Problem with hairy mushrooms.

[Wrench]

I've got a recent problem with one of my hairy mushrooms. It's been in the tank for a few months and doing well. A week or so ago I noticed it was staying closed up and the mouth was wide open with the internal filaments were exposed. At first I thought it was just splitting. From then on it slowly got worse. It lost it's shape and I guess you could say it's dissolved. Two of the other individuals in the colony aren't opening fully so I think they've got the same problem. The rest of the colony seems ok though. ANy ideas on what this could be and whats causing it? These guys are on the bottom of a 21" deep tank under 2x175w 10k MH's. It hasn't lost any color.

1.025
pH 8.1
82*
3.5 dKH
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrates >5ppm
Phosphates are 0

 

[chrisstie]

Those things are pretty hard to kill in my experience. Could you have something gnawing at it\stinging it ? your test kits are all new enough to be confident in their readings? Is your SG from a hydrometer or refractometer?

Your pH and alk seem perfect - mine can react when i add supplements to my tank but they might show their guts for a few minutes then go back to normal.

How puzzling!

I can't really think of anything that could eat or disturb them so bad but my guess might be put on something stinging them or possibly something bacterial? Any new stuff go into the tank lately?

 

[Wrench]

All of my test kits are Salifert and are less than 6 months old. My SG is from a swing arm hydrometer that I calibrated with a friends refractometer. I haven't added any supplemets to the tank recently and the only ones I do add are Reef Builder and Advantange to keep Ca/Alk/pH in line. The other two in question are not spewing their guts but they have been retracted for several days, much like they do when splitting. The rest of the colony seems unaffected. They're all in the same spot int he tank. Nothing new added to the tank recently but come to think of it I have been having a problem with my zoos that I haven't been able to trace. I lost a colony last month and still have one colony affected but FW dips and anti-fungal dips haven't helped at all so I've got no clue what that's all about. Could be the same culprit. Now I just need to figure out what it is! I asked about it in the Zoanthids forum and the consensus was some sort of fungus. Polyps close up and within a day or so a light brown/tan film forms around the mouth and they eventually die. I've dipped the infected colony several times in the past few weeks but it hasn't helped much. It's slowly losing ground. The next step is going to be to frag off what I can and hope that stops the spread. So far it's only been this colony and it's not spreading to others.

 

[chrisstie]

Have you tried Furan2 on the zoos?

When I get a film over my zoos sometimes its just algae i can rub off with my fingers but if yours have stayed closed up i presume you're able to do that with no effect.

the mushroom is puzzling. I would double check your SG again just to be sure - those hydrometers can be inaccurate even if microbubbles get stuck to them but it sounds like you're pretty experienced and know what to look for so .. always a good idea to double check.

Im strangely getting a case of de ja vu as I write this.. have you tried doing a few water changes like every other day to clear out whatever might be in the water doing this?

Also is there anything that has gone in the tank that may have been exposed to any bad metals or anyone else had access to the tank?

Long lists of things to eliminate but what else can one do but to start somewhere =\

 

[Wrench]

Thanks for all your advice. I haven't tried Furan2 as I haven't been able to find any locally. I have used Seachem's Reef Dip (which I think is just iodine) and Lugols. I was told by a LFS owner that it could just be algae growing on and irritating the polyps. I'm going to move them to a lower-light area of the tank and see if it goes away. I'm thinking now that it could be a probelm with this particular spot in the tank that is causing me problems. The colony that I lost was in this spot, as is the current infected colony. Maybe a combination of too much light and not enough flow is letting the algae take hold? If that's the case though, I don't think the same thing is causing the problems with the mushrooms. What are your thoughts? I haven't done any severe water changes. Just the normal 5g/week that I usually do. I'm afraid if I get too agressive that I'm going to disrupt the stable parameters I've worked so hard towards. I just finished my weekly change, maybe I will do 1 or 2 more over the next few days.

 

[chrisstie]

I don't think it'd hurt to try to do 1 or 2 small ones (5g seems fine? i just do a bucket a week on my 55g and have a big skimmer\refugium with macro algae going with it and it seems to do very well

You can usually tell if its some kind of algae on the zoos if you rub them gently it can come off- i've had to peel cyanobacteria off of some before and it mats over like some algaes can.

Have you noticed any pods going crazy with the zoos at night? theres sort of a debate about them actually eating zoos but so far most of the discussion has been based around that for Some reason, x, zoos have some kind of die off and the pods are attracted to it to clean them up. Many folks blame the pods for eating them but there's gotta be some underlying cause for the die off.

I also wonder if you have tried running carbon or anything along those lines to pull out any potential toxins or just "whatevers" that could have gotten into the tank or been released from any other inhabitants? moving your colony and trying something like that might help out as well.

hope this helps.. I'm only a year or so into the hobby but love to study and read - theres SO much out there I am yet to learn but you learn quick when things don't look like they're headed ina good direction