Mushroom Ate my Clown!

Mark Teitelman · Apr 25, 2017

Jake that's the same exact shroom I had...you may want to get rid of it. It will probably do that again...

Christopher Davis · Apr 25, 2017

MyNameIsAshAndIAmASlave said:
crazy. I had a clown disappear recently. Never did find out what happened. My mushrooms are no where near that size. I'm thinking bristleworms ate him...I found some huge guys that prey when the food is put in the tank.

Could of been a bristle worm! I've never seen them go after live fish however? If they are big enough sure!
You could get a coral banded shrimp or arrow crab and then worms would be toast!

Or you could have a bobbit worm?! If you keep loosing fish so watch out!

reefwiser · Apr 25, 2017

Elephant ear mushroom is a common name in the trade for this type of mushroom. You best to stay with the small 1 inch to 2 inch mushrooms they do not cause any problems other than they can grow pretty fast.

I found this when I searched for elephant ear mushroom. So funny the caption is clown fish hosting.

More like mushroom eating. This behavior becomes bad at night when the clownfish are sleeping. The mushroom will just close all the way up and kill the clown fish.

laineyg6 · Apr 25, 2017

Okay, now I'm nervous. I have a lovely little rhodactis mushroom in my nano tank, and it's probably 3.5" across. My clowns don't host in it, and I've never heard of an elephant ear mushroom. Do you guys think I'm safe? Here's a pic of it with my cleaner shrimp.

tcampbell23 · Apr 25, 2017

Oh man this has gotten me a little concerned as well. Once I get home I'll post a pic of my mushrooms. Hopefully they're the fin-friendly kind.

Robg719 · Apr 25, 2017

Sorry for your loss. You have a great tank.
I have the same mushroom ~4.5-5" in diameter. Assume I should get rid of asap??

reefwiser · Apr 25, 2017

It will cause issues if it gets much larger. Try spot feeding it to see if it does the same cupping behavior. There are so many mushrooms species not all of them will do this.

Justin Nguyen · Apr 25, 2017

New info with me. Sorry heard that. Im worry my clown fish. Now she is hosting in large hairy mushroom.

James Johnson · Apr 25, 2017

Strange, I actually have a large clarkii hosting my 6" elephant ear anemone. It took him weeks of getting stung to adapt his/her slime coat before it could go in. Now the mushroom cradles the clown day and night. Clown seems much more happy now to since she/he beat the last anemone to a pulp by smothering it all the time and killed it

Best Fish-Jake · Apr 25, 2017

Robg719 said:
Sorry for your loss. You have a great tank.
I have the same mushroom ~4.5-5" in diameter. Assume I should get rid of asap??

I've had mine for ~6 months with only 1 incident (a new stressed out fire shrimp) I won't be removing mine, but also won't be adding any other daintier livestock. Just be cautious! I love those splendid dottybacks btw

laineyg6 · Apr 25, 2017

reefwiser said:
Elephant ear mushroom is a common name in the trade for this type of mushroom. You best to stay with the small 1 inch to 2 inch mushrooms they do not cause any problems other than they can grow pretty fast. I found this when I searched for elephant ear mushroom. So funny the caption is clown fish hosting. More like mushroom eating. This behavior becomes bad at night when the clownfish are sleeping. The mushroom will just close all the way up and kill the clown fish.

I hate to like this, but you have a very valid point. "Oh how cute" isn't the case here. ;Nailbiting