Mushrooms Acting Weird!...

Whenever I turned on thel ights the mushrooms would always expand and get really big but the last few days they have stayed shriveled up and small like they are during the night. I recently had the nitrate levels up to 20 but I took out my bio-wheel, added some prime, and changed 7 gallons (in my 37 gallon tank). Are they possibly doing this because they are getting too much light? I have them up at the top of my aqaurium. WHat can I do and are they healthy?

 

if they expanded before id leave them there and give them another day or 2 corals seem to go thru a growth stage where they shrivel up for a few days then they pop back out jsut like they were. my leathers do this and it looks like a film comming off them. it seems like some sort of growth phase

 

Thanks Karla, I hope your right but its been like 5 days already.

 

Sometimes they shrivel up because they are reproducing. Have you noticed if they moved and left tissue spots?

 

I doubt all of them are reproducing at the same time.

 

How much light do you have on your tank?
Yes, mushrooms will shrivel up for many reasons: One may be in fact that you have too much light or too strong a water current for them. The reason being that if their is too much light for them then they doen't need to open up to try and capture as much light for their zooanthellae to survive. However if they have been in your tank for a while I highly doubt that that is the problem. So moving on, when you have too much nutrients in your water they will also shrivel up and /or become half the size of what they could be. You will notice that when you perform a water change on your tank, that for the next few days, your mushrooms WILL expand greatly due to the fact that many nutrients are removed from your water ie. detritus, nitrite and nitrate, phosphate and iodine therefore creating the need to open more to get as much nutrients from the decreased levels in your tank after the water change.
They can shrivel up as a way of conserving energy to rid themselves of waste/ zooanthellae and carbon dioxide. Remember that the mushrooms are related to the anemone's-hence the need to regurgitate if you will.
Possibly the last reason for them shriveling up is that their are high levels of toxins in your water ie. Sinularia soft corals, or mucus from some stonies. What types of corals do you have?
At any rate these are most of the reasons that I could come up with for your mushrooms reduction in size. Oh, yes they could be reproducing, but not if all of your mushrooms are the same way! I highly doubt that they are all reproducing at the same time...
they should be fine, just check water parameters and do water change. Possibly try relocating them somewhere alse in your tank to try different light intensity(have you changed the bulbs on your tank recently)?
GOOD LUCK!

 

As far as coral and such I just have a long tentacle anemone, flower tree coral, red shrooms, purple shrooms, and a super bright neon green xenia like thing. I have a 96 watt coralife 50/50. I just did a 7 gallon water change and I have been keeping the lights on for a little longer now. I have noticed one of the mushrooms a little lower in the tank isnt so shriveled up, should i move the shrooms lower?

EDIT: ohh and I dont have too much water movement, I dont have enough. The powerhead I bought was too powerful so I never got to use it.

 

You could try it. Remember their are many reasons/variables involved. Try moving them and see what happens, if that doesn't work try another thing, just give it some time. Do the ones higher up have possibly to much water current blowing directly on them? They don't like strong water current!

 

The water current isnt very strong at all there, they are kind of out of the way. The only thing I can think of that changed was the water change and leaving the lights on slightly longer. The nitrates have been a little high but they should be a bit lower now, I am gonna change 7 more gallons tommorrow and Ill move them in a shadier spot. Thanks for all the help reefer, you have been a lot of help!

 

Your welcome! Anytime, that's what we are here for!!! After you perform another water change, see if they expand fully as I mentioned earlier, due to lower nutrients in your water, and do nothing for a week or so and see what happens.
Time, alot of times, is all living things in our tanks need...