Blue Mushroom Coral

[Zippeay]

Ok I just bought some Blue mushroom coral last saterday. I placed the rock with the mushrooms on them at the bottom of the tank "35 gallon". Some of them seem to be doing fine but a couple of them look as if they are wilting, like flowers do sort of. One of them even came off the rock and is in the back of the tank on the bottom , but it seems to look ok even though its not on the rock. All my water tests come back normal and all the other corals "except my yellow polyps" seem to be doing well "none of the other corals are near the blue mushroom". The only other corals I have are mushroom corals and some yellow polyps, the polyps were being eaten by a small round snail which I got rid of. I was on business for 2 months and when I came back my polyps weren't looking too good . Well I'd post pics but my wife seems to have misplaced my digital camera somewhere but when I find it I'll post some pics. Anyone have any suggestions? My tanks been up and running now since Feb.
Well I'll give a list of when I have
Blue mushroom coral
Green mushroom coral
Yellow polyps
Toadstool leather
2 clowns
1 pajama cardinal
1 serpent star
10+ snails
8 crabs
O and I have one crab that we just found it has disks in its hands, I can't find out whats its called but it hides most of the time

O my lighting is a 30 inch, 10k aqualight T-5 of that helps

 

[Mr Miagi]

It could be useful to know how deep your tank is. The lighting seems reasonable for mushrooms though. They normally thrive under most conditions. Salinity, Alk, and Calc? Have you done a water change in those 2 months? If you havnt, id recomend you do one. One of my mushrooms has removed itself from the peace of liverock it came attached too, and planted itself on another. It could be they are trying to reach conditions which they prefer. Where have you got the shrooms placed?

 

[Zippeay]

My salt content is at 1.021, the water was changed about 4 times within the 2 months I was gone. I just did another water change this morning. I don't have the alk or calcium tests yet, I was told not to worry too much about them since I don't have any hard coral and I do water my water changes once a week usually. I'd go get the water tested by the LFS today but my daughter is horribly sick today . So hopefully I can get to the LFS tomorrow. The rest of my mushrooms look really good today, they are fully open, even the one that detached looks good even though its on the bottom. Should I try and pick the one off the bottom and place it on some rock? O I almost forgot, the mushrooms are placed on the very bottom, my tanks only a 35 gallon so its not very deep, I'd say 1.5 ft- 2 ft. deep. Thanks for the reply

 

[Mr Miagi]

Thats ok. Ive had one variety of Mushroom coral not do aswell as my others. The Blue Strip Mushroom, and it hasnt ever taken off, even after being moved around into different positions. I think you should be concerned with Alk and Calc, as they are important fr the growth in soft corals aswell, its not just for had corals like SPS. Yes, I would try and place that shroom on some rock. If you have a small peace of LR rubble, you can use a rubber band to secure the mushroom to the rock so it stays put.

 

[Zippeay]

Ok cool, thanks a lot! Do you have any suggestions for books on soft corals or anything like that? There are so many books I don't know which ones are good.

 

[JJ1234567]

Now...Im just running on what you wrote here, but if your tank is 18-24 inches deep, and you have a single T-5 bulb, that is questionable as to wether or not it will cut it from what i read. The other possible situation is that your mushroom i sreproducing. They will bud the heads off and start floating to attach to a new rock, and a new head will grow where the old one was. Ive had all my mushrooms reproduce that way, Ive never acctually seen one split in my cube.

good coral book would be "Aquarium Corals" by eric borneman

 

[Zippeay]

Thanks man, actually the T-5 is a dual bulb set up in a single ballast. All the other mushrooms seem to be doing great under it so I think it is ok. That would be great if they are reproducing. Thanks again for your help and I'll check out that book you suggested. -Zipp