since I am a kid but was discouraged by people telling me it was too hard and too expensive. I love it now.

 

[Toddrtrex]

IMO, if they are spreading like a weed, there might be something going on with your tank. Could you post your water parameters -- with numbers.

Back when I had mushrooms (( notice the past tense, I will never have them in my tank again, had to sell every single rock to get them out of my tank )), I never directly fed them, just anything that they may have gotten when I was feeding the fish.

 

[ghandidawgg]

my water flow is very strong 1600gal per hr in a 29. no food hits or stays on the shrooms. thats why i use phytofeast. I figure if they are filter feeder, they will get it out of the water.
I used to have green star polyps but they didn't make it. they started to spread but after switching to t5, I had a very bad algae bloom. it coverded up the green star and the all died. sucks cause I liked them.