Mushrooms

Mushroom Corals for Sale

A mushroom is the coral that gets people who have lost a few corals to try again. No skeleton, no real alkalinity demand, and it forgives the swings a new tank produces. The named ones are a different market. Bounces, jawbreakers and Ricordea yuma are bought as individual animals, which is why nearly everything on this page is WYSIWYG and photographed in our Key West systems as the exact piece you receive.

Discosoma, Rhodactis and Ricordea: how to tell them apart

• Discosoma: a smooth or lightly ribbed disc with a raised, cone-shaped mouth. The classic flat mushroom.
• Rhodactis: the disc is covered in short, branched bumps that give it a fuzzy or hairy look, with small tentacles around the rim. Bounces and the big hairy mushrooms are Rhodactis.
• Ricordea: covered in round, bubble-like tentacles. Ricordea yuma comes from the Indo-Pacific and has tentacles on the mouth cone. Ricordea florida comes from the Caribbean and Florida, and its small mouth is bare.

Bounce mushrooms

A bounce is a Rhodactis with inflated, bubble-like tips. Nobody has pinned down what makes the bubbles come and go. Keepers report them shrinking after very strong light, strong direct flow and handling. A bounce can lose its bubbles and regain them later, and a freshly cut bounce does not always recover. Buy a bounce for what it is today, and keep conditions steady so it stays that way.

Florida ricordea

Our Florida ricordea are hand-collected in the Keys under Florida’s commercial marine life rules, which set daily limits on how many polyps a licensed collector can take. They tend to be hardier about water quality than yuma.

Mushroom care, in numbers

• Light: 50 to 150 PAR. Discosoma do best at the low end and can bleach under strong light. Rhodactis and Ricordea take a little more.
• Flow: low and indirect. Strong flow keeps them curled up and eventually pulls them loose.
• Placement: lower rock or a sand-level shelf, out of direct current.
• Feeding: optional. They live mostly on light. Ricordea take small pieces, about half a mysis shrimp, and ignore fine powdered foods. Rhodactis fold their disc around meaty food.
• Water: tolerant. Mushrooms often do well in tanks with more nutrients than SPS keepers would accept. Yuma are the most sensitive of the group.

They move, and they multiply

An unhappy mushroom lets go of the rock and drifts until it finds a spot it likes. That is normal behavior, not a crisis. Put it in a low-flow container of rubble until it grabs on again, then place it where it ended up wanting to be.

They also split. A single yuma pinches into two, then four. That is the argument for buying one good mushroom instead of three ordinary ones. Discosoma can spread fast once settled, so give them a rock of their own if you do not want them everywhere.

Big hairy mushrooms and small fish

Large Rhodactis can fold up around a small fish, and the giant elephant ear mushroom, Amplexidiscus, has been recorded eating fish, including clownfish. Keep small gobies and other fish that rest on the rock away from the biggest hairy mushrooms.

How to pick a healthy mushroom

• A closed, intact foot with no torn tissue at the base.
• Full color across the disc. Pale or patchy color can mean bleaching.
• A mushroom floating loose in the bag is not automatically dead. It needs a rubble bed and a couple of weeks to reattach.

Common problems

It detached and moved. Check flow first. It is telling you where it wants to be.

It is shrinking and will not open. Check flow, then light. Mushrooms rarely have pest problems, and placement explains most cases.

It turned pale. Usually too much light, especially for Discosoma. Move it lower or into shade.

Questions we get asked

Will they take over my tank?

Discosoma can, given nutrients and time. Ricordea and most bounces spread slowly enough that it is rarely a concern.

Why are some mushrooms $40 and others $300?

The expensive ones are specific animals: a yuma with an unusual color pattern, a bounce with full bubbles, a rare morph. With WYSIWYG, you pay for the exact animal in the photo.

Is a mushroom a good first coral?

Yes. Our beginner coral guide explains why.

How it ships from Key West

Mushrooms ship UPS Next Day Air on Tuesdays and Wednesdays only, so no box sits in a hub over a weekend. We ship to the lower 48. We do not ship to Alaska or Hawaii.

• Shipping charge: $30 for qualifying Florida livestock orders under 6 lb, and $50 elsewhere in the lower 48. The shipping charge is per order.
• Free livestock transportation: on qualifying livestock subtotals of $349 or more. WYSIWYG pieces count toward the $349. Dry goods do not.
• Box & Handling Fee: $10 per livestock box, and it still applies on orders with free livestock transportation. A box carries up to 6 lb of packed livestock. Heavier orders go out in additional boxes, each with its own $10 fee.
• Live arrival: if something arrives dead, photograph the animal inside the unopened bag within 4 hours of UPS delivery confirmation and send it with your order number.

Keep reading

• Mushroom Corals: Discosoma vs Rhodactis vs Ricordea
• Mushroom Corals: Types and Care
• Florida Ricordea: Licensed, Local, Hand-Collected in the Keys
• Best Beginner Corals
• All soft corals · Zoanthids · Florida Keys corals · WYSIWYG corals