Mushroom eaters?

[phreezee]

I am overrun with with blue and orange mushrooms and desperately need a natural solution.

I've tried needles with vinegar and hot water without success. I've pruned but the foot is so hard to get completely off and of course regenerate. I've got a Regal and Flame Angel but unfortunately they've been reef safe.

[mseepman]

I have the same problem...I have found no solution that works all the time. I have one of those electrocution devices and it doesn't work either. Sometimes a power-head aimed at the mushrooms will make them detach and you can collect and sell/destroy from there.

If you come up with something that works..please share.

[letsgofishin]

mark if you have any extras you want to get rid of let me know, I know a couple people in the area that would like some for a reasonable price.

[mseepman]

We have a frag swap coming up and I will be bringing some then. If you aren't able to attend, pm me and I'll help you out.

[sphelps]

What other types of corals do you have? IME most mushrooms do poorly under high intensity lighting.

[phreezee]

I would classify the tank as FOWLR with MUSHROOMS lol.
In truth, I have some zoas, gsp and btas also, but not enough to call it a reef IMO.

[FragIt Dan]

Can u take the rocks out of the tank? If so, you can torch them off with the handheld propane ones. Otherwise, cut them off and treat the foot with kalk paste like u would for aptasia. As with aptasia, treat only a handful per day... It will take a while. You can also bring your rocks into local stores and offer to trade them over for non 'infected' rocks :). I did this for a while and cut my population down. I also had a heat spike a few years back and noticed the mushrooms substantially died off while the encrusting algae stayed, but this would kill things like zoos as well. Low 90f for ~24hrs was what knocked a lot of mine back.

[sphelps]

Will a crown of thorns starfish eat mushrooms?

[azulikit]

I use Aiptasia-X to control my shrooms.

[FragIt Dan]

I use Aiptasia-X to control my shrooms.

I am under the impression Aiptasia-X is kalk... Does anyone know this?

[phreezee]

Will a crown of thorns starfish eat mushrooms?

Looked this up and it eats everything, and grows to 25cm! lol
I'd give it a go, but I don't think I've seen it in an LFS before.

[sphelps]

Looked this up and it eats everything, and grows to 25cm! lol
I'd give it a go, but I don't think I've seen it in an LFS before.
Yeah I don't think it's something people would normally bring in for obvious reasons but perhaps it is available through special order. I know they are overly populated in some parts but it's also possible they are illegal to import as it's certainly not something you want to become invasive somewhere else in the world.

[gobytron]

Blast them with light and a higher flow...
Ive had this battle and won before.

Aip X is essentially just Kalk and wont do much more than irritate mushrooms.

[sphelps]

A quick search on RC seems to suggest crown of thorns starfish are available to us. Some people have used them for aptasia control in FO tanks :biggrin:

Definitely something to look into, would be super cool addition and if you killed it after the job was done it's not really a bad thing.

[mseepman]

Problem is that it would kill every other coral that has managed to survive through the mushroom outbreak.