another mushroom question

[xray-reefer]

I am bored and confused, so I will ask my mushroom question...

I recently got 2 blue mushshrooms from a friend - he thinks they are actinodiscus - I have no idea about the ID. Anyway, they were doing great for about 2 weeks, then all of the sudden two nights ago they shriveled up. They are still colored normally and aren't dissolving - they are just scrunched up. Normally they would both expand to 1.5-2" diameter, and now they are 3/8-5/8" diameter. Both of the shrooms scrunched up, but the zoos, xenia, and sarcophyton looked normal/happy. Today everything but the shrooms look great. I tested the water last night and there is no NH3/NO2/NO3, 2.5meq alk, pH 8.0 (I know it's low, but it always is between 8 and 8.2 no matter what time of day I test), sp.g. 1.027. The sp.g. this seems a bit high but it doesn't look like it's bothering anything else - all of the fish eat, the xenia pumps away. I am at a loss. Incidentally I have 384W of PC that are set ~8" off the surface of the water and the shrooms are placed about ~6" below the surface. Is this mornal behavior for mushrooms? It doesn't seem like it should be. Thanks in advance for any advice.

 

[wrassefan]

I find that mushrooms do best in low lights so you might try putting them on the sand or lower 1/3 of tank. Also, I would bump up the alk to atleast 3-3.5 meq with some baking soda. This should bump up the ph as well at the same time. Wouldn't hurt to lower the salinity to 1.025 .

 

[Moe_K]

hmm that's a tough one. water quality looks okay. how about the temperature?
any of the critters picking on the 'shrooms?
maybe they're going to split and are going into contortions before they rip apart?

 

[Noel]

Lights

Mine did the same thing when I changed from PC lighting to metal halide, after a few days they began opening up again as they had before.

I do keep them near the bottom of the tank though, but the rock they are on is quite tall.. IMHO, its just a matter of acclimation.

BTW, I keep my SG between 1.026 and 1.027 (refractometer), ALK at 12.5, CA at 450 and Mg at 1400. Obviously is varies a little day to day, but those are my targets.

I use Randy Holmes-Farley's homemade 2 part (http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/april2004/chem.htm) and find it works quite well, however, I do mix it up at 1/2 his specified strength (2 gallons of RO/DI instead of 1) to prevent precipitation. PH is running 8.2 - 8.3 average. I use Kangaroo enteric pumps to deliver the solutions 24x7.

Regards
Noel