Coral warfare?

jase75

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I think I know the answer, I just want to make sure before I go messing around in the tank. I have a mushroom colony that has been doing well since it hitchhiked on the live rock I got about 10 months ago. Lately, it has refused to expand and stays shrunken all day. I recently acquired a frag of what I think is a Branching Hammer coral (Euphyllia paranchora) and situated it about 7-8 inches from the mushroom. The mushroom is down current of it. I thought I gave it enough room to avoid the sweeper tentacles. Is the Hammer the culprit?
 
jase75;593933 wrote: I think I know the answer, I just want to make sure before I go messing around in the tank. I have a mushroom colony that has been doing well since it hitchhiked on the live rock I got about 10 months ago. Lately, it has refused to expand and stays shrunken all day. I recently acquired a frag of what I think is a Branching Hammer coral (Euphyllia paranchora) and situated it about 7-8 inches from the mushroom. The mushroom is down current of it. I thought I gave it enough room to avoid the sweeper tentacles. Is the Hammer the culprit?

Possibly. Chemical warfare among corals is technically known as allelopathy. Much has been written, and you may find some by searching this site. If in doubt, one or both corals and watch the response.
 
When my hammer hit a shroom it killed half of it. Guts outs and everything in about 3 hours. Was no wondering it wasn't shrunk it was gone. Sorry to hear though
 
jase75;593933 wrote: I think I know the answer, I just want to make sure before I go messing around in the tank. I have a mushroom colony that has been doing well since it hitchhiked on the live rock I got about 10 months ago. Lately, it has refused to expand and stays shrunken all day. I recently acquired a frag of what I think is a Branching Hammer coral (Euphyllia paranchora) and situated it about 7-8 inches from the mushroom. The mushroom is down current of it. I thought I gave it enough room to avoid the sweeper tentacles. Is the Hammer the culprit?

You may want to take a look an hour or two after the lights have gone off. That's generally when the sweeper tentacles come out. You could also just try moving the coral around and see if that helps.
 
It took a little planning to do, but I rearranged the Hammer and a couple others to give each plenty of space. That was about a week ago and it looks like the mushroom colony is recovering. Still far from full size, but they are regaining size each day.
 
Acroholic;598476 wrote: And mushrooms getting killed by sweeper tentacles is a bad thing????? :D

Okay, okay. I know mushrooms aren't exactly the corals reefers drool over, but I have a sentimental attachment to mine. It was on the first pieces of live rock I ever bought and it was couple weeks later that I even noticed it growing. It was the size of a small eraser then, and has grown steadily ever since. It was encouraging to see something desirable (term used lightly) while my tank was going through its algae and cyno blooms.
 
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