Richard
Sat, 19th Jul 2008, 03:58 PM
I have never found anything that would eat mushrooms. I am making one more attempt to manually remove them before taking more drastic measures. Also I just ordered some Tropic Marin Elimi-Aiptas (http://www.marinedepot.com/ps_ViewItem~SearchStr~~action~view~idProduct~TP215 1~idCategory~FIADAF~category~Tropic_Marin_Elimi_Ai ptas_50ml_Aiptasia___Pest_Control_Additives_Saltwa ter_Aquarium_Supplies~vendor~.html) which they claim will kill them. I'll find out next week I guess. I also contacted Red Sea and asked if their Aiptasia X might work but they said they didn't think it would.
Everything else I have tried has not been very effective at killing them. I've tried injecting them with kalk, Joe's Juice, Lemon Juice, Vinegar, Muratic Acid, Copper Sulfate, Lugol's, and probably some other things I'm forgetting about. Suckers just won't DIE!
Anyway, here is Bob Fenners thoughts on a mushroom predator...
Hello Crew,
<Richard>
Five years ago I setup a 215 gallon sps/clam tank. Four years ago when my 55 gallon softie tank sprung a leak I temporarily placed the soft corals, including some discosoma, in the 215. Of course some of the mushrooms came loose and became established in the crevices of the rockwork (Murphy's Law I suppose). Now the mushrooms are completely taking over the tank (even growing directly under 400w halides).
<They can do this...>
I've tried a number of things to control them from manual removal to injecting them with everything from kalk paste to lugol's all to no avail.
They are reproducing faster than I can keep up. Much of my rockwork is part of a dsb retaining wall that I built when I setup the tank so I can't simply remove the rocks that the mushrooms are on. So now I'm faced with either converting the tank to a softie tank or completely tearing it down to remove all of the mushrooms.
<Likely this is the best route...>
A better option for me would be to remove the sps and clams (I have numerous tanks) and then add something that would eat the discosoma. However, I don't know of anything that really eats discosoma. Do you have any suggestions for anything that will definitely eat discosoma?
<Unfortunately, I do not. The few times I've encountered this genus underwater, it has dominated the habitat, with nothing observed that was predating it> Some type of invert, such as a predatory starfish for example, would be ideal since it could easily be moved to one of my fowlr tanks when it has done the job.
Thanks for any suggestions
Richard
<Perhaps a large, hungry crab... Do take a read here: http://wetwebmedia.com/shroomcompfaqs.htm
for commiseration if nothing else. Bob Fenner>