Do mushrooms kill corals?

[Corwyn]

I've had an explosion of green mushrooms in my tank in the last couple of weeks (don't know why) but they are growing out of control and staring to push up against a couple of corals, - a blue tip acro and a pink paccelipora(sp) - and I've notices some die back on these corals where I the mushrooms are reaching them. I've also had the same symptom on my scroll that I think the Kenya tree that is not 8-10" can reach when fully extended.
Is this chemo-warfare or is this from something else?

Corwyn

 

[dz6t]

WHat kind of green mushroom? how big are they?

 

[jango]

Mushrooms will take out sps. I'm not to sure about the tree coral but a lot of softies are toxic to sps...

 

[Pat H.]

I've had mushrooms kill a devils hand, anthalia, even xenia. Not sure about SPS.
They spread like crazy in my tanks. Kind of a pain in the butt. I think I'm gonna try to get rid of them, but they're on some nice rocks.
-Patrick

 

[Corwyn]

I don't know what kind of shrooms they are. They came in on something I bought
years ago.

C

 

[jango]

It really doesn't matter what kind they are they will kill sps...

 

[dz6t]

Do they use chemical warfair or do they use hug SPS to death?

 

[Pat H.]

I think it's chemical by the pattern of burn on the opposing corals tissue. IME

 

[jango]

They burn them when they touch. Even if you don't have the mushrooms close to the sps they can overgrow the rock they are on and release themselves into the water column to settle on corals rock or sand.

 

[jango]

I have nothing against mushrooms you just need to keep an eye on them, Unless you get a slower growing variety...

 

[Moe_K]

Yeah, I can confirm what Jango is reporting.
Mushroooms pack a hell of a sting. They burn which ever corals they touch.
From my past experience, my new tank will have no 'shrooms.

 

[Piscevore]

Joe Scavo had a tank of shrooms in his living room. Frilly's I believe, that were like, black tank death.

 

[SeaMaster]

Removing Mushrooms

Is there anyway to remove mushrooms? They seem to self distruct when I tried to gently pry one off some live rock. Is thier discharge toxic to the tank? My green ones are also overgrowing some nice rock in my reef and I would like to get rid of them or reduce their numbers if possible.

Thanks

 

[Moe_K]

Do you want to remove them and transplant them?
Or just eradicate them?
DIfferent process for each option.

 

[SeaMaster]

Removing Shrooms

I try hard not to put myself in the position of having to eradicate anything, but I guess that is the process I am asking about here.

 

[this is me]

I wouldnt keep any mushroom in an sps dominated tank.

 

[dz6t]

I happen to like mushroom, how about this:

I will trade equal amount of live rock that has no shroom on it for you shroom-covered live rock.

 

[Moe_K]

I try hard not to put myself in the position of having to eradicate anything, but I guess that is the process I am asking about here.

Treat them like Aiptasia.
Do you have kalk to make kalkwasser? Do you have a syringe?
Mix a few teaspoons of kalk with a bit of water - not much water. What you want to make is a nice paste.
Turn off the pumps and powerheads in the tank.
Load the paste into the syringe.
Apply the kalk paste to the spot where the 'shroom retracts - you want to paste the base of the shroom.
Leave the paste on for 5 or 10 minutes.
Then siphon off the remainder of the paste.
When all the kalk paste is extracted, you can turn on the pumps/powerheads again.
CAUTION: kalk paste will burn and severly damage other prized organisms in the tank, so be careful.

 

[dz6t]

the kalk paste trick does not work with the aiptasia I have, any other ideas?

 

[Moe_K]

For Aiptasia?
I had great luck with (true) peppermint shrimp. I put 6 of them in my lil' 5 gal tank and the aiptasia were gone in a week - even the big ones.