Help! Shrinking shrooms?

[boots]

Hello, I'm a new reefer. I just joined the BB last week and this is my first post. I purchased a small rock with striped mushrooms on it. Yesterday and today the mushrooms look like they are shriveling up. They had been all spread out, but now they are small and shriveled. Also, one of the mushrooms center - mouth? - had white stuff pushing out. I think the mushroom pulled it back in. Is there something wrong? Thank-you.

PS...since mushrooms are a common beginners coral I searched the archives first, but I didn't find an answer to my question.

[madman19710]

mushrooms throw their guts up as a defence mechanism they do pull them back in.test your water . have you added any chemicals directly to the tank ?it is a good indication that something is wrong posting all your water perameters will help you get a better answer

[boots]

Thank-you, madman! I will test my water now and reply back shortly. Everything else in the tank seems to be fine...I've added no chemicals to the tank.

[boots]

Okay, I ran checks on all water parameters.

Temp: 77.9
Sp. Gr: 1.023
pH: 8.4
ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: <10 ppm

Test kit used: fasTesT by Aquarium Systems and Deep Six hydrometer

All these parameters look good to me except the pH seems a bit high.

Also, I bought a red mushroom rock at the pet store yesterday, and it has opened completely. But, on this other small rock about half the mushrooms are closed or shriveled in appearance and the other half seem to be about half open.

Maybe I just need to give it some time?

[zhenya]

Hi boots, Welcome to Reefland

Looking at your test results one thing that jumps at me is the temperature.I think it is way too cold for a reeftank and I would try to bring it up to about 80 degrees slowly. Can you double check all those parameters with some other test kits,just to be sure that you getting correct results? Also, it would help if we knew how old is your set up as well. The "guts" that you saw comming from a mushroom were probably mesenterial filaments and it is probably a response to stress. Give them some time and I think they should bounce back for you.

[irishjabba]

Okay, I ran checks on all water parameters.

Temp: 77.9
Sp. Gr: 1.023
pH: 8.4
ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: <10 ppm

Test kit used: fasTesT by Aquarium Systems and Deep Six hydrometer

All these parameters look good to me except the pH seems a bit high.

Also, I bought a red mushroom rock at the pet store yesterday, and it has opened completely. But, on this other small rock about half the mushrooms are closed or shriveled in appearance and the other half seem to be about half open.

Maybe I just need to give it some time?

77 isn't too cold for your tank, but you might just bump it up to 78, which is where I've kept mine.
Maybe try moving the shrooms to another location in the tank...slow water movement not too much light. Just a though.

[Ninong]

Okay, I ran checks on all water parameters.

All these parameters look good to me except the pH seems a bit high.

The pH is fine.

Maybe I just need to give it some time?

Hopefully that will do it. Where did you place it in your tank? Did you acclimate it in the bag before adding it to the tank?

[zhenya]

Hi boots,

After reading your initial post again I noticed that I had missed a very important aspect of saltwater tank-salinity/specific gravity.You said that it is
1.023 measured with deep-six hydrometer,I don't know how accurate your device is but I would suggest double checking its reading with either another calibrated hydrometer or a refractometer becouse it could be even lower then 1.023 and that in itself could be a problem for the invertabrates. All of them require full strength salinity of 35ppt or 1.025-1.026 specific gravity.
Just a thought.

[Wind]

just give it some time, if other things in tank are doing well, i assume it can't be the water, just give it time to adjust. ..