Mushroom Coral

[spider9376]

Do you feed Mushroom Coral or do they just feed off the water? mine are not looking like they feel good, they are maroon in color and were the size of a nickle but now the size of a dime, not looking good at all.
Thanks Ben

 

[luvmyreef]

Well, mushrooms feed thru photosynthesis, but will benefit from microplankton. They tend to do well under low to mod flow and lighting. My red mushrooms are huge and I add kent microvert, etc to my tank. I have noticed that when the flow is too strong, they will shrink up. they usually are a very hardy coral to keep. Hope this helps.

 

[flower]

When corals feed they seem to shrink up...also they shrink at night when the lights are off. If corals stay shrunk up all day...check your water, PH may be low, Alk low or high..nitrates high, that sort of thing.
Also watch and see if critters are bothering them by crawling around on them. My hermits make the corals shrink when the feed on the algae on, and around them, the corals (mushrooms as well) will open up a little while after the hermits move on.

 

[big]

All the above

Like said they live basically off what is in the water and light........ But feeding some types is helpful..Most reproduce and spread well without any help.....
Here is one of of mine I photographed feeding on very small bits of shrimp placed on their mantel several years ago. Just a good sequence showing their feeding closure......... Last shot is a close up of what their mouth looks like. They enclose around the mouth forcing bits of food toward the mouth..
BTW. Just to stir the soup.. Mushrooms technically are not Corals.........

 

[luvmyreef]

Ha Ha. I know.

 

[luvmyreef]

Here's my Reds:They are Actinodiscus Mushrooms are also referred to as Mushroom Anemones and Disc Anemones. They were previously in a genus called Discosoma. These invertebrates display a wide variety of colors, textures, and patterns. Some are solid colors, whereas, others are striped or spotted. The red specimens can vary from a light pinkish purple to a vivid red.

 

[flower]

such nice pictures!..

 

[luvmyreef]

thanks!

 

[florida joe]

Mushrooms are most defiantly corals.
Phylum Cnidaria
Class Anthozoa
Order Corallimorpharia
Families are Sideractidae, Corallimprphidae, Ricordeidae and Discosomatidae.
This mushroom is under medium to high light with no target feeding

BTW I know there are also Zoos in the picture

 

[markw]

Your rics are astounding! Also, nice series on the feeding shroom.
Mark

 

[big]

Hey Joe, nice Rics....... But guess what R'oons ain't true Corals. They produce no calcified parts...So they do not fit the true definitive definition of a Coral... Evolution wise their are more closely related to Anemones than they are to the the true corals.I have been down this road before..There are others in our tanks like GSP's etc.we all commonly call corals too that really do not fit the true definition ...., there are many more...Coral Definition,quote to follow
""" Marine organism: a marine organism that lives in colonies and has an EXTERNAL skeleton. """ That is a prerequisite to being a coral.Many of the critters we all call corals really are not true corals.
Sooooo...The Anthozoa families contain both Anemones and Corals but when we get down to the order of Corallimorpharia ( working down) it contains no true corals.......The branch containing true corals is just above the Corallimorpharia .All true corals are on another branch, separated before the Corallimorpharia
The word Corallimorpharia meaning is "False Corals"
The order Corallimorpharia: Are are all technically grouped in to the "False Coral listings......
Coral anemones. Solitary or colonial, flattened mushroom-like anemones. Short, stubby tentacles radially arranged. Look like true corals, but lack skeletons. About ten families. Most common genera Actinodiscus, Ricordea, Corynactis, Rhodactis, Amplexidiscus.
http://www.jjphoto.dk/info_waterlife_polyps.htm

 

[florida joe]

