Serious Mushroom Problem

tlake

New member
I am having a seious problem with a mushroom colony (discoma sp.). It is a colony of about 20 or so green metallic musrooms that has been doing very well for the past 6 months in my 150g reef tank. A couple days ago the mushrooms at the bottom started getting covered in a jelly like goo and dying. This dieoff has migrated up the rock, and now more than half of the mushrooms have died away.

Otherwise the tank is healthy, with good parameters (ph=8.0, calcium 400mg/l, phosphate=0, nitrite=0, nitrate 0-5ppm, alk=8.0 dKH) The other corals, LPS, SPS, mushrooms, softies and zoas are doing well.

Has anyone seen this before? Perhaps a fungus or a pathogen? Thanks for any help
 
Mushroom Problem

Mushroom Problem

I've been anxiously waiting to see if you receive a response. I, too, have had problems with my mushroom colonies -- but my problems have persisted for 3 years and have cost me at least a dozen beautify colonies of different sizes, colors and varieties. I'm constantly amazed to see posts talking about how easy mushies are to raise, how rapidly they multiply, etc., etc. My params are perfect, lighting is excellent, I've tried high, middle and low placement all with little success. All I can think of is that I might have more water flow than mushrooms like. I have 3 pwr heads and a wave maker in my 120 gal reef DSP. I'll email you off line to see if you have heard of any suggestions directly.
 
I have never had this problem before about three weeks ago - mushrooms are fairly easy to keep happy, though getting them to thrive and reproduce through fission can be tough - depending on the shroom. Some seem to spread like weeds - I have a couple discoma sp. and a rhodactis sp. that are bulletproof - then again I have several discoma sp. that are very tempermental.

Anyway, I thought the rapid die off of this metallic green discoma would consume the entire colony of 20+ large polyps, but it stopped leaving 5-6 polyps on the rock. I have noticed a palythoa coenchyme remaining where the shrooms died, and wonder if there was a little bit of a turf war between this palythoa and the mushrooms - with the mushrooms losing. I dont have any other theories yet, but if it happens again i will be taking pictures.

On a side note, the rapid die off of mushrooms really agitated my soft corals, ALL of which retracted and took about 8 days to sluff and extend their polyps again. With the exception of a bare rock, the tank is back to normal now....
 
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