Actinodiscus sp. (Blue Mushroom)

Source: liveaquaria.com

QUICK STATS

• Care Level: Easy
  
• Temperament: Semi-aggressive
  
• Lighting: Moderate
  
• Waterflow: Low to Medium
  
• Placement: All
  
• Water Conditions: 72-78° F, dKH 8-12, pH 8.1-8.4, sg 1.023-1.025
  
• Color Form: Blue, Purple
  
• Origin: Indonesia
  
• Family: Actinodiscidae/Discosomatidae
  
• Insert Date: 27 May 2010

The Actinodiscus Mushrooms are also referred to as Mushroom Anemones and Disc Anemones. They were previously in a genus called Discosoma. These invertebrates display a wide variety of colors, textures, and patterns. Some are solid colors, such as the blue specimen pictured above, whereas, others are striped or spotted. The taxonomy of the various species is in a state of flux, and will probably continue to change.
They are hardy and moderately easy to maintain, and under the right conditions, will multiply and spread very rapidly. In general, they need a medium light level, and should be placed lower in the tank if the light intensity is high. The Actinodiscus Mushrooms prefer a low to medium water flow within the aquarium, although different species may have different requirements. They are semi-aggressive and require adequate space between themselves and other corals and sessile invertebrates. Each ships as several individual mushrooms attached to one rock.

An Actinodiscus Mushrooom receives some of its nutritional requirements through the photosynthesis of the symbiotic algae zooxanthellae which it hosts. It also feeds on other nutrients and particulate matter and benefits from additional food in the form of micro-plankton or brine shrimp fed to each polyp of the colony.

Through one of the forums I'm member of (www.zeewaterforum.info) I came across this Mushroom. Member Martin g sells them together with some other corals, however, this was the one that caught my attention...for the mushroom rock .
He had 2 of them, now only one more left on a small rock (3x5cm) for only 5 euro's.

The picture is of his main rock, but to give an idea how it would look.

Yesterday we bought a new mushroom from martin g, I have put it on the same rock as the other two mushrooms. It still needs to attach itself to the rock, hope it will do soon. It still looks rather sad, but the other grew fast enough when they attached. Only hope the shrimp and crab will leave it alone, and the fishes don’t blow it off by swimming past it to fast.

The first mushroom rock is pretty full, the red one is huge, the green one is getting bigger also and the blue mushroom is also starting to expend. So any new mushrooms will be put on a new and bigger rock.

The blue mushroom is slowly becoming bigger.

The red mushroom is becoming bigger every day, the green mushroom moved to the side now to get some breathing space. The blue mushroom is growing bigger also.

The rock rotated a bit so the green mushroom is more visible.

The Blue Mushroom is now 4 months in our aquarium. He was the last addition to the first mushroom rock which contains 3 different mushrooms. He never seemed to be doing very well, and even now there are many brown spots on it which I don’t know what they are, but we did notice that in our vacation it split (2 times?).

Removed some of the Halimeda on the rock, hopefully everything has more room now. The Blue Mushroom has problems with the Sea Anemone next to him. Also noticed it has split as well.

Still having problems with the Sea Anemone, we can’t seem to be able to kill it. Hopefully soon so that the mushroom can expend again. It would be a shame to loose this mushroom since it’s a rather unique colour.

I finally did it, I killed the Sea Anemone. I accidently bumped the rock noticing it supported nothing. So I removed the whole rock and killed the Sea Anemone. The mushroom already looks a lot better now.

Yesterday I have sold some fragments again. A member from the Zeewater Forum voor Nederland en België, called Bikerdick, wanted to buy the last Red Mushroom fragment and some Kenya Tree fragments.
When he saw the aquarium he also showed interest in other things, one of them being a green mushroom. However, I dont think I will try to frag anything from this rock any time soon. He did buy 4 Kenya Trees though, making more room to see the mushrooms

And also removed some of the Planaria on the mushrooms.

Removed the Finger Leather which was in front of the mushrooms. Now they are better visible again.