Cupping mushrooms

[wettank]

Hello everyone.I have various mushrooms in my 6 gallon.Recently for the past couple of days they have been doing this cupping action and I cant figure out why.My water is near perfect,is this normal behavior or should I be concerned Thank you to anyone who could shed some light on this.

 

[drty811]

all my shrooms do this, not sur ewhy they do it either. i heard when they do this you cant target feed them. ive done it a couple of times,only got one to eat i think....i didnt watch it eat,food was there then it was gone when i got back.

 

[djconn]

What kind of shrooms are they?

You might want to drop a little food directly on top of them and see if they take it.

 

[wettank]

Not exactly sure of the types I have several I'll post some pics soon

 

[wettank]

well i target fed with some zoomax and some of them closed up like tulips guess they where hungary :leat

 

[wettank]

my mushrooms

pic one

 

[wettank]

pic two

 

[wettank]

pic three

 

[wettank]

pic four

 

[incysor]

Lemme guess, pic three, and maybe pic four are the ones that closed up?

It looks like:

pic one - discosoma (sp?)
pic two - ricordia florida
pic three - hairy mushrooms (I don't remember the family name)
pic four - possibly another hairy speices, but I don't think so.

It's totally normal for hairy shrooms to close up like this. Shrooms are closely related to anemones, and some retain more movement ability than others. I've actually lost a couple fish to these types of mushrooms.
I really like the pink polyps in the fourth picture. I had some just like it that my black occellaris used to try to host. The thing was she was bigger than the colony so just her head would get in there with her body sticking up out of the middle of them. :lol: All your stuff looks very healthy. Good job.

B

 

[wettank]

Thanks for the helpful infiormation.The pinks are my favorites too,they started off really slow but they are starting to take off.I'm trying to find some nice green ones if you know anyone.Also one last question would 36 watts over my tank be enough light for blastos?

 

[incysor]

I would think so, but I haven't really had any direct experience with blastos. They're just a little pricey right now for me, but from what I've read they do well in most moderate-high light conditions.

B

 

[Anonymous]

I would like to suggest another possibility for your cupping shrooms that may help with your blasto question. Shrooms when subjected to very low light and low current often take on a more upright stance. Not to say that some shrooms don't feed, but most do not need to be feed directly - I have all types and feed none of them. Shrooms in general get their external nutrition from mucus on the collecting surface. Now this does not mean your shroom need more light neccessarily either. A friend of mine keeps shrooms under very low light conditions and they are huge. They reach for the light and grow and reproduce readily. My shrooms do awesome too, but they never get as large as hers, and they always lay against the rock never cupping or stretching. Very adaptable critters! - just a thought.

 

[drty811]

i also agree with john...to many variables to consider.

 

[superfirefly]

About your blasto question. I think they should be fine. I have blastos in my 10G tank that grew out of what I thought was a cool looking skeleton on my first peice of LR. I was really surprised when this skelton I had started to come to life. When they first came to life I was running 2 20w screw in type PC bulbs. I recently upgraded to 48W T5 and they started to look horrible. Once I shaded them they went back to normal.

 

[Master Er]

Thats because blastos dont need bright lights .."does well in moderate to dim light and nearly calm conditions"....sorry, I have had no first hand experience on this so i may be a little bookish for now.

 

[wettank]

Lots of food for thought,thanks everyone