I'm starting to get mad...

a&m aggie 04'

a&m aggie 04'

Active Member
I cannot keep mushrooms or zoo's in my tank. I've had a few colonies of zoo's and lots of mushrooms disappear over the last year. I've even bought small frags and put them in to try and find the culprit, but have had no luck. I even bought a single mushroom cap yesterday, only to find it gone this morning. My LPS are growing like crazy but I can't keep what most people would consider the easiest coral to maintain. My water conditions arent anything out of the ordinary. Nitrates are reading about 10 but other than that my params are in line. I've searched for sundial snails eating zoo's but havent seen any. I thougth mushrooms were poisonous to eat...Heres what i have in my tank...
Percula, Mandarin, Cleaner Shrimp, Blood Red Shrimp--- thats it.
Someone at least give me some ideas on what it could be. Is there anything that could be in my water that could only affect softies??
Mark
 
misty7850

misty7850

Member
I bought double mushroom cap and the next morning one of them was missing. I found it a few days later, way down under the rocks. can't get to it, but it seems to be thriving.
 
j21kickster

j21kickster

Active Member
if you dont feed the shrimp on a semi regular basis i have seen cleaners eat zoanthids- i had one that ate about 5 polyps but after that lost its taste for them- i doubt that is it but i just thought id share. Do they just dissepear overnight from a healthy colony? I have heard of fire shrimp picking at a few corals at night but i have not had the same experience but other than that im not sure what to tell you. Do they stay open and healthy right before the vanish?
 
I

ivanfj

Guest
I've had the same problem in the last month or so. One night I was looking at my tank with a flashlight and actually saw my electric blue legged hermit was eating my zoos
My toadstool was closed for the last week or so as well and my cleaner shrimp has been disturbing the toadstool big time.
Today he just looks a little better but not thriving. And same with A&M, all my para are in line and all LPS corals are doing fine in the last half year or so. I just can't seem to have success with softies.
 
a&m aggie 04'

a&m aggie 04'

Active Member
well I had some red mushrooms that vanished quick...started out as one cap and had at least 10 a few weeks later-- then one day...gone. My fuzzy mushrooms took some time to disappear. I saw them getting smaller until there was nothing.
Had 3 colonies of zoo's. Probably over a thousand polpys...slowly disappeared. Every day i would notice a few more gone, the others looked healthy until they vanished. I did find a few hermits bedded on top of them but I tossed them in my refuge. Still disappeared. I had the shrimp long before I had any corals vanish but have recently fed more flake food than shrimp, so maybe i should go back to feeding brine. Its hard to figure out whats happening w/o buying decoy corals but I'm kinda getting tired of throwing money away.
I also had a foxface die after keeping him completely healthy for over a year, but i doubt it's related to vanishing softies.
Just read the above post, i do have blue leg hermits but wouldn't one would think i'd see them munching on my corals.
Anyhow, I tank upgrade is coming very soon so I'll be breaking down my tank hopefully to figure out why i cant keep softies.
Mark
 
j21kickster

j21kickster

Active Member
even thought not typical, some shrimp will eat soft corals- especially if they are underfed- it sounds like they are being eaten to me and the only thing i can think of that would eat both zoanthids and mushrooms would be the shrimp. Have you noticed any other larger predatory worms at night? or any small nudibranch looking creatures on your zoanthids.
 
a&m aggie 04'

a&m aggie 04'

Active Member
I noticed a worm last night that appeared to be pretty big. Only saw a few inches so I dont know exactly how large it was. Looked somewhat like a peanut worm. I'll keep a watch out for it though, since im pretty sure i know where its living.
Thanks for the help J21,
Mark
 
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