Yikes! Help!

[ekclark]

I just came from work and was doing a little water change when I discovered, to my horror, that my umbrella mushroom coral was in the process of eating my mandarin. This is bad enough, but I have read that they are poisionous and I am worried this could mess up my tank. What should I do? Should I take the dead fish out or let the coral finish it? Will it kill the coral or the rest of the tank? Thanks.

 

[matti070]

i never knew corals could eat fish whole! i would guess its a good idea to take the fish out and flush whats left of it.

 

[ekclark]

I just tried to remove it and it came out in tiny chucks. Should I take the whole coral out (and the huge chunk of lr it lives on) or should I just let it be? Anyone please!

 

[bbuck_camelback]

I would take the whole thing out, you don`t want it any more. Umbrella mushrooms get pretty big and it won`t have no problems taking out another one of your fish.

 

[ekclark]

I just managed to get most of the fish out. He wasn't too badly eaten, just part of his side. I wish swf.com gave me a heads up when I ordered this thing (I bought the mandarin here too). I guess I will have to remove the coral. This is unacceptable behavior. Is there any chance of other things being poisioned by this?

 

[fishtails]

Are you sure it is a Umbrella Leather. Could you show a picture or something to verify. Never heard of soft corals eating fish except for Elephant Ear Mushrooms.

 

[ekclark]

My brother managed to break our camera, but I ordered it from here and that is what they told me it is. My tank seems okay after all this. I think I will frag the coral into much smaller pieces and keep faster moving fish.