Help with Ricordea Florida mushroom

helwrj28 · Jun 16, 2023

A couple months ago I purchased a green Ricordea mushroom, and per what I gathered online I put it near the bottom of my tank, centered (with what I feel is medium to low flow and lighting), which I was thinking would be ideal.

The mushroom currently looks like this, with small and/or absent tentacles..

What is going on? Is it bleaching or just not happy because of lack of food or water quality? Too much or too little flow? I should also add that when I purchased it, it had (and still has) 2 mouths.

Here are my parameters:
Nitrates 10 ppm
Phosphate 0.0 ppm (working on better test kit currently using API
Calcium 460
Magnesium 1400
pH 8.2
dKH 7.5

As for light I'm using a reefbreeders nano at 30-40% blue/violet with 1-5% white.

I feed/spot feed 2-3x week with reef chili and recently started mysis.

I recently moved it to a low flow and lighting area if that was the issue, has been about a week with no changes.

Any help would be most appreciated thanks!

Seansea · Jun 16, 2023

These like major high light. Think sps lighting. When you snorkel in florida you can see these in as shallow as 24 inches just getting pounded by 65k all day sun. I would actually move it up. Maybe half way for couple weeks then all the way.

Mr. Mojo Rising · Jun 16, 2023

It looks perfectly fine to me. The bowl shape in the second pic indicates it would like more light, but looks good otherwise.

helwrj28 · Jun 16, 2023

Seansea said:
These like major high light. Think sps lighting. When you snorkel in florida you can see these in as shallow as 24 inches just getting pounded by 65k all day sun. I would actually move it up. Maybe half way for couple weeks then all the way.

Thanks for the info, I was afraid that with it looking white with small tentacles/polyps that it was starting to bleach. Can too little light cause small and retracted tentacles with discoloration?

If that's the case I'll try moving it!

Seansea · Jun 16, 2023

helwrj28 said:
Thanks for the info, I was afraid that with it looking white with small tentacles/polyps that it was starting to bleach. Can too little light cause small and retracted tentacles with discoloration?

If that's the case I'll try moving it!

Yes

Seansea · Jun 16, 2023

In my old 150 tank i had them low in my tank and only the 3 polyps it came with. When i moved it up to the top it started multiplying alot faster

helwrj28 · Jun 16, 2023

Seansea said:
In my old 150 tank i had them low in my tank and only the 3 polyps it came with. When i moved it up to the top it started multiplying alot faster

Do you think it would be okay to move right away to the 1/2 way point or should I do it gradually? And what do you recommend for flow?

Seansea · Jun 16, 2023

Yes can move to half right away. Flow about medium.

EricR · Jun 16, 2023

I'll just regurgitate a flow recommendation that someone gave me that mine seem to like:
Enough flow to lift the skirts slightly. (Mine periodically lift more than what I'd consider just "slightly" though)

Mine are near the bottom at about 110 PAR and seem to like it. (Bought two about a year ago and they've grown and are mostly split into 5 now)

helwrj28 · Jun 16, 2023

Thanks again for the help! With the move in the tank, can I expect the missing/absent tentacles near the mouth and along the edges to improve/return?

jimk60 · Jun 16, 2023

I don't know what else is in your tank or how deep it is but I would suggest turning up your lights some first. You have them set pretty low right now. I Run my reefbreeders at 60 blue and 20 white and shrooms are doing great at he bottom in low flow. I also almost never directly feed them

EricR · Jun 16, 2023

helwrj28 said:
Thanks again for the help! With the move in the tank, can I expect the missing/absent tentacles near the mouth and along the edges to improve/return?

I would assume so as long as you get it somewhere it likes (light/flow).
They're pretty resilient -- I mangled one removing a frag disc that I though it had completely wandered off of ... it ended up as a mangled wad of rubble/ricordea and super glue but bounced back quickly within a couple of weeks.

helwrj28 · Jun 16, 2023

EricR said:
I would assume so as long as you get it somewhere it likes (light/flow).
They're pretty resilient -- I mangled one removing a frag disc that I though it had completely wandered off of ... it ended up as a mangled wad of rubble/ricordea and super glue but bounced back quickly within a couple of weeks.

That's what I like to hear! Chose them for their hardiness for sure!

During the recovery did you have it in moderate flow and lighting?

helwrj28 · Jun 16, 2023

jimk60 said:
I don't know what else is in your tank or how deep it is but I would suggest turning up your lights some first. You have them set pretty low right now. I Run my reefbreeders at 60 blue and 20 white and shrooms are doing great at he bottom in low flow. I also almost never directly feed them

It's a 20g long and I have a couple zoa frags in there, one is doing well in medium lighting with high flow and the other was in the same spot and looking worse, it's improving in low/med flow and lighting now

Appreciate the suggestion! I did have the lights at about 40% blue with 1-5% white but scaled back because I thought maybe it was too much. Should I try bumping up and higher?

EricR · Jun 16, 2023

helwrj28 said:
That's what I like to hear! Chose them for their hardiness for sure!

During the recovery did you have it in moderate flow and lighting?

Same flow/lighting where it was before and where I wanted to keep it ... just glued the rubble that was left of the frag disc (that the ricordea was barely clinging to) right back where it all was before.

I guess I'd consider the flow there moderate (skirt lifting but not blowing it away) and PAR around 110 as I mentioned.

jimk60 · Jun 16, 2023

helwrj28 said:
It's a 20g long and I have a couple zoa frags in there, one is doing well in medium lighting with high flow and the other was in the same spot and looking worse, it's improving in low/med flow and lighting now

Appreciate the suggestion! I did have the lights at about 40% blue with 1-5% white but scaled back because I thought maybe it was too much. Should I try bumping up and higher?

Sorry for the dirty glass but these are mine in the lighting I suggested

Aspect · Jun 17, 2023

As others have suggested they like high light. I had one for 3 months on the sand bed that wasn't growing, I moved it up halfway to the top of my tank and it split within a month.