Elephant Ear Fish Eating Mushroom! Claimed two of my clowns :-(

Discussion in 'Soft Corals' started by Brandon1023, Mar 15, 2008.

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  1. Brandon1023

    Brandon1023 Fire Goby

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    OK so I thought this thing was a Ricordia Mushroom, but all along I figured that wasn't quite right. Then the "Show off your mushrooms" thread showed up and someone posted a pic of their Elephant Ear and so it makes sense to me now that that's what I have. Here is a pic of my tank from a couple days ago. It's the mushroom on the left, you can't miss it.

    Especially since one of my clowns that was hosting in it completely evaporated with no good reason, only to show up a couple days later dead and floating.

    Then yesterday my other clown disappeared, and he started hosting in the mushroom after the first clown died. Now he's at the top of my tank all slimy and...really weird looking. Ugh!

    So that coral has got to go, but I have a question. Are they like other mushrooms in that I can slice it across its mouth and make frags? Trust me this thing is huge, and if I could get a couple good frags out of it first, let them recover, and then trade in 4 instead of 1 that would get me some more money at the LFS.

    I just don't want to buy some more clowns and have them host in it again. I would keep it otherwise. None of the other fish come even close to the sucker. ....Truth be told, I wasn't a huge fan of the Tomato Clowns anyways ;)
     
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  3. amcarrig

    amcarrig Super Moderator

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    I have heard alot of people complaining about their elephant ears eating fish so you're definitely not the first.

    You should definitely be able to frag it like you would any other mushroom.
     
  4. lunatik_69

    lunatik_69 Giant Squid

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    Sorry for your loss
     
  5. suckafish

    suckafish Montipora Capricornis

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    what would be the best way to frag it?? cut it down the middle?? I have never done any fraging.
     
  6. geekdafied

    geekdafied 3reef Sponsor

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    Elephant ears like all mushrooms and ricordea's will readily eat any sleeping fish they can fit in their mouth. This is why I dont keep mushrooms.
     
  7. PharmrJohn

    PharmrJohn The Dude

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    K+ for your loss. Wow, I didn't know mushrooms could kill.
     
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  9. cannedmulder

    cannedmulder Teardrop Maxima Clam

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    I see it was a while ago that this happened. Did you frag the E. ear? How did it go? If it was the E. ear that killed them wouldn't the fish look eaten in some way? How are the rest of your fish doing now....if you got the E. ear out?
     
  10. Brandon1023

    Brandon1023 Fire Goby

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    Oh yea I tried to frag that sucker, but it is just SOOOOO big and has a SOLID grip on the rock its on. I tried slicing it from the bottom but the rock is so irregular that it just didn't work. And MAN was the mushroom pissed!! It like spit out all kinds of stringy things that looked like guts, from its mouth and from the edges of its rim. It looked like it was unraveling like a ball of thread.

    In the end it recuperated and is still in my tank doing just fine. I tried to sell it on the local forums but no dice. Like I said, if I didn't think it would pose a problem to any of my fish who weren't dumb enough to host in it, I would keep it. I have since gotten another typical Nemo-esqe Clown and he stays well away from it. The only other fish in danger would be my Lion, but he doesn't sit on the mushroom long enough anymore to cause any worry.

    And yes, cannedmulder, the clowns looked somewhat eaten and decomposed. It was REALLY nasty :sick2::sick3::sick:
     
  11. Bogie

    Bogie Snowflake Eel

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    I think I have an elephant ear in my tank. It hasn't eaten any fish yet, and the clowns don't try to host it. So I guess it just stays there for now as long as it isn't eating fish.
     
  12. Brandon1023

    Brandon1023 Fire Goby

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    You should see this thing sometimes at night! It literally looks like a hot air balloon the way it wraps itself up to go "fishing". I'll try to get a pic sometime soon, it's actually pretty cool.

    I'm really not self absorbed, but I can't get over the title I picked for this thread! It's making me giggle! LoL