Green Mushroom question

[scoobyalty]

My mushrooms are not staying open all of the time and I just want to make sure I have them placed right. The outside ones lay flat, but the inside ones on the rock tend to close slightly during the day. Is this normal? Do I have anything to worry about? Should I move them? They are on the bottom of the tank in a shady area with moderate flow to them. Any help is really appreciated.

 

[keckles]

It looks like they are not getting enough light where they are. I would move them to an area where they will get more light; that should do the trick. :thumbsup:

 

[scoobyalty]

How high in the tank do you recommend? Also how about flow is that anything to worry about with these mushrooms?

 

[keckles]

With the halides, you don't want them any higher than half-way. You may not even need to move them up, just to an area where the entire rock receives eve, consistent light. Low to medium flow would be preferable.

 

[styndall]

You should try feeding your mushrooms. It's hard to tell from the photo, but they seem to be rhodactis or amplexidiscus, and those genera eat as much as they can get. My rhodactis eats tons of brine shrimp and mysis, and it's gone from the size of a nickel to eight inches in diameter in ten months.

Read http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/oct2002/invert.htm to understand more about your mushrooms and help you pick out the care requirements.

To illustrate, here are some before/after photos of my well-fed rhodactis:

July, 2007:

February 2008:

It's still on the same rock, but it's covered that entire rock and large bits of the surrounding rockwork.

 

[scoobyalty]

Well I moved the rock up today a little past half way and the majority of the mushrooms did close up so I will be moving it back to the bottom of the tank to hopefully get them all to open up. I will be crossing my fingers I just want to have them all open like they were at the LFS when I picked them up

 

[keckles]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12329790#post12329790 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by keckles
With the halides, you don't want them any higher than half-way.

How long did you leave them there?

 

[Lotus99]

My mushrooms hate high flow. You could try moving them to an area of different flow and see how they do.

I only have VHO lighting, and mushrooms seem to be happy at the bottom of my tank.