So many mushrooms ...

[joyski58]

What the heck does one do with all these mushrooms? They are popping up everywhere. All the Club members already have them or don't want them, and they are everywhere at frag swaps. Red ones. Neon green striped. Frillys. What about the Club tank? Does it need any mushrooms?

I even have an oblong thinish 6" rock with some really nice neon greens on one end and some huge frillys on the other end. About 3-4 of each. The rock can be broken in the middle. Anyone interested? Make me an offer -- $ or a trade.

 

[stevebeaver]

id like a couple of the of each if you could bring them to the swap.
let me know how much you want for them.

 

[Altpers0na-old]

pics?

 

[apapas]

I would take some let me know how much

 

[joyski58]

Sorry. I'm still pic-challenged and unable to post. I received some PMs and have offered a few to the club tank, and have someone interested in the shroom rock. If it falls through, I'll post that. I still have some I can part with, but I don't want to take away from those trying to sell at the swap by giving them away there. Please PM me if you are interested in a trip to St. Albans to get some.

 

[mcox33]

Thanks joyski58 for the mushrooms you dropped off for Project Reef Tank.

They had all opened by the time I left this evening.

 

[H.crispa]

I keep telling people these things are like kittens. They look cute and cuddly in the pet shop but they grow up to be self-centered, stinky musk spraying cats that breed out of control and next thing you know you are up to your eyeballs in a catterwalling meow fest, you can't leave your muddy shoes on the front porch because tomorrow they smell like cat spooge so bad you can never wear them again, the paint job on your new car is ruined with scratches and paw prints, all your furniture is trashed, you can't find the source of that rotting-mouse smell, the cat box has to be emptied twice a day, half your friends won't come around anymore because they are allergic to cats and no matter how hard you try to give them away-- you can't keep up with the breeding.
I have been picking out mushrooms with a pair of hemostats for ten years and throwing them down the disposal. Yet no matter how hard I try to eradicate them, they pop up and kill anything they touch. If you like them I suggest a tank set up specifically for them because if and when you decide they no longer fit in with your reeftank-- tough feces. You'll never get 'em out.

 

[joyski58]

I musta missed that discussion, or did I just block it out because I'm a cat person? I guess the disposal-method is your spay-neuter program.

 

[joyski58]

I still have the rock with the frillys on one end and the neon greens on the other end, if anyone is interested. The rock is quite substantial; oblong in shape and probably 6-7" long. I'll bring it to the next meeting if not gone by then.

 

[billragan]

Amen Crispa. I bought one of those 5 different mushroom packs online about a year and half ago. Now they pop up all over the place. One is brownish/clear and has grown to about 8 inches. When I feed the fish it forms a cup to collect food, luckily it hasn't spread, yet. It seems the pretty ones don't spread as fast.

 

[H.crispa]

Hey gang, I'm not telling you that you should not keep shrooms in your aquarium. As I always tell people, try to plan where you want to go with your tank in 3 to 5 years. Learn from my mistakes. I did not do this and thankfully it did not turn out too bad. Aside from the runaway stars-- which are easy to keep in check-- and the shrooms (which are not) I have been fortunate. Hence the recommendation that you set up a tank for shrooms and other softies and keep it that way so that you don't wind up with a mostly sps tank that you have to constantly weed out stuff that grows fast and kills your sps if you don't weed them out.

Every tank is different and every reefer has a different vision of what his tank will be. If shrooms fit in with that then good! They are hardy, pretty, and cool to look at. However, when you put them in thinking that they are pretty and hard to kill without a clear vision of where your tank is going-- the very reasons you liked them in the first place could turn out to be the reasons they become a problem in the future when your tank turns a corner into something else.

In addition, having a plan helps you avoid revamping your tank constantly to accomodate the latest fad. I'm not a fan of fad reefing. In order to grow a stable, mature reef you have to work toward a goal. So I'm not harshing on mushrooms and those who love them. Just be careful and make sure that is what you want in the long run. That's all I'm saying.

Like I said, learn from my screw ups. If you plan to eventually end up with an sps or LPS tank, be careful what you put in now that you might wish you didn't later.

Same thing with lighting. If you go with a VHO or CF setup thinking that you will replace it with halide at some point, you will never be happy with your CF/VHOs and at some time will wish you had just saved up the money and went with MH in the first place. Buy your lighting according to where you want to be in a couple years-- not what you can get by with now... another of my mistakes. That is why in my latest lighting upgrade I just went balzout and packed 900 MH watts over my 75 gallon reef. I will never have to upgrade lighting again. If I had done this in the first place I would have saved 100s of $$$.

 

[joyski58]

Attention Newbies. Good post. Ive found I wish I knew many things like this before this addiction all started.

 

[H.crispa]

Joyski is a great reefer and I posted that last one to clarify what I was talking about with the kittens and all that. I'm not a fan of cats-- that's no secret-- but if you love cats and that's your thing then kudos. If I didn't like dogs I could have just as easily talked about peeing in the floor, chewing up your shoes, barking at the doorbell, digging craters in the yard, chasing cars, etc.

If I had it in for birds I could have talked about pouting when they don't get enough attention, biting to the bone, slinging food across the room because they are mad about something, holding in their poop so they can crap bigtime on the floor as soon as you get them out of the cage because they are mad about something, screaming when you leave the room, harassing the dog or cat-- or bullying the dog/cat, chewing up books, shelves, picking all the buttons off the computer keyboard, ........ come to think of it.... why is it that I HAVE a bird????

The difference between cats and dogs is best illustrated here:
http://www.vegsource.com/talk/humor/messages/7192.html
You gotta see this. It is sooooooo funny.