Easy beginner soft coral

[Katrina71]

Sorry @PDR I know you know all that.

 

[siner94]

@PDR

I happen to love them. My first mushroom was a rhodactis too. Booger. Green just like yours. After 2 years, it has not reproduced. BTW, they move like an anemone.

Do you happen to have a picture I’m curious to see what they turn into

 

[sfin52]

@Katrina71 just bought one I'm hoping to have better luck than you .

@siner94 mushrooms will walk and detach and float around the tank. Just put the ones floating around in a basket with rubble in a low flow area. The shrooms will attach to the rubble.

For what its worth its still hard not to impulse buy .

 

[Katrina71]

My rhodactis is the only one that doesn't reproduce like crazy.

 

[Katrina71]

Do you happen to have a picture I’m curious to see what they turn into

Sure. My lights are out, but let me see if I have an older pic.

 

[siner94]

@Katrina71 just bought one I'm hoping to have better luck than you .

@siner94 mushrooms will walk and detach and float around the tank. Just put the ones floating around in a basket with rubble in a low flow area. The shrooms will attach to the rubble.

For what its worth its still hard not to impulse buy .

I like the colors they also had a orange one I almost bought as well haha

 

[somethinq else]

I like the colors they also had a orange one I almost bought as well haha

How do you like this ?

 

[Katrina71]

 

[Katrina71]

Front middle on the rock.

 

[siner94]

How do you like this ?

Looks like a bunch of colorful pebbles.. I like it

 

[Katrina71]

How do you like this ?

Show off!! Wow. That is amazing!

 

[somethinq else]

Looks like a bunch of colorful pebbles.. I like it

Just took these just now

 

[siner94]

Just took these just now

I might sound dumb but what are all those corals with the nice bubbles called? :/

 

[somethinq else]

I might sound dumb but what are all those corals with the nice bubbles called? :/

They are called bounce mushrooms. And there's dozens of different types of bounces. But they aren't 20.00 shrooms. They range from several hundred to a few thousand a peice.

 

[Katrina71]

You call them Amber Alert shrooms, cuz I might have to take one.

 

[somethinq else]

They are called bounce mushrooms. And there's dozens of different types of bounces. But they aren't 20.00 shrooms. They range from several hundred to a few thousand a peice.

This is my prize possession tho. One of the most sought after mushrooms and definantly the most expensive mushroom ever. It's called a purple monster electus jawbreaker. There's alot of discussion about this particular shroom and they have sold as high as 10k.

 

[siner94]

This is my prize possession tho. One of the most sought after mushrooms and definantly the most expensive mushroom ever. It's called a purple monster electus jawbreaker. There's alot of discussion about this particular shroom and they have sold as high as 10k.

That’s something you could sell if you needed some cash haha

 

[sfin52]

I love your tank .it looks amazing

 

[Katrina71]

I love your tank .it looks amazing

Thanks.

 

[JasPR]

I always find it comical that advanced hard coral hobbyists suggest that letting soft Coral species overrun their tanks is a terrible plan because the goal should be to have gardcorals over run you tank?! The reason? It is so much harder that it is admirable! One man’s ceiling is another man’s floor

I always find this an interesting discussion because easy beginner soft coral can also be some of the most undesirable later on! Don't get me wrong, some of the classic beginner corals are gorgeous, but because they're so hardy and easy to care for, they spread like crazy. This may make you happy, but at the same time a year or two down the line when you're trying to add more advanced SPS coral and your rock is covered in a sea of GSP or a forest of Xenia, you may not be as happy. It's really a double edged sword. They're great because they're easy! But they're also prone to covering every inch of rock in no time, because they're so easy. It's to the point, that if you're not a bit more seasoned in coral propagation and controlling them, they're far from beginner corals later on, in a way.

That being said, the following are commonly recommended as being easy to care for and tough. They're tolerant of less than ideal water chemistry and fairly ubiquitious and affordable in the hobby:

Green Star Polyps (GSP)
Zoanthids
Xenia
Toadstool Leather
Mushrooms.

Out of those, the best bets for not dominating your tank would be the Zoanthids and Leather, but both still can grow quickly and out-compete any future LPS or SPS corals you add. I'm not saying to avoid the Shrooms or GSP or Xenia, just be careful about where you place them as they will spread a LOT. A lot of folks will place Xenia or Muchrooms on a small to medium sized rock on the sand as a sort of "island" rather than directly on their main rock structure, as the sand will generally keep them contained on that island. GSP, however will grow on just about anything. I've seen it on glass, sand, egg crate, etc.

I've kept all of them in the past and am currently cycling a Reefer 450 which will be primarily a softie and LPS tank. My wife and I both love Zoas, GSP, and Pulsing Xenia, and our tank will have them, we're just going to be thoughtful about where we place them and keep them "pruned" as much as possible, or they will spread like wildfire.

This also brings up another question, and that is do you really want any of these corals or you're asking because you feel like you should start with something easy to care for? I know I've been in that spot before. I think a lot of people are intimidated by the "more advanced" LPS or SPS corals, so they get easy softies and then may regret it later when they fall in love with SPS or LPS and have a carpet of GSP covering their rock. I don't mean this in any way disrespectful toward you, so please don't take it that way. I'm speaking from past regrets of my own!! I'm getting more at that I would recommend finding out what you really WANT to keep, and then starting out with more tolerant versions of that. Do you want a mixed reef with a bit of everything? Do you really like the look of LPS? or do you actually want a softie tank? For example, if you really want a torch or frogspawn, then work towards that, rather than getting some shrooms just to get something easy in the tank. Likewise, if you really want one of the easy softies mentioned, then by all means, go get some, just be aware that you'll want to place them in such a way that they won't take over. I just don't want to see you go out and get some mushrooms, which are really cool, don't get me wrong, but that you're not in love with, and have their spread cause problems down the line.

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