Description

This is a rhodactis mushroom species with a purple blue base and reddish colored tentacles. It is from the Caribbean and is named after the Island St Thomas. In our custom aquarium builds we like to place this mushroom on an island or lower parts of reef. During aquarium maintenance you can frag these mushrooms by chiseling off the rock . We like to place pieces of reef rock rubble next to them allowing the mushroom to grow onto the rock rubble.

Lighting: Low lighting 30-80 PAR.
Flow: Low
Care Level: Easy
Original Location Range: Indonesia, Coral Triangle, South Pacific
Grown in our California coral farm where we provide zero impact corals
Water chemistry: Calcium 400-450, Magnesium 1350, KH 7-9.5, pH 8.1-8.4, Nitrates .01-10, Phosphates .01-.1 salinity 1.026
Temperature Range: 74- 81 Fahrenheit
Feeding: mushroom will consume most foods and pellets and the target feeding can be placed directly on the mushroom disk.
Mushroom anemones are corallimorpharians and known as the transition of stony coral to soft coral. Most mushroom corallimorpharians asexually reproduce and can multiply well. These little gems can do very well and some have extraordinary colors. The rhodactis species have a little textured like surface where small tentacles protrude from the disk. Some variations of the rhodactis can produce bubbles better known as bounce mushrooms. Discosoma species have smooth disks. The ricordea species have small tentacles spread out over the disk resembling mini carpet anemones. Ricordea can have multiple colors and different patterns making them some of the more interesting of this genus. There are two different types of ricordea mushrooms. The ricordea Yuma comes for the south Pacific region and the ricordea Florida come from the Caribbean region.
In many of our reef tank builds we like to place these on a separate rock islands to keep them from spreading all over the reef. Some spread faster than others and some hardly spread at all and have to be forced to multiply.

Attachment: Use epoxy and or reef glue gel. Clip off as much of the plug or disc possible. Add a small amount of coral glue to the underside of the disk. Mix up enough two part epoxy to create a small mound and dab it a few times into the glue to get it tacky then press and mold a conical shape. Add a few small daps to the tip of the cone dabbing the glue so it really sticks to the epoxy. Press the coral disk onto the desired location and press the epoxy flat around the disk. Be sure the coral is fully secure, the coral should never fall off the reef. The epoxy part can be skipped using only the extra thick reef glue gel. Be sure to rub a little reef glue onto the reef section and there is enough reef glue on the coral plug to set it securely.

Click here for our favorite epoxy and reef glues.

Troubleshooting: If placing them on the reef all one needs to do is keep them managed in one desired section. We like to use a chisel for pruning by scraping the ones growing out of the desired location off the rock. These little anemone like corallimorphs can sting other corals if they are allowed to spread over the reef.