mushrooms not growing?

[crook280]

i never had mushrooms before so i don't know how fast they grow. i was given one along with a button polyp (which has "exploded from one to more than i can count) back in febuary or something. the mushroom hasn't done anything except attach itself to a lava rock. is it the lava rock? the lava rock do have coraline algea one them and little featherdusters. should i take it off the rock? how would i go about that? thanks for the help.

 

[TCTFish]

Best not to disturb the mushroom from the rock. It'll move if it's not happy.

Growth is dependant on metabolism which is dependant on the food it eats. The proper lighting would allow zooanthellae algae to grow in it's tissues and that gets converted into sugar. Sugar caters to metabolism.

What are you feeding them? How many gallons is the tank? What is the total wattage of lighting you have on the tank?

 

[crook280]

i don't feed them anything, but i do use coral vite and iodine. it's a 10 gal tank and they are attached to the rock on the bottom. and my wattage is 40 altogether, so 4 wpg. what do i feed them?how? thanks for your help

 

[dorian965]

i have large reds that i feed brine shrimp and squid but mine are monsters, about 4-6 inches across.what type of shroom and how big?i also have small ones that dont grow much becuase i cant get them to eat like the others.i also use marine snow and photoplex alternating between the two.

 

[crook280]

well i'm not sure what kind i have. i have two. sometimes they look a like and others they don't. when fully expanded, i'd say they are a little bigger than a quarter. right now one is a pale red color with no bumps, and it's not expanded. the other looks like it has lines of bumps running down from middle to edge. it's color is more a the purple side i'd say. i tried getting some pics but i couldn't get any that showed any detail.

 

[Florida8]

I had srooms for a long time in my tank before I saw new growth and then all the sudden, one day I just saw lil shroom buds and 'babies' when one detached itself. I had some similar to what you described as well.

 

[TCTFish]

Hi Crook. All corals should be given other foods. Phytoplankton is what you want to feed your corals. Liquid Life has good food. The bottles are small; kept in the freezer (and yes it is liquid...even in the freezer) but it is concentrated. Three drops two to three times a week is enough to satisfy a 60 gallon reef. Liquid Life foods have three different size foods to fit all different types of coral. There are also DT's...a live culture of phytoplankton. Less expensive, only one size food, and you need to dose more of it. Good to mix with Marine Snow. Cyclopeze is another good food to add to the mix. Feed the coral a few times a week. If you have any deep reef coral like carnations, chillies, gorgonias and sun corals, then daily target feeding is recommended. This is when you use a dropper to push a cloud of food directly on the coral.

You'll start to see all your coral blossom!!...especially with that marine snow stuff added in with the phytoplankton. Really beefs them up good.