Sarcophyton (Toadstool) babies - is it possible they were produced sexually?

andrewkw · Nov 3, 2018

I am going to guess probably not but I wanted to post this to get some other opinions. I originally purchased one frag, about 5 years ago so I think that fact alone means this is impossible.

I've produced many frags via a hole forming and then dropping part. Those frags have become colonies and so forth. I have 6-8 colonies in my mess of a frag tank that all originated from one frag approximately 5 years ago.

I was cleaning off some palys from the eggcrate tonight and I found 3 baby toadstools approximately the size of a medium sized paly.

I'm going to guess the smallest specs of toadstool stuck to the eggcrate the last time I moved them months ago. However I really don't know... I did glue them to plugs so assuming they all don't slime off I will get to watch them grow up either way. The sad thing is I live out in the middle of no where and it's next to impossible to find these guys homes. Eventually I'll probably take 20 to a reef shop.

Thoughts?

James M · Nov 3, 2018

That is possibility considering you had different frags. Can I have one for free

andrewkw · Nov 7, 2018

So I've now found 5 total babies. I still don't know what to think. This tank is such a mess. My frag tank is really my coral overflow tank, it's about as bad as you can get for a frag tank (55g that used to be QT). I just started sticking corals in there that I cut back and eventually it got full..

I need the metal halide that is over this tank for another project so I'm really hoping to reorganize. Ideally fitting everything under a black box which is on the other side but more realistically I'll just pick up another one. Once I clean up the tank and have more space I will try and separate the toadstools more and see if some random ones pop up elsewhere.