Mushroom Control

[maxsmart]

I have red mushrooms, and they are out of control! I got them from an old boss, I raised them and gave him frags once his tank was ready. Now they are spreading all over my liverock! I can't remove them, because scraping them off always leaves tiny traces, which turn into several more. Will button polyps (aka zoos) compete with them? How about other corals? It'd probably look bad, but do any urchins or starfish eat them? The only other solution I have come up with it to turn the rocks upside down, but the rotting dead ones can't be good for the water, plus there are other things growing on the rocks I'd lose too.

 

[turningtim]

Funny, I was just reading "Coral" magazine Aug/Sept issue Vol 4 number 4. It is all about shrooms (Corallimorpharians). Goes in to detail on how they take over and will complete infect a tank if not culled. there are not a whole lot of things that will compete with them!
Use a kalk mix and inject the flesh of the shroom (just like aptasia). See if you can find this mag very informative on the problem you're having.......
HTH
Tim

 

[emm0909]

Perfect solution. Take a rock or two back to your LFS. Trade them for store credit and a new piece of rock. If they want to put it n consignment, then still do it!

 

[jmj6239]

trade them off, here!

 

[appaloosa1]

take a screwdriver and hammer and knock off the small pieces of rock they are attached to then trade to LFS or other hobbiests.

 

[psusocr1]

i used to give my cc star, bahama star and red knobby star mushrooms to eat as treats sinc eihad the same problem.. honestly though they are VERY valuable to the begginning coral keeper,, if you were smart you canmake a fortune off of them like i did..

 

[maxsmart]

Well, they are covering several large rocks almost entirely. Chiseling off the entire outside isn't practical, nor is replacing large portions of my live rock (don't want to throw new liverock into an established tank).

 

[maxsmart]

BTW psusocr1, no offense intended, but that avatar is very creepy.
It looks like the lovechild of Gollum and Ross Perot.

 

[mike22cha]

I'd be happy to take some off your hands!

 

[psusocr1]

MaxSmart BTW psusocr1, no offense intended, but that avatar is very creepy.
so ive been told!

i like it!! none taken

 

[angie01]

I'd love some.

 

[maxsmart]

LOL if removing them were that easy, I'd be selling them at the LFS or having an open house for aquarium owners! Whenever you remove one, the tiny pieces of the foot that stay embeded in the liverock each turn into a new mushroom. I was originally just holding these for my boss, but by the time his tank was ready they went from 6 to about 20 in numbers. I carefully removed 6 from the live rock, and within a week there were about 50 - from each tiny speck of foot left behind, a new mushroom had grown.
This is like my coraline problem - everyone thinks they want it, but once you get it, you wish it would go away.

 

[nycbob]

damn how long does it take for a shrooms to grow into a new one? u make it sound like they double in size every 2 hours.

 

[mike22cha]

My mushroom feet are recovering, but it won't be for another month or two I think. Why not break the lr with a screwdriver and hammer and sell the little rocks for some $$$ and get new lr and you have some side $$$$ also.

 

[maxsmart]

Originally Posted by MIKE22cha
My mushroom feet are recovering, but it won't be for another month or two I think. Why not break the lr with a screwdriver and hammer and sell the little rocks for some $$$ and get new lr and you have some side $$$$ also.
My liverock pieces are about the size of a junior football, and they are completely covered. The LFS here won't buy anything from private tanks, unfortunately. Even if they did, it would require them to buy a LOT of them to make up for destroying $60 live rocks.
To answer the other question, when we scrape off a 2 inch mushroom, in about 2 days there are about 6 x 1/2 inch ones in its place.
I've read on other boards that most mushrooms don't grow this fast. I guess it's just these brownish red ones that spreads this bad.