Saving Half-Eaten Mushroom (New Reef Keeper)

[Nemesis0513]

Came home to find an Asterina glommed onto one of my mushroom corals (Rhodactis, I think) and I peeled it off to find that basically all of the foot and mesenterial filaments had basically been chewed or digested off. Could have been either a snail or the starfish, probably both, but the only thing left is basically the flesh from the top of the disk and a couple loose floating bits that I don't really have hope for. I was wondering if anything could be done for the remaining flap of flesh or if I should just trash it, it still looks plenty vibrant but it could just be a fresh kill and I have no idea what to make of it now.

My parameters aren't optimal but it's been relatively stable for the most part, most of the other mushrooms/corals are still open without too much issue.

 

[Rocks reef]

Do you happen to have a picture? Also, do you have a picture of the asterina? Reason why, is most asterina are safe, however, there are a few that will eat coral.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Pictures will help!

 

[Nemesis0513]

Thank you to all who have replied thus far, I'll try to get pictures out by tonight. Good news is, the little flesh flap hasn't melted yet, but I'm still not super optimistic given how shrunken it's gotten.

 

[ColorMeGone]

If it's a Rhodactius shroom they are bullet proof if your water is right. I have had a pc the size of a pencil lead tear off and it is now a full shroom. lol

 

[Nemesis0513]

Pictures will help!

These pictures are gonna be kinda cruddy because they're in a deep top down tank, but it's a frag of a green/yellow mushroom (again, not 100% sure what species it is now but my guess is Rhodactis) I was given by a person who I helped maintain tanks for. It's shrunken drastically over the last 24 hours, but it's still retained its color thus far and hasn't been bitten again as far as I can tell, so I'm not sure what's going on here. It's just the top of the disk, no mesenterial filaments or other flesh underneath that flap, so I don't know if it'll be able to regenerate properly. I know most people say they need mouthparts to regenerate properly, I can't find where it used to be on the frag.

Do you happen to have a picture? Also, do you have a picture of the asterina? Reason why, is most asterina are safe, however, there are a few that will eat coral.

As for the Asterina species, I'm not so sure as I'm still relatively new to reef-keeping. They are a six-pointed star with beige base, black mottling and some larger ones have orange-red patches, pictures down below. I got some to graze on algae, they digest these funky little circles into the wall. There were also some Cerith snails (at least I think that's what these snails in the picture with the sleepy mushrooms are), I've seen some sources say they'll eat meat but these don't look the pictured snails and have been really good algae eaters.

 

[ColorMeGone]

If left alone I bet it makes it.

 

[p1u5h13r4m24]

Mushrooms seem to be able to survive cuts pretty well. I can’t tell what mushroom it is, but people explain cutting to order is so easy that one cut simply put it in a blender and they would have 1000s of frags in a few months. Obviously I’m sure this isn’t true, however it should give you an idea how resilient some mushrooms can be :)

 

[Rocks reef]

As far as the asterinas go, I'd watch them. My asterina are almost totally beige, a few have some dark mottling. The ones with red/orange, may be the culprit.

 

[Nemesis0513]

To all who replied and may still be interested, the mushroom seems to have stopped shrinking after 36 hours and appears to be forming a little ball between the aragonite. Thankfully, no further attacks. There seems to be a little spot of brown between some of the flesh flaps, I'll go clean it off, but I'll try my best to keep on top of everything (maybe make it a little cage somewhere these dang stars can't get to it) so we can hopefully see a comeback.

This piece was already kind of janked up from the start due to an awkward fragging process but I love it to bits (literally at this point). Unfortunately, given the size of the tank and the state I live in, the heat can be a lot and I think that might've been what shot this thing and led the Asterinas to jump it. Hopefully it has the chance to close itself up properly, I'm really hoping to see as much of it bounce back as I can, the thing was absolutely beautiful in his tank.

 

[Nemesis0513]

Just over a week later, this coral seems to have partially stabilized, though it remains completely without a foot or innards as far as I can tell and is as a result limper than a dude on a cold morning. Seems that its new problem is getting absolutely buried by snails ploughing through and its own deflating at night without a full foot or disk to keep it above ground.

Interestingly enough, it seems that it's somehow managed to drop off some little pinhead sized fragments off of itself, which I've placed onto a piece of rubble to get it further away from hungry starfish lol. I have no idea how likely it is that either of these will survive, but it has been over 48 hours and they haven't really died yet, so I'm not going to complain if these decide to make themselves into corals numero two and three. Actually, now that I think about it, is it even possible for disk fragments that small to create feet? I always hear about pedal laceration (that's the foot, right?) and never hear anything about the growth of new feet on heads, just that they'll "survive". Anybody got thoughts or experiences on the functional capacity of disk fragments?

Any thoughts on what species this coral might be (probably still not happening til it fully recovers or I give up on the name), chances of recovery, growth time?

 

[Nemesis0513]

Though the tidbits survived a pretty solid period without the body, both have disappeared somewhere into the rubble (one to human error during cleaning, one to natural flow overnight), I don't have confidence that they'll show back up given how deep they've probably sunk into the aragonite even if they were surviving wherever it is they are. However, I did do a clean under the mushroom piece and found what looks like the start of some greyish stalk tissue between the disk bits, not quite a pedal/foot yet but I'm hoping that if it lasts the whole month, it might get to the finish line so I wouldn't have to rely on the little disc scraps.