What is it?

[KidNano]

So who knows what this is? Jesse and I met up and visited a few LFS' yesterday, but I bought this one after he went to his BBQ with his wife and the guy working at the LFS didn't know what it was. (Puppies and Guppies). I liked it though so I bought it. At first I thought it was a mushroom but now I don't know.

I got these as well but I already know what they are.

Thanks.

 

[johnanddawn]

it looks like a very unhappy rhodactus meandris (sp?) - a type of elephant ear shroom but this one dif then most EE as it will have multiple mouths and tends to grow oblong not round. they get very large 4" on the short axis and well mine was 12" on the long when i cut it so who knows how big they can get - very nice coral if you have the room

 

[KidNano]

Thanks John,

this pic was taken just after I put it in my tank so i'd imagine that he wouldn't be to happy. I thought it looked good though(my ignorant eye). can you give me a link or a little info one what to look for? health wise to know if it's getting happier. It does have multiple mouths. it's probably about 2" accross right now and 6"-7" long.

Do they like direct flow or indirect? a lot of light or a little? Should I spot feed him or just keep dosing the tank with the phyto?
His coloring is so cool.

oh yeah the red on the rock.... that's just coraline right?

Jesse was telling me about an elephant ear an LFS had that we visited and the way he descirbed it sounded like it was around 18"-24". they apparently had trimmed it back as well.

Thanks again.

 

[johnanddawn]

lower flow and as far as light i've always had mine near the bottom
mine flouresces very nice under actinics
i do not feed mine
they are pretty hardy and it should open up for you quite rapidly
i believe that is red coraline
the true EE are actually an Amplexis sp. and have one mouth and look similar to an anemone and can be very large (a freind has a couple that are 12" around) and they generally do eat/like to be fed

 

[KidNano]

Thanks again John. if you notice in the pic, the bottom right end of the thing has come off the rock. Should I try to push it back down so it can reattach or just leave it alone?

also the frog spawn....... they were a lot bigger at the LFS. The two heads touched. I imagine they like low flow as well? What about lighting? Right now he's placed on the bottom at the end where there isn't much light. The only place in my tank with out a ton of water movement.

I've got to rework my plumbing or something. All the flow and light are in the middle of the tank. The ends of the tank don't have a ton of water movement, but there also isn't much light because of the way I ran the PVC.... It blocks the light.

 

[johnanddawn]

leave the shroom it'll attach if/when it wants - i doubt it will pull off more if things are good
frogs are funny - too much current and they are bushy but not long, too little flow and they usually expand more but don't seem as happy, as for light, mine seems to not care much i've tried higher and lower light doesn't effect much - though the more actinic the greener the tips will be. best thing to do is to find a spot with mod current and light and then leave it in there for a long time (as much as a month) and see what happens. most people move them around too much and they never get happy
as far as flow/light in your tank go:
flow = power heads - i know some think you need to hide them and they are an eye sore but the health of the tank prevails in this case. i have a lot of them and make no attempt to hide them cause i like to clean them now and then and don't want to have to rearange rock to do it. hiding a PH behind a pile of rock makes no sense to me, but thats me, i want them where i can see them and monitor their performance. closed loops are nice but not as flexible in shifting flow to where it is needed.
i use to use only MJ's but two years ago decided to try some high flow pumps and now believe it is the way to go: if i could afford vortecs and tunzes i'd own them but i can't:
i just bought a couple hydors and they are not bad - obviously i can't speak of longevity yet but they seem OK and seios i've had for almost 2 years and i like them as well.
as far as regular PH go MJs on a natural wave are awesome but have to be carefully aimed in small tanks - i have MJ's more then 10 years old and still kicking
your lighting "prob": can actually work for you with some creative scaping lower light/flow shrooms and lps to the bottom outsides and high light to the center top

 

[KidNano]

I just tested and everything that is supposed to be 0 is. Did a water change, about 8 gallons. I have a problem in that I won't be able to view them after they've had a few hours in the light until Saturday. I leave for work an hour after the lights come on and get home after they're already off. Tonight everything was closed up. We'll see on Sat I guess.

 

[KidNano]

could you possibly post a picture of yours on here so I could compare. I'm not really sure what a happy elephant ear shroom looks like. This morning I watched him for a while and I think the end that came off the rock was because that mouth is a little damaged. he opened up a little and the mouth looked all white and weird looking. I'm hoping that its not too bad. I don't know what caused this maybe in the move. I didn't notice it when I bought him. My wife is home so I asked her to take a pic. If its decent I'll post it tonight and see what your thoughts are.

Thanks.

 

[KidNano]

Have you ever heard of a clown hosting frogspawn? My wife said that it looks as though my Tomato Clown is trying to host mine? She sent me a picture. Sorry for the poor quality but camera phones just aren't what they should be. stupid weak technology.

 

[johnanddawn]

here are a couple old pics, the first is from last summer and the tank shot is oct?? - all one shroom! - i just got done hacking mine up and selling 3 3" frags off of it and still have a nice 2 mouthed piece i'm keeping for myself:

clowns will host in many dif things - i actually removed mine from my 125 quite some time ago cause they decided to host in my open brain and it didn't like it very much....... i actually thought about trying to put them back in there but am not willing to risk losing my brain over it so i guess they will be staying in the aquapod

 

[KidNano]

As you can see it's started opening up more but it's still not entirely happy. the mid section is still a little closed. see how white the far left mouth is? I don't know what happened to it, but at least it opened up. Do you think it'll have any trouble healing?