Guess what. I have a response.
As per Eric Borneman
Corallimorpharians, also known as "mushrooms," are undoubtedly among the most interesting corals in nature. They are soft-bodied and lack external calcareous skeletons, despite being closely related to stony corals, the Scleractinia. They are oddballs, much as Heliopora coerulea (blue coral) and Tubipora musica (pipe organ coral) are soft corals that do produce an external calcareous skeleton. They are found in three or four families, and perhaps 13 genera, comprising an unknown number of species. Even genus-level identification is tenuous in this group.
Corallimorpharians are found in all oceans, from tropical to polar and shallow to deep waters. The most common types found in the aquarium trade are believed to belong to one of six genera: Actinodiscus, Rhodactis, Discosoma, Amplexidiscus, Psuedocorynactis and Ricordea. The beautiful Psuedocorynactis are not often available, but occasionally are found as hitchhikers on live rock, and individuals are commonly known as the orange ball corallimorph.
The single-polyped corallimorpharians are more recent in evolutionary history than the stony corals. This is interesting, because logically it would seem that selection would act to have corals produce skeletons as an adaptive measure. This probably did happen, prior to the Scleractinia, but at some point, a group of stony corals evolved that could survive well without a skeleton
More info I have acquired.
Corals have classically been identified by skeletal formations so it was thought if it did not have a skeletal formation is was not a coral. Fast forward to DNA testing and gene sequencers and you have a way for taxonomists to classify non-skeletal species. Carallimorpharians.
Carallimorpharians posses the same internal structure as stony corals but early hobbyists not seeing long predatory feeding tentacles felt they were not corals. It has come to pass that over time Carallimorpharians tentacles have been reduced to bumps or stubby protrusions and are not retractable.
Experts such as Borneman,Delbeek,Sprung,HortozmChung and many others consider the phylum Cnidaria corals so I am siding with the experts in the field

Coral Definition,quote to follow
""" Marine organism: a marine organism that lives in colonies and has an EXTERNAL skeleton. """ That is a prerequisite to being a coral.Many of the critters we all call corals really are not true corals.
The prerequisite for a coral having to live in a colony is out dated and wrong. There are many solitary corals
I am sure you have information by experts to the contrary of what I have posted and I eagerly await your post

 

[big]

Yea Joe I have that info too......... So you would also call an Anemone a coral by your definition........I am aware of where the evolutionary connections are.............
The ideas behind the "stir the soup" statement I said earlier was to bring this False Coral thing up........

 

[florida joe]

Well first it’s not my definition its what the taxonomic experts classified Carallimorpharians are through DNA testing.
As far as calling anemones corals you would have to ask the experts but I will research that question. I do know that all anemones can move while the same cannot be said for all corals
But we are not discussing if other species are coral we are discussing if mushrooms are
The ideas behind the "stir the soup" statement I said earlier was to bring this False Coral thing up........
My friend I do the same thing frequently. It keeps the boards interesting and informative with spirited debate keep it up
Lets hope others get involved.
would you mind if i tryed to turn this into a Thread of its own

 

[big]

Naaa, Go ahead...... It always has been interesting to learn and discuss, the way the evolution process had changed our outlook on things...........DNA often is very misleading in how close things truly are, but have given up many new ideas to ponder..............
As to Anemones, I have not worked on finding how close the DNA links are........But I think they most likely are closer to Mushrooms than we think..........
I am out for the rest of the day , I will look back in tomorrow........Take Care..........

 

[florida joe]

found out some more info Cnidarians are classified into four main groups: sessile Anthozoa (sea anemones, corals, sea pens);

 

[spider9376]

Originally Posted by luvmyreef
http:///forum/post/3133761
Well, mushrooms feed thru photosynthesis, but will benefit from microplankton. They tend to do well under low to mod flow and lighting. My red mushrooms are huge and I add kent microvert, etc to my tank. I have noticed that when the flow is too strong, they will shrink up. they usually are a very hardy coral to keep. Hope this helps.

Thanks to all of the reply's, My PH is between 8.2 and 8.4. I have watch them now for a week and nothing is bothering them that I can see. I don't have them in a strong current so that could not be what it is. I have noticed that some are big and healthy and some are or what it looks like baby's. But when I got them all were big. It looks like that some are missing, Man this is flustering. All the time some new.
Thanks Guys

 

[luvmyreef]

well, you could very well have "babies". do you know how many you started with? Also, mine will detach themselves and I will find them far away from original frag.. If it helps, mine are huge one day, shrunk the next, etc. etc.

 

[brandxdennx]

I have the same thing. I was wondering if you know of a way to remove them from the live rock they are attacthed to. One of them is moving back under the rock and I fear it is going to die.