Techniques for preventing mushroom spread

[vikinglord13]

Hey guys,

I'm wondering if you have techniques for preventing your mushrooms from invading neighboring colonies. Currently, I have a baby mushroom pushing its way through a zoanthid colony. Being a noob I tried to pop it to kill it and it just healed - it's currently regaining its zooxanthellae and color.

Anyways, I could take the rock out and use tweezers and pry it off; however, I'm curious how you guys with permanent structures do it. Do you just watch the colonies grow together or do you maintain a desired aesthetic?

 

[Arowana1902]

I wish I had the problem of excessive coral growth. I have two mushroom colonies in the tank (I don't know what they are, but they are both different), but one colony of 3 heads (I can also see some babies poking through) has its own rock on the sand, that way it can not overgrow. The other colony is only one head (though about an inch larger in diameter) this guy is in the corner of my main structure. He stays to himself pretty well, I haven't lifted the head, but I expect a few small ones under him. He will have a very difficult time growing over to other corals, but if he does, I will remove the rock he is on and put it in a bigger tank. Mushrooms are probably my favorite coral group, though the common green duncan coral is my absolute favorite coral. In short I think the best way to keep them from growing out is to make boundaries (drop offs, lightless areas, walls, sand beds), or just keep them off of the main structure.

 

[vikinglord13]

Yah... unfortunately during my noobest stage I just had it on a plug then the mushroom decided to move onto the rock I had the plug wedged between... so now it's part of the main display.

I think I'll just have to deal with it and remove the ones I don't want growing into my zoanthids. I'm sure after time that will keep me a little busy with more mushrooms making babies...

 

[organism]

Hypodermic injection with boiling vinegar then vacuum it out when it detaches, depending on your state you can get hypo's at certain drug stores just be prepared for weird looks lol. Hands down the best way to get rid of aiptasia too.

 

[vikinglord13]

Seriously? That's interesting... do you inject it in the stem?

 

[jayball]

Hypodermic injection with boiling vinegar then vacuum it out when it detaches, depending on your state you can get hypo's at certain drug stores just be prepared for weird looks lol. Hands down the best way to get rid of aiptasia too.

You can get hypodermic needles on amazon as well if they are not available locally.

 

[organism]

Seriously? That's interesting... do you inject it in the stem?

Yeah just inject it into the base and they'll pop right off in no time

 

[vikinglord13]

Interesting. Thanks for the advice! I'll keep that in mind

 

[leviburns89]

Scrape the whole lot off.. if you're lucky, you can physically remove them, put them in a small tank with rubble, then sell them.

If they heal so fast, might as well try removing the whole thing

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[vikinglord13]

Aaaaand a few months later, I couldn't wait any longer.

So, I injected them with "boiling" vinegar, and I tried to remove them but no luck. How long do I have to wait in order to remove them easily?

 

[reefwars]

Aaaaand a few months later, I couldn't wait any longer.

So, I injected them with "boiling" vinegar, and I tried to remove them but no luck. How long do I have to wait in order to remove them easily?

Epoxy over them , mold some two part epoxy into a small sheet and cover them up and seal them under , the epoxy is easy to remove later or just put corals over it and soon enough it's history anyways and blends in , this has worked for me on mushrooms,palys and blue cloves

 

[fijisrfr]

Epoxy over them , mold some two part epoxy into a small sheet and cover them up and seal them under , the epoxy is easy to remove later or just put corals over it and soon enough it's history anyways and blends in , this has worked for me on mushrooms,palys and blue cloves

+ 1 on this
I use this method to also get rid of the occasional aiptasia that pops up.


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[lockdown52]

I have used both the epoxy and injection with kalk paste methods. They both have worked for me.

 

[vikinglord13]

They eventually fell off. My emerald crab was having a field day.

 

[2smokes]

You dont need to cover them in glue or to inject anything.You can use a litle kalk paste that you pour with a seringe on top of the mushromm or any nuisance coral and wait with the powerheads off for 45 minute to one hour.You can kill anything with kalk ,any coral or aiptasia ,even algae.Dont use too much because it will disturb the alk and the PH -especially if you have sps corals and dont let it fall(if it falls ,scrape it immediatly)on your favorite coral.Any kalk paste works for food industry is best but ive used kalk paste thats made for constructions and is safe.

 

[Rob Bernard]

Hypodermic injection with boiling vinegar then vacuum it out when it detaches, depending on your state you can get hypo's at certain drug stores just be prepared for weird looks lol. Hands down the best way to get rid of aiptasia too.

Thanks for the post about the boiling vinegar. I have quite a few mushrooms i want to eliminate. Any other methods anyone would like to share?

 

[vikinglord13]

You dont need to cover them in glue or to inject anything.You can use a litle kalk paste that you pour with a seringe on top of the mushromm or any nuisance coral and wait with the powerheads off for 45 minute to one hour.You can kill anything with kalk ,any coral or aiptasia ,even algae.Dont use too much because it will disturb the alk and the PH -especially if you have sps corals and dont let it fall(if it falls ,scrape it immediatly)on your favorite coral.Any kalk paste works for food industry is best but ive used kalk paste thats made for constructions and is safe.

Different method that seems simple enough.