Fuzzy cotton-like slime on some Ricordia

Does anyone know why a few of the Ricordia I have seem to have this crap on it? It is only a few of them, but those that have had it seem to deteriorate and fall apart. The filament looking part of their mouth that is usually white turns a darker color and seems to come apart on the ones that the slime is on. I didnt have much hope for these as I got em on a whim from PetCo but there are a couple of nice sized healthy looking ones and some babies that are going to look awesome when they grow to full size. I just want to know what this crap is. Are they producing it themselves? Is it some kind of fungus? Thanks for the help.

 

If they are not surviving then what you are seeing is them melting away due to poor water conditions. Ricordias like very good water quality. They are also quite sensitive to low temperatures.

 

See, I don't know what it could be because 3/4 of them are doing great and going around leaving the little daughter mushrooms behind them but there are these 3 that keep getting covered in this slime. They look like they split apart, but I see no progress as far as them healing again

 

my fuzzy mushrooms looked like that when they started to split and multiply do the ones in question look worse than the others other than the slime ??

 

Eh, they just look ragged cause they arent really circular anymore. They look like crescents and similar shapes. I thought one was dead until I turned the white light off and it was still fluorescing.

 

Could you post a picture? Generally, if mucous is coming of of them they are not happy. When the ricordea in my tank split, they usually make a figure eight and seem to twist themselves in two.

 

i wouldn't judge based on shape. change in shape is a sign it could be splitting. if it looks like melting mucas then its dying. if it looks alright other than the mucas i would just observe it for awhile. What are your water parameters?

 

I'll try to get a picture of them for you guys.

My parameters are
Temp 79
Alk 9.5
Cal 400
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 10 I have some macro algae coming that will probably use these up but all of my other coral is growing like crazy so I dont know that this is causing them stress. I would think all of them would be unhappy instead of just a few.
I don't have a phosphate test but I run macros and phosphate media so it should be low.

Perhaps it was just damaged at Petco during bagging. Looking at it now its all of the ones around the edge of the rock where the bag was tight around them. The guy that bagged them only covered them halfway with water so I had to ask him to put more in it so its not inconceivable that he hurt them in the process. I'm going to get my camera.