Anyone have an explanation? /UPDATE/ RG caught in the act!

[grimlock3000]

Three days ago I picked up my first corals. One was a rock with two Mushroom Toadstools on in, the other is a small group of Green Metallic Star Polyps. Everything is going fairly well with the Star Polyps and one Mushroom was full opened. The other Mushroom was shedding which can be normal after acclimation AFAIK.

Anyway, I get home from work today, one Mushrom is fully open, and the other one that has been shedding has a pile of substrate on it! The one with the substrate on it does not look happy The Toadstools are elevated in the tank, no substrate could have fallen on it, something had to go out of its way to put the substrate there. Here is the pic:

And here are the two likely culprits, the only other thing that could get up there would be the Shrimp, but I doubt it:

I blew off the substrate with a turkey baster. Any ideas what is going on? I would hate for my Mushroom to keep getting stuff tossed on it.

One more thing, the Mushroom that had the substrate on it now looks kind of glossy, while the other one looks very non-reflective. What does this mean?

 

[xxmoorishmanxx]

NOt sure exactly how the substrate could have gotten there, a fish might have put it there, amybe some kind of spaggetti worm pulled the rocks onto the toadstool? not sure, just see if it happens over and over or if its a one time thing.

The glossyness is normal that is the "skin" that will be shed. In a day to two days u will see that skin break off, or the polyps coming up and pushing it off no worrys

 

[Brad]

At night, they sometimes bend right over and rest their tops on the ground...then the perk right back up the next day. Often, my hermits crawl up there at night and leave all kinds of stuff up there.

 

[dralarms]

Nah it's the royal gramma. My strawberry gramma is covering all of my rocks with sand , I'm ready to put him in a bare bottom. I can clean off the rock and in 2 hrs he is back at it again.

On a side note, how do you frag one of those? I have one and would like to frag it if possible.

 

[steve r]

you can frag sarcophyton ( toadstool) by simply cutting off a chunk of it. many people do a "complete" fragging when they do frag them. you can cut the whole top off and then slice the top like a pizza. place the stalk back in its original placement in the tank and put the slices in plastic cups cut down to about 1.5" tall filled with rubble. put these cup bottoms down on the substrate and the frag will eventually attatch to the rubble. the stalk will sprout new polyps soon and start to grow a new cap. WARNING! dont cut the toadstool in the tank. it will deflate and release toxins into the water. sorry for the caps, i just wanted you to see that

steve r

 

[dralarms]

Thanks, that's what I thought but I sure didn't know about the toxins. I'll probally leave it along for a while.

 

[grimlock3000]

I am definitely leaning towards the Royal Gramma myself. My wife pointed out to me that all of the gravel put on the Mushroom was super clean. The only place in my tank with pristine white gravel is a cave my Royal Gramma sleeps in. The cave gets no light, so the gravel is almost perfect in there.

The Royal Gramma is quite a character, does not surprise me that it would do something weird like this. Hopefully the substrate on the Mushroom will not become a daily occurance.

//Update: Out of curiosity I talked to my wife at home to see if any more gravel has ended up on the Mushroom. Not only is the Mushroom loaded up with way more gravel than yesterday, the RG has been putting rocks on it all day! The RG stares at the Mushroom, then goes to the back of the tank, go head first into the gravel, goes back to the Mushroom, spits the gravel on it, then bites the Mushroom and swims away 8O Maybe the RG just does not like the Mushroom there? Should I move the Mushrooms or see how this turns out?

 

[IfoundNemo]

Set up a video cam and let it records your toadstool when you're not around. I'm sure you will catch the culprit. BTW, how do i post a pic? :?

 

[grimlock3000]

No need for the camera IfoundNemo, by wife caught the Royal Gramma spitting rocks all over the Mushroom

 

[Jason]

just move it and see what happens. It can't hurt

 

[Florida8]

yep, I agree, move it. My RG was obsessed with piling CC on my polyps and mushrooms and it was easily solved by moving them.

Let us know if that works.

Kimberly

 

[dralarms]

just move it and see what happens. It can't hurt

I completely rearranged my 44 gal tank and the strawberry gramma is still covering the rocks. Thinking about switching to cc for his tank. Nah I don't want to have to vac it out. Guess I'll deal with it. It just started in the last 2 to 3 weeks, maybe it will stop.