Elephant Ear Mushroom

Description

Elephant Ear Mushroom is offered under the retail name shown in the product title.

This is a mushroom corallimorph; the title does not establish a verified genus or species. Color and morph terms in the title are aquarium-trade descriptors, not a verified species identification unless a scientific name is explicitly included. Expansion, texture, and apparent color can shift with light, flow, nutrients, and photography.

Care Guide

• Lighting: Use low-to-medium light around 50–120 PAR and acclimate gradually. Avoid moving a newly received mushroom directly into strong light.
• Flow: Use low, gentle and indirect flow. The oral disc should not fold, peel from its attachment, or remain pinned in one direction.
• Placement: Use shaded lower rockwork or a stable sandbed position. Leave room for expansion and potential spreading.
• Feeding: Direct feeding is optional. If offered, use a very small meaty or planktonic portion and remove uneaten food.

Keep salinity and temperature stable, avoid abrupt light increases, and change one variable at a time. A newly shipped mushroom may remain contracted while it settles.

Shipping: Ships UPS Next Day Air from Key West. Current eligibility and delivery timing are shown at checkout.

What to expect when it arrives

Mushrooms ship shrunken and often detached from their plug or rubble. Neither is a problem. Float the sealed bag 15 minutes, add a little tank water every few minutes for 15 to 20 minutes (no long drip needed), and place the mushroom somewhere it cannot blow away — a low-flow corner, a rubble tray, or a small container with a few pieces of rock until it grabs on.

A detached mushroom reattaches on its own within one to three weeks given calm water and something textured to grip. Do not glue a mushroom; the foot is soft tissue and glue damages it. If it keeps releasing and moving, that is the animal rejecting the spot, not failing to attach.

Placement, and the light mistake

Too much light is by far the most common mushroom error. They are low-light animals and will stretch thin, pale, and eventually detach under SPS-level lighting. Start low on the rockwork or on the sand and leave it. A mushroom that is happy stays put, opens flat and broad through the day, and thickens over weeks.

Flow should be gentle. Strong flow keeps a mushroom curled at the edges and prevents it from seating.

Growth and propagation

Mushrooms multiply by splitting and by dropping small daughter tissue from the foot. Discosoma do this fastest, Rhodactis more slowly, and Ricordea slowest of all — which is why Ricordea stays expensive. Feeding the larger Rhodactis and Ricordea with small meaty food two or three times a week noticeably speeds the process.

Compatibility

Mushrooms do not sting, but the larger Rhodactis will close around and consume a small fish or shrimp that settles on them overnight. They are otherwise peaceful. Give any mushroom room to expand to roughly twice the size it shows on arrival.