Mushroom behavior

[chrisnif]

Okay, I have a 5 gal AGA with a coralife 20 watt 50/50 and was told that is enough for soft coral. My LFS sold me a single mushroom pretty cheap as i was buying some rock and a fish as well and paying cash (cash is King at the smaller LFS they don't have the overhead to cover all the card fees, dont forget that).
Anyway, he said the Ric mushrooms were expensive so I picked one that has a brown stalk and the cap looks purple with an iredescent green hue to it and 5 lines of bumps out to the edge (hope to get a pic tomorrow). The edge is wavy and there is a bigger bump in the middle almost like a mouth. I've seen Rics that look this way so I'm not sure what it is exactly but my real question is this-> Is it normal for a mushroom to change size and point the cap different ways over the course of the day? Mine goes from nickel size to some times almost silver dollar size. The stalk is in a crevice between 2 fingers of rock, this is where it decided it wanted to go the first night, sometimes the stalk is short and the bottom of the cap is touching the rock, other times it is almost an inch over the rocks and other times the cap goes from its normal horizontal to a 45 degree angle pointing towards the brighter side of the tank, and other times it faces away from the light. This may be normal, or it may be begging for more light, please let me know what you guys thing as this is literally the first piece of coral I've ever owned. Also do mushrooms need any kind of food added to the water? My LFS said no but the coral water comes from teh shark pond, almost letting the coral act as a fuge for the shark, so who knows what they're getting there.

 

[cherylann]

Sounds normal, mushrooms will get up and move if they don't like the light or water flow. If your lighting is ok you should not have to feed them, just do regular H2o changes. Some people say that they grow faster with supplement feedings and addition of iodine, but it really never seem to make a difference to me. The thing with mushrooms is too much light, and they change shape constantly. Congrats on your first coral, there is alot of information on the care of muchrooms to be found.

 

[chrisnif]

Originally Posted by cherylann
http:///forum/post/3161636
Sounds normal, mushrooms will get up and move if they don't like the light or water flow. If your lighting is ok you should not have to feed them, just do regular H2o changes. Some people say that they grow faster with supplement feedings and addition of iodine, but it really never seem to make a difference to me. The thing with mushrooms is too much light, and they change shape constantly. Congrats on your first coral, there is alot of information on the care of muchrooms to be found.
Thanks much,
I had it directly under the light figuring it was used to the LFS's MH lighting and being under only 3-4 inches of water (they have trays and the water flows across them with MH above) but it moved the first night and I was worried it moved someplace no good hence stretching its neck for more light
Hopefully next I can get some star polyps or a Kenya tree

 

[asharp13]

from nickel to silver dollar is nothing. i have a couple shrooms than go from quarters to 5" across. they are just finiky but will never quit on you. ive noticed that when my shrooms look bad and dont expand something is off with my parameters...check yours cuz they might b off, especially pH. also place them low in ur tank with little flow and leave em alone. they will be very happy down there. i always want to move mine up cuz i think more light=more growth but i have come to realize that this way of thinking is not at all true. make them comfortable and they will do their thing!