New Ricordia and Mushroom (questions)

[Beckmola24]

I bought these mushrooms and ricordia yesterday. I have them both placed in the topish half of my tank. I have a 130watt PC with actinics and 10K with led moon lights at night (very cool). I've never kept mushrooms or ricordia before as I am new to keeping corals, so if anyone could provide me with any info that would be great. What type of placement they like, if they need additional food sources besides light, what type of additives (calcium, Iodine, strontium etc) they need. Just the complete 411 on mushrooms and ricordia. Thanks in advance!!

 

[NaH2O]

Nice pieces! You should be good with just light + water changes in providing these corals with what they need.

I'll give you some quotes from "Aquarium Corals" by Eric Borneman pages, 199 & 203, respectively. (The quote on mushrooms is a portion of the section)

Ricordea
Captive Care: While not as hardy as some mushrooms, these corals tolerate brighter light but do not seem to thrive under direct metal halide lighting. Pink and orange Ricordea are comonly from shallower water. They are also more tolerant of greater water movement around the colony, probably due to their low hydrodynamic profile. Both species have a tendency to extrude their mesenterial filaments when stessed chemically or mechanically. Grows to 2.5-4 cm (1-1.5 in.).

Discosoma
Captive Care: These mushrooms do not respond well to intense lighting or strong currents. In fact, fluorescent lighting and low currents seem to allow for maximal expansion and reproduction. If keeping these corals in brightly lit systems, it is best to place them low in the tank or under overhangs in the rockwork. Otherwise their colors tend to fade as the zooxanthellae overwhelm the natural pigmentation of the animals themselves. This results in an abundance of brown-colored animals. As with all Discosomatidae, these corals should not be placed immediately near any other stony corals, soft corals, or sessile animals because of their potential detrimental effect. Most of these species grow to 5-8 cm (2-3 in) in diameter, depending on lighting and flow conditions.

 

[Sealab2021]

Beckmola24~

where did you find those purple mushrooms? I've been looking for that deep of a color for a looong time

 

[Beckmola24]

I found them at Saltwater city. I was thrilled to find them. I've never had mushrooms before, and it's such a pretty color to start out with. I think SWC had another rock with a single purple one attached. It was in their little specimen tanks.

 

[Sealab2021]

how much abouts?

 

[Beckmola24]

I think this piece was 7.99.

 

[Beckmola24]

The blue ricordia on the lefthand side of the picture doesn't seem to want to open fully. I can't seem to find much info on the web about ricordia. Any additional info would help a lot. Thanks again!

 

[DonW]

The blue ricordia on the lefthand side of the picture doesn't seem to want to open fully. I can't seem to find much info on the web about ricordia. Any additional info would help a lot. Thanks again!

Ricordia are pretty hardy. Contrary to what I've found on the web they seem to like brighter light. Mine all shrink up when the lights dim down from MH to t-5. I cant tell in the pic, Does the blue one have more than one mouth. If so its in the process of splitting and will not look as good until its finished. This could take a month or two.
Mushrooms are hard to kill. You might find them detatching and gone when you wake up some morning. Mine just seem to move and breed all over the tank with no reasoning. I started off with three at last count there are 22.

Don

 

[Beckmola24]

wow. I hope I get that many Thanks for the info. I am having a hard time finding info on the web about ricordia. The green one has 2 mouths, the blue I can't tell. I see one mouth, but it's off center, so you may be right about it splitting. I thought of that after posting. I love the ricordia. They are so pretty. Do they spread like regular mushrooms all over a rock?? Thanks.

 

[Beckmola24]

I did my monthly cleaning and water change today since I added a lot of new things yesterday. Everything is doing awesome! I moved the ricordia up higher towards the light and it opened up more than it was. My purple mushrooms opened up completely too. The water change helped everything a lot. My tank was overdue. Thank you everyone for your help! My tank has never looked better!

 

[wrightme43]

Ricordia are super cool. In my tanks they dont seem to spread as fast as mushrooms, but they do spread. Mine will take thawed cyclop-ezee, and marine supreme if I turn of the power heads and keep the cleaner shrimp away untill it closes around the food. Cool shrooms and you will have a great time with your corals. I hope that helps you. Steve

 

[Beckmola24]

I am excited about the rics now!

 

[Beckmola24]

The green ricordia on the right looked fine today, but during this evening and since "lights out" it has shrunk considerably. I spotted 2 mouths on it. Could the shrinkage be due to splitting?? the blue one is doing great. Any ideas on what could be ailing the green ricordia?

 

[Beckmola24]

Any Ideas?

 

[kevinpo]

Mushrooms often contract in the evening and at night. I don't believe there is anything to worry about.

Regards,
Kevin

 

[Ritsuko Nashida]

Cant say too much about Ricordia as I have just recently added two of them to my collection, so I am still behind on the "learning curve" with them. The mushrooms on the other hand, I have several rocks of these and they seem in my experience to do best in a more modestly lit aquarium. I have found that under flourecent lighting they do best. If they are inflating well then you have found the right location in your tank with the prefered amount of water flow and light intensity. I have a number of these guys in one of my frag tanks that lit by just a coulpe of VHO's. Each of the grapefruit sized rocks started out with just a couple of mushrooms I bought loose from the LFS and now all of those rocks are pretty well covered in mushrooms. Hopefully that will continue! Now if I can just duplicate that feat with the Ricordias....

 

[MzWeazelle]

All my mushrooms shrink way down at night, but come back like gang-busters every morning. Most of mine are around half way down the tank (140 - 30" tall) under 2 250 MH, but some are on the bottom and a few are higher up. I've had a lot of questions on whether they like the light or not. They seem to do great no matter where they are. lol

Haven't had any "babies" from anything but my plain old types, but they are multiplying just fine. I have orange mushrooms everywhere! I also have 1 ricordea and a few others that I hope will multiply eventually.

 

[wrightme43]

Becky its just fine they close up at night. I guess to present a smaller target for whatever would eat them, and probably to save energy for daytime when there is a return on invested energy. I have a 1 watt moon light and they seem to stay open more under it at night. I have heard others don't like them however I do. If it has two mouths soon you will have two rics. Hope that helps you. Steve

 

[Beckmola24]

I also have moon lights, and love them. My corals (for the most part) stay open at night. My stylo is has this amazing neon green glow at night. The rics shrink so much. I wasn't aware that they did that. It kind of freaked me out when I looked in and saw it was all shrivled up. It was fine in the morning when the lights came back on. Thanks for all the input! Like I stated in one of my other posts, I really get attached to my stuff. Even after a day

 

[Elmo18]

Mushrooms often contract in the evening and at night. I don't believe there is anything to worry about.

Regards,
Kevin

I agree completely here. They seem to look scrunched up, a lot smaller than their daytime full extension.

- Elmo