Ricordea and purple mushroom acclimation and quarantine

[lightcs4]

I know how you feel being scared, because I recently got my first SPS and was scared to death I was going to kill it, but shrooms are very hardy, and one of the best starter corals there are.

When you get a little more used to it then you can start fragging them and you can grow tons more faster.

Yeah, I can just see the $$$ if they don't survive. I'm really looking forward to getting to the point of fragging corals.

I have a couple pics, but won't be able to post until tonight ... heading out with the kids.

I'll try the veil trick. It would be good to get it solid on a rock.

Thanks.

 

[yote]

Beware that once you start adding SPS,you cant stop.:DYou'll say just one more acro,then one more will turn into 2 more and so on and so forth:mrgreen:

 

[lightcs4]

OK, hopefully I'll do this right. Here are the two pictures of the mushrooms:

And Yote, regardless of how addicting corals may be, you still have to have money to buy them. That kinda makes it easy to go slow. Something about making sure the kids get fed first ...

 

[yote]

You mean your supposed to feed the kids?:shock:

Those are some great looking shroom.

 

[RAYRAY]

LOL.. Now that ther was funny I dont care who ya are !!!!!

 

[Piggy]

The mushrooms look great. Love the color.

 

[bobby]

Nice colors!!

 

[lightcs4]

Thanks everyone! I really appreciate your encouragement.

I took Bobby's advise and put a rock in a short dish with mesh over it for the Ric. I'm hopeful that it will attach to the rock. They all seem to be doing well. I can't wait until the DT is finished with the hyposalinity so I can get them in their proper place. I won't rush it though.

I find it interesting that, even after months of research and reading as much as I could about coral in general and specifically mushrooms, I am learning more by actually getting some. I can already see the next ones coming in the fall. Yep, Yote is right ... maybe one of the more hardy acros, or a LPS (blasto or closed brain would be cool). The birds nest will wait until I am very comfortable with maintaining other corals.

Off topic, but for you NASCAR fans, Kyle Bush took the win in Chicago. It was close as Jimmy Johnson almost kept the lead. I like Kyle, but it would have been cool to see Jimmie Johnson win. Now I can finally get some sleep.

 

[yote]

Lights,
When you get a chance,pick up a book called Aquarium Corals by Eric Borneman.It'll give you a lot of insite on all about every kind of coral you can find.Not just high flow low flow stuff.It'll give you a complete natural history along with what the coral actually feeds on in the wild.

 

[lightcs4]

Sounds like a cool book. I'll take a look around for it.

Thanks.

 

[Piggy]

Off topic, but for you NASCAR fans, Kyle Bush took the win in Chicago. It was close as Jimmy Johnson almost kept the lead. I like Kyle, but it would have been cool to see Jimmie Johnson win. Now I can finally get some sleep.

I'm getting sick of him winning. I was cheering for JJ. Maybe someone else will win the next one.

 

[lightcs4]

Yeah, I think his makes seven wins for Kyle Bush. Worst part was staying up until 11:30 (EST) to see Jimmy Johnson get so close (going to be tough keeping my eyes open at church this morning). The best part is, though, that my oldest son is starting to get in on the sport. Finally someone to watch the races with me :^:.

 

[lightcs4]

OK, I was going to ask in tonight's chat, but haven't seen anyone there. I *had* ten mushrooms on the rock (regular blue ones). I am down to nine. The one that dies was against a piece of plastic from the egg crate so I understand why it didn't do well. I just couldn't move the rock to a good spot. However, I have two others that seem to go between drooping and looking OK and open???? I haven't found anything on-line to see what I should do to help them or if this is normal. I do find that they tend to close up when the light's are out.

By the way, the Ric mushroom seems to be doing great; nice and full. It also closes when the lights are out but quickly opens back up when I turn on the lights.

 

[RyanG]

I bet the missing shroom jumped ship. Did you look all around the rock it was on? they can and will move.

 

[lightcs4]

I wish that were the case. He turned brown and floated to the bottom:shock:. But all but two seem to be doing well. Some do seem to close up at night, but even the one that is drooping is open, even though there is a 1/4" of the stock going down. Is this normal? I was hoping for some more detailed info on line. I'm hoping the book Yote recommended will give some further info if I can find it.

Also, the DT is almost done with hyposalinity. Looking back when it all started, I only have two weeks left to make two months. Would it be best to slowly move the salinity back to normal now and put the corals there or just leave well enough alone?

Thanks again for the help.

 

[Piggy]

They will close when the lights are out. It'll take them a few days to settle in. Don't keep moving them. It'll just stress them more. Is the water paremeters good?

 

[lightcs4]

Piggy,

The water parameters are near perfect. PH is at 8.1 (just a hair low), no ammonia , nitrites, or nitrates. The beauty of a QT. I thought it might be the light adjustment since the LFS had them under a lot of lights. Great to know they close up at night though. That is a real relief. Oh, and I haven't moved them any. I'm nervous to even touch the rock they are on. First time coral jitters I guess.

 

[Piggy]

Do you know what types of lights they were under? I forgot what lights you have and gallon of QT.

 

[lightcs4]

It's a small 15 watt light, but only a two gallon QT. I can move them to the DT fairly soon if needed. It has MH lights. I just need a few days (maybe seven) to get the salinity back up. I was going to move it back to normal in a couple weeks.

 

[Piggy]

If they're PC it would give you 7.5 watts. That should be plenty of light for the mushrooms seeing they like low light. Did you take the water out of the MT?