Melting Mushroom?

drew1092 · 10-05-2009, 01:42 PM

This is one of my favorite mushrooms. It was doing great until last night. Woke up to find one of the shrooms either melted or eaten! Can you tell what happened here? I have 2 hypothesis:

1.)I have a spotted mushroom that attached to a turbo snail a couple days ago and the snail is dragging it all around the tank. I don't know if thats common or not. The snail was on the rock with the blues and I wondered if the spotted mushroom melted the blue.

2.) My only new addition is 2 peppermint shrimps. Could they have eaten the mushroom?

Really, I cant tell if this was eaten or melted. All my perameters are good, pH 8.3, nitrates 5-10. 0 nitrite or ammonia. Any thoughts?

Here is what the piece looked like a couple weeks ago:

And this morning:

jenglish · 10-05-2009, 01:56 PM

Are you sure it is not really shriveled, the pic is kind of blurry

lynxie · 10-05-2009, 01:57 PM

could it have let go and been moved elsewhere in the tank by your current? i have a fwe mushies that have "migrated" that way, and where they were, there's a little spot of colour where they used to hang on to the rock....?

drew1092 · 10-05-2009, 02:09 PM

I don't think it released, looks like it was eaten. Edges are all irregular and a mucousy string coming out of the mouth. I did change the flow in the tank last night, but I don't think its just shriveled. The mouth does seem to be intact, does that mean it will grow back over time? Anything to promote healing like iodine? All already add kent essential elements once a week. The wife is much better at photography than me, I will see if she can get a better photo. Thanks

jenglish · 10-05-2009, 02:51 PM

Careful dosing things you aren't testing for. If you are not using them up they can build up to toxic levels pretty rapidly. If it has been eaten and has an open wound a iodine dip can help as a disinfectant

cutietwo · 10-05-2009, 04:14 PM

That is interesting...you are right it does not look so good. I do not know what could be happening...what's the tank temp?

drew1092 · 10-05-2009, 10:15 PM

Tank temp runs 78-80 but usually 79.6. Salinity is a little high, 1.027 I have been slowly trying to bring it down. I wonder if a critter could have done this. I see turbos on this rock all the time. Any chance they could have torn it? Any one else have this happen? Hopefully it will regen, mouth is still on the rock.