Need help with a hairy mushroom coral

I inherited a colony of hairy mushroom's last Tuesday. The colony is
comprised of 10 or 12 individuals (it's hard to tell, they're all grown
together) on a 3"x5" flat rock. I've placed the rock in the substrate at
the bottom of my 65g tank (24" height to 150w MH and 2x96w actinics).

They seemed to be doing well until yesterday when the "mouth" opening on
one started showing white calcification around the rim, which I figured
was just sediment stuck on the coral. Today the amount of white area has
spread outward and now covers a goodly amount (maybe 20%) of the
original mushroom. The "mouth" opening is now also twice as large as
normal and ragged edged (again, the mushroom's flesh has turned all
pasty white and appears almost like chalk).

I'm concerned that this one may be dead/and or dieing and whatever has
killed it could be contagious to the remaining mushrooms on that rock
and or other corals in the tank.

Any idea what this could be, and what I should be doing about it...

tia,

mark h

I didn't hink of this until I posted the message, but I actualy have
some before and after photos:

This one was taken the day after I introduced the colony to my tank. I
spent about 45 minutes doing a slow drip acclimation and the polyps
extended out within 3-4 hours of placement in the tank.
http://www.markhenryenterprises.com/...oom_020806.gif

This was taken tonight. The white area first appeared yesterday morning,
so whatever this is, it's moving fast.
http://www.markhenryenterprises.com/...oom_021806.gif

thanks,

mark h

How ong have you had them in your tank? What kind of lights did the
tank they used to be in have? It may be a light acclimatin issue, but
sure have never heard of a mushroom having any kind of calcification
on it anywhere.

On Sat, 18 Feb 2006 23:11:33 GMT, Mark Henry
wrote:
I inherited a colony of hairy mushroom's last Tuesday. The colony is
comprised of 10 or 12 individuals (it's hard to tell, they're all grown
together) on a 3"x5" flat rock. I've placed the rock in the substrate at
the bottom of my 65g tank (24" height to 150w MH and 2x96w actinics).

They seemed to be doing well until yesterday when the "mouth" opening on
one started showing white calcification around the rim, which I figured
was just sediment stuck on the coral. Today the amount of white area has
spread outward and now covers a goodly amount (maybe 20%) of the
original mushroom. The "mouth" opening is now also twice as large as
normal and ragged edged (again, the mushroom's flesh has turned all
pasty white and appears almost like chalk).

I'm concerned that this one may be dead/and or dieing and whatever has
killed it could be contagious to the remaining mushrooms on that rock
and or other corals in the tank.

Any idea what this could be, and what I should be doing about it...

tia,

mark h

--
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( @ @ )
-----------oOOo(_)oOOo---------------


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---------( )----Oooo----------------
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(_/
The original frugal ponder ! Koi-ahoi mates....

You are correct. That part is dying. A close look at the
before picture shows that this section was not happy even
then. It could have been injured in transport. Make sure
your water quality is good, and that the injured area does
not spread.

Wayne Sallee
Wayne's Pets



Mark Henry wrote on 2/18/2006 6:33 PM:
I didn't hink of this until I posted the message, but I actualy have
some before and after photos:

This one was taken the day after I introduced the colony to my tank. I
spent about 45 minutes doing a slow drip acclimation and the polyps
extended out within 3-4 hours of placement in the tank.
http://www.markhenryenterprises.com/...oom_020806.gif

This was taken tonight. The white area first appeared yesterday morning,
so whatever this is, it's moving fast.
http://www.markhenryenterprises.com/...oom_021806.gif

thanks,

mark h

Mark Henry wrote:
I didn't hink of this until I posted the message, but I actualy have
some before and after photos:

This one was taken the day after I introduced the colony to my tank. I
spent about 45 minutes doing a slow drip acclimation and the polyps
extended out within 3-4 hours of placement in the tank.
http://www.markhenryenterprises.com/...oom_020806.gif

This was taken tonight. The white area first appeared yesterday morning,
so whatever this is, it's moving fast.
http://www.markhenryenterprises.com/...oom_021806.gif

thanks,

mark h
Those look to me like a problem with to much light. It could be that
they have been aclimated to a much lower light level than you have an
the brighter light is causing to much oxygen to be produced in the
tissues. I can't remember what the term is for this but try shading the
shrooms and see if the problem goes away.

Kim

Wayne Sallee wrote:

You are correct. That part is dying. A close look at the before picture
shows that this section was not happy even then. It could have been
injured in transport. Make sure your water quality is good, and that the
injured area does not spread.


So, do I need to pluck this one off the rock and discard it? The cleaup
crew don't seem to be touching it and I'd hate to see whatever this is
spread to the rest of the rock.

tia,

mark h

kim gross wrote:

Those look to me like a problem with to much light. It could be that
they have been aclimated to a much lower light level than you have an
the brighter light is causing to much oxygen to be produced in the
tissues. I can't remember what the term is for this but try shading the
shrooms and see if the problem goes away.


Well, I'm not sure what they were under before, and they're as low in
the tank as they can go (24" of water over them). My only other option
would be to move them under the rock ledge, but this would mean moving
the sebae, and no matter where I put him, he ends up back under than
ledge every morning.

mark h

I would leave it unless it looked like it was spreading.

Wayne Sallee
Wayne's Pets



Mark Henry wrote on 2/19/2006 7:52 AM:
Wayne Sallee wrote:


You are correct. That part is dying. A close look at the before
picture shows that this section was not happy even then. It could have
been injured in transport. Make sure your water quality is good, and
that the injured area does not spread.


So, do I need to pluck this one off the rock and discard it? The cleaup
crew don't seem to be touching it and I'd hate to see whatever this is
spread to the rest of the rock.

tia,

mark h