I want to kill these shrooms!

specialk · Feb 23, 2018

hey all ....

so have these dang mushrooms that are over taking and killing a sweet sps colony. I tried trimming them off, but no such luck as it is very hard to get the foremost base and they always grow back.

I want them gone and am wondering if I take the rock out and with an eye dropper put biling hot water on them if that will kill them.

Any advice is greatly appreciated!!

nautical_nathaniel · Feb 23, 2018

specialk said:
hey all ....

so have these dang mushrooms that are over taking and killing a sweet sps colony. I tried trimming them off, but no such luck as it is very hard to get the foremost base and they always grow back.

I want them gone and am wondering if I take the rock out and with an eye dropper put biling hot water on them if that will kill them.

Any advice is greatly appreciated!!

It might stunt their growth in all honesty but I don't think it will kill them. You're going to have to go after them with tweezers, making sure to remove their entire foot in the process. It will be tedious and you will need to do it a couple of times to get any stragglers.

ajhudson15 · Feb 23, 2018

ive seen people use kalk paste, super glue, and aptasia x on them and they say it works

LJLKRL05 · Feb 23, 2018

If you can take the rock out, you might be able to remove the SPS from the rock and then you can do whatever is necessary to kill them. Then put the SPS back on the rock.

specialk · Feb 23, 2018

ajhudson15 said:
ive seen people use kalk paste, super glue, and aptasia x on them and they say it works

I tried aptisia x ... no luck.

I may try injecting them with kalk paste 1st ... then if it does not work I may go surgical on them and get in there with tweezers and take em all out.

Sucks because they wiped out a really good sps colony I had. Still have some of it left to salvage and keep growing out, but all that growth is gone. (btw.. I was gone for 2 months and had a fellow reefer doing basic maintenece on my tank while i was gone ... thats why i did not attack it sooner)

specialk · Feb 23, 2018

LJLKRL05 said:
If you can take the rock out, you might be able to remove the SPS from the rock and then you can do whatever is necessary to kill them. Then put the SPS back on the rock.

Unfortunately the rock is COVERED with a few other sps. That would be ideal though

ajhudson15 · Feb 23, 2018

I wonder if you can take the rock out. get the shrooms to shrivel up and then hit them with vinegar or something more lethal. if you get them to shrivel up it may make it easier to hit them and not everything else around them

LJLKRL05 · Feb 23, 2018

specialk said:
Unfortunately the rock is COVERED with a few other sps. That would be ideal though

Bummer. I have some red discosoma mushrooms that my wife loves, and I just know one day I am going to be sorry I left them in there.
I had some purple ones on another rock that I tried to remove, and if you leave just a speck they grow back. I ended up giving that rock a muriatic acid wash and that took care of them.

specialk · Feb 23, 2018

ajhudson15 said:
I wonder if you can take the rock out. get the shrooms to shrivel up and then hit them with vinegar or something more lethal. if you get them to shrivel up it may make it easier to hit them and not everything else around them

Not a bad idea .. I can inject the stem with some kalk that way and get them at the source

specialk · Feb 23, 2018

LJLKRL05 said:
Bummer. I have some red discosoma mushrooms that my wife loves, and I just know one day I am going to be sorry I left them in there.
I had some purple ones on another rock that I tried to remove, and if you leave just a speck they grow back. I ended up giving that rock a muriatic acid wash and that took care of them.

Yah I hate them personally. When I first got in the hobby 10 years ago I loved them (I loved everything ...lol) ...now they are the same as a nuisance algae to me

RicordeaFreak · Feb 23, 2018

i would cut the mushroom off at the foot with a razor blade then use epoxy putty to cover over the foot thats left on the rock.

BradB · Feb 23, 2018

Sell the rocks to someone who wants shrooms and buy new rocks.

Rick Cavanaugh · Feb 23, 2018

My tank is now mushroom free. It is almost impossible to kill mushrooms. I tried everything including using a insulin syringe to inject lugols into them. Straight lugols would not kill them. Ended up removing most of the rock and buying new rock and started over.

Just say no to mushrooms, Green Star Polyps, Xenia, Aiptaisa, all Zoa's, Anthelia and majanos. They are all pests.

SteadyC · Feb 24, 2018

RicordeaFreak said:
i would cut the mushroom off at the foot with a razor blade then use epoxy putty to cover over the foot thats left on the rock.

+1 on this,route

pdt7361 · Feb 24, 2018

I always inject unwanted palys/shrooms with distilled white vinegar. Just use a thin needle right in the middle and it should kill them almost immediately.

rcmike · Feb 24, 2018

If it's really bad like mine was your best bet is to trade in the rock for new rock. I hated to get that drastic but I tried everything. If you don't get every tiny bit of living material they will come back. I kept a couple of small rocks that looked nice but only had a couple on them. I fried them with a small torch but there are still a few small pieces that I can see coming back. No big deal to take out those small rocks and do it again on these but there is no way that would have worked on my whole tank.

PhreeByrd · Feb 24, 2018

There is no way to cleanly and completely physically remove discosoma unless you remove part of the rock they are attached to with them. It is not possible to pull them off or razor blade them off the rock, and any little piece left behind will regenerate, so ignore any uninformed advice along those lines. Likewise for removing the rock and scrubbing it -- absolutely useless unless you completely nuke the rock. If you have lots of them, it might be in your best interest for now to just focus on controlling them rather than driving yourself crazy trying to eradicate them. Eventually you might be able to get rid of them all, but having a few that are well-behaved might also be just fine. Patience is key, because this is not going to happen overnight.

Discosoma are closely related to anemones, so what works to kill aiptasia also works to kill discosoma (except for the most effective method, Berghia). Discosoma are in some ways easier to treat because they don't immediately retract when treated like aiptasia do. Joe's Juice, Aiptasia-X, kalkwasser paste all work, usually with one application. Hot water generally does not work. Acids like vinegar and lemon juice can work, but if you have a lot of discosoma to treat you can really upset your tank's chemistry with these.

Turn off the flow in your tank. Each treatment should focus on one manageable section of your tank. Using Joe's Juice, Aiptasia-X, or thick kalkwasser in a syringe, cover each shroom's oral opening. You don't need to (and probably cannot) inject the stuff into its mouth. You don't need to cover the entire oral disc, but it won't hurt anything if you do. Wait at least 30 minutes before turning the flow back on, and be sure your skimmer is operating well. A small percentage of the treated discosoma will survive and eventually re-emerge, so a second application after a few days is probably going to be necessary.

FWIW, I use thick kalkwasser because it's cheap, readily available, and as easy to use as anything else. Mix it to a consistency like heavy cream and it will stay put on the pest.