toadstool care question

i ordered a toadstool last week, it looked pretty bad up until yesterday. i found bits of slime all over it when i first bought it not to mention it has some kind of worm growing on it ill get my brother to get some good pics of it soon for a ID and how to treat. alright im trailing off my question is should i help my toadstool through its next shedding by blasting it with a turkey baster?

i am also getting a flordia ric on tuesday any special care they need?

also what should i do about the worms? should i just frag off the bit of it that has them or what?

turkey baster works great for blowing off the slime

what kind of lighting are you using for the ric?

Jack wrote:also what should i do about the worms? should i just frag off the bit of it that has them or what?

Hello Jack

I would not frag the coral until you are sure what kind of worm is on it. It may be harmless or even helpful. Do you have any pictures or even a discription?

PHYTO4LIFE wrote:turkey baster works great for blowing off the slime

what kind of lighting are you using for the ric?

Hello Phyto4life

Florida Rics are fine under T5's or Power Compacts.

Hey

I got mine on the gravel and under 4-t5's on a 20g long do you think they will be fine under 2-t5's mid level?

Do yuma's require more light then normal rics or does it depend on color?

Jack wrote:also what should i do about the worms? should i just frag off the bit of it that has them or what?

We definitely need a description length,width,color,behaviour most worms are beneficial and detritivorous if thats word

my brother has pics. they seem to be stationary and live in tubes similar to fan worms all you can see of them are two thin clean tenticles pocking out of these small tubes, in one concentrated area about 1 cm^2

http://www.zoaid.com/index.php?module=Gallery2&g2_itemId=384
?

That is a species of Tube worm and it is a beneficial species. I hope this helps you out.

Worms With Two Tentacles
There are a number of families of tube-dwelling worms that feed by extending two tentacles, often called palps, from their tube out into the water. They feed on small particulate material, and probably also absorb some dissolved organic matter. Representatives of only two of these families are likely to be found commonly in aquaria, however; these families are the Spionidae and the Chaetopteridae.


Although much more common than chaetopterids on real reefs, spionids are somewhat rare in reef tanks. They may make an appearance by extending their paired tentacles from a small hole in a piece of reef rock or perhaps a gorgonian or snail shell. They often extend their burrows into the non-living parts of corals and other animals with a calcareous shell. Many spionids are naturally found in sediments, but these particular worms do not seem to be particularly common in reef tanks. Without microscopic identification, it is hard to definitively identify spionids, but they may be distinguished from the following group by examining the worm's body. Spionids typically have a head, but lack other body regions; the front, middle, and back parts of the worms tend to look alike.

The similarity of the body regions is not the case with the chaetopterids, and at least one member of this family may be very abundant in reef tanks. This abundant worm is placed in the genus Phyllochaetopterus. Phyllochaetopterus individuals build a tube out of "hardened" mucus in which they cement sand grains. These tubes can be up to an inch or so in length and are about the diameter of a thin piece of pencil lead. They will be oriented vertically in the sediments or occasionally found filling pre-existing holes in rocks. The worms themselves are quite small, less than a quarter inch long; in fact, in most cases less than a tenth of an inch. Consequently, their typical tube provides them with quite a spacious home. The tentacles are often five to ten times the length of the rest of the worm, and when examined with a hand lens or good magnifying glass, the various regions of the worm may be seen to have distinctly different appearances.

Phyllochaetopterus is generally a benign member of the detritivore group found in reef tanks and they are pretty good scavengers; any particulate material that strikes their tentacles is pulled into the tube and eaten. However, they are gregarious and reproduce well in reef tanks. These two properties may, in time, cause some problems. The worms can form quite large mats with literally hundreds to thousands of tubes all cemented together. These mats quite efficiently exclude other worms from the area, and can seal off the sand bed surface. This, in turn, can cause the emigration of other animals out from under such a patch, which can result in the cementation of sediments under the patch and the failure of the sand bed biological filtration under the patch of worms. Such worm masses need to be periodically broken up or removed from the system, otherwise they may cause the complete failure of a deep sand bed. The reproduction and subsequent patch growth can occur with surprising speed. In a 60 gallon hex tank I once had, I introduced some of these worms and, within about three months, they had literally paved the sand bed surface with their tubes. I attempted to remove them all, and it was not an easy task.

I've never had a problem with them and have always noticed them in small numbers in my tank and this is with a skimmerless tank I still have a few that just don't seem like they cause any problems

same with spaghetti worms some say they can be irritators but I like them because they eat detritus just like brittle worms but I've noticed that if a zoo for example gets sick/rotting the spaghetti worms seem to look like they swarm around that sick and rotten polyp and potential slowly consume it which can be a good other then that I do notice them on rock instead of gravel when I get a small patch of brown rotten spot from my sps in the past

how long should it take it to shed its slime coat? im pretty sure the store sold me a carppy toadstool, there is all kinds of algae growing on its base and its not really attached to anything solid...

I'm guessing once a week the slime coat comes off sometimes sooner

If the skin is black/brown or rough you can take a soft bristle tooth brush to it and see if you can brush a thin layer of skin off the base

To attach

look into sewing it to a rock or try to firmly squeeze 2 good size rocks on each side of the bottem of the base allowing it to attach to them then weeks later when attached you can razor blade the one rock off by cutting the skin

would i be able to use reef glue to hold it on?

still hasn't improved at all since my last post. i took a tooth brish to its base yesterday and im pretty sure it spewed toxins into my tank and still has black slime on it, now my mushrooms aren't quite open . i definetly (deleted word by moderator) around with my aquarium yesterday i destroyed the flordia ric that i got not even a week ago

would it be too early to decide to just give up on saveing the whole coloney and just try and save a few frags of it? it use to extend its polyps but never open them, but now it doesn't even really look alive. the base looks like its literally melting away

If the base looks like its melting away frag immediately cutting well back from the decaying flesh.

thanks, i cut the crown into 5 pieces i think... all i need in one of two to survive. i have them in a bucket in a low flow area of my tank with some large rubble i hope they take hold

brushing and fragging coral's should be done outside the tank in a bucket or on a old cutting board 4 propagating etc and throw away the old water and rinse in a seperate bucket of tank water

for the bucket

The shallower dish and the most flow you can get without the pieces coming out the better if things get worse/all mushy just throw it out or slice some more pieces using a razor/scissors the frag you have remaining should look healthy with fresh slices,no mush,no rotting ,no discolored pieces

well it looks like at least 3 of the 5 cuttings are taking hold just a few more days till i see how many toadstools frags i get out of this

So how many frags did you end up with?

I am glad to hear that you did not lose the whole coral. Frags are awsome will grow. Or you could sell the ones you do not need.

i haven't updated this in a while.... none of the frags took and now i am having nitrate problems but live and learn, always make sure you inspect your corals before you buy them