Toadstool Mushroom rotting/dying/splitting? Help please.

[Lylelovett]

Hi all,

Attached are photos of my giant mushroom toadstool (that I've had for 4 years) seemingly spontaneously dying?

Parameters are all in check. It started sluffing off skin, now a hole has "rotted" as you can see in the photo. When I move it and pull the flesh off it definitely has a rotting smell when I take my (gloved) hand out of the tank. All other corals and fish and inverts are doing fine in the tank.

There is a either gonipora or a golve poly (I don't remember which) that touched it for about a day about a week ago. Could that little bit of contact so severely destroy/melt this giant 16" mushroom?

Is it splitting? Do I cut away the rotted part? Is it doomed, do I just pull it from the tank?

Thanks so much!
(I can take more pictures once the light changes in a few hours)

 

[vetteguy53081]

Hi all,

Attached are photos of my giant mushroom toadstool (that I've had for 4 years) seemingly spontaneously dying?

Parameters are all in check. It started sluffing off skin, now a hole has "rotted" as you can see in the photo. When I move it and pull the flesh off it definitely has a rotting smell when I take my (gloved) hand out of the tank. All other corals and fish and inverts are doing fine in the tank.

There is a either gonipora or a golve poly (I don't remember which) that touched it for about a day about a week ago. Could that little bit of contact so severely destroy/melt this giant 16" mushroom?

Is it splitting? Do I cut away the rotted part? Is it doomed, do I just pull it from the tank?

Thanks so much!
(I can take more pictures once the light changes in a few hours)

This one may have to be dragged. When they get large, they often do this at cap and stem in which they’re cut outside of the tank to create new ones
Try increasing flow and add iodine to water to see if it perks up but my guess would be not

 

[Eagle_Steve]

Hi all,

Attached are photos of my giant mushroom toadstool (that I've had for 4 years) seemingly spontaneously dying?

Parameters are all in check. It started sluffing off skin, now a hole has "rotted" as you can see in the photo. When I move it and pull the flesh off it definitely has a rotting smell when I take my (gloved) hand out of the tank. All other corals and fish and inverts are doing fine in the tank.

There is a either gonipora or a golve poly (I don't remember which) that touched it for about a day about a week ago. Could that little bit of contact so severely destroy/melt this giant 16" mushroom?

Is it splitting? Do I cut away the rotted part? Is it doomed, do I just pull it from the tank?

Thanks so much!
(I can take more pictures once the light changes in a few hours)

@sfin52, @F i s h y @Lost in the Sauce have a ton of experience with softies and may be able to provide you a course of action to take.

 

[sfin52]

Hi all,

Attached are photos of my giant mushroom toadstool (that I've had for 4 years) seemingly spontaneously dying?

Parameters are all in check. It started sluffing off skin, now a hole has "rotted" as you can see in the photo. When I move it and pull the flesh off it definitely has a rotting smell when I take my (gloved) hand out of the tank. All other corals and fish and inverts are doing fine in the tank.

There is a either gonipora or a golve poly (I don't remember which) that touched it for about a day about a week ago. Could that little bit of contact so severely destroy/melt this giant 16" mushroom?

Is it splitting? Do I cut away the rotted part? Is it doomed, do I just pull it from the tank?

Thanks so much!
(I can take more pictures once the light changes in a few hours)

Pic under white light will help a ton.

 

[Lylelovett]

Pic under white light will help a ton.

looks like holes are starting to form in the middle... sad.

 

[Lylelovett]

And one more...

 

[sfin52]

Double post

 

[sfin52]

What type of flow does it sit in. Try taking a

turkey baster and blow off the brown gunk. If the part where holes are opening up aren't black than its splitting.

Leathers will develop holes and they will spread till the edges of the coral is meet. This new peice will be a future colony.

Both the pics at the top is my devils hand. If you zoom in you can see holes developing on mine.

 

[Lylelovett]

Pic under white light will help a ton.

The flow that it's in is good. Up until this started happening it's been in the same for for years. It's slumped over now since it's being doing this - should I adjust a spare powerhead to get more flow on it?

When I blow the brown gunk off it's not black underneath, it's still sort of mushroom colored. Nothing is BLACK colored.

FWIW - When I remove my gloves it has that decaying ocean smell.

 

[sfin52]

@fishguy242 thoughts.

 

[fishguy242]

Hi, if decaying,smells like sewage ,would recommend fragging ,outside of tank,
iodine base dip .

 

[Lylelovett]

Hi, if decaying,smells like sewage ,would recommend fragging ,outside of tank,
iodine base dip .

Doesn't smell like sewage, but more like dirty ocean smell. (maybe that's the same thing?)

I've never done fragging on a mushroom or iodine base dip. Do you by chance have links/guides to best process/practices for that?

That sounds so daunting, lol!

 

[fishguy242]

Should not smell rotten, may not be black,pretty sure i see rotting tissue.
i would do a 5 gallon water change, split used water in 3 sep buckets , frag off all good tissue in # 1
iodine based dip 30 min in bucket #2 ,rinse frags in # 3 ,then return to tank.
run some fresh carbon for a few days in main tank.

 

[Lylelovett]

Should not smell rotten, may not be black,pretty sure i see rotting tissue.
i would do a 5 gallon water change, split used water in 3 sep buckets , frag off all good tissue in # 1
iodine based dip 30 min in bucket #2 ,rinse frags in # 3 ,then return to tank.
run some fresh carbon for a few days in main tank.

Got it. I've started watching some fragging videos so it's less daunting now.

At this point, do I try to save the base in addition to the frags?

 

[fishguy242]

if possible yes,will grow new cap.

 

[Lylelovett]

if possible yes,will grow new cap.

And just carve around the bad tissue and toss that? Is there any point to clean up the places where it's "rotting" then dip it and try to save that, or is it better to cut my losses on those parts?

 

[fishguy242]

correct, not worth risk of recontamination of others.

 

[Lylelovett]

correct, not worth risk of recontamination of others.

Thanks so much.

Any idea what causes this kind of thing? It seemed so spontaneous - I've not even added anything new to the tank that would have introduced anything.

 

[fishguy242]

IMO , large started splitting on own, no clue what could have caused "infection" ??

 

[Lylelovett]

IMO , large started splitting on own, no clue what could have caused "infection" ??

The base mushroom is attached to a big piece of rock - it's in the iodine dip base right now. Should I not return that rock to the tank, even after rinsing? Will it have soaked up too much iodine that will leach back into the tank?