Mushroom (Soft) Corals
The latest additions to my tank are soft
corals. Unlike the harder Fox, Anchor, Bubble, and Button corals,
these corals are all soft. Like the other corals, they
photosynthesize, and in fact they glow a fluorescent green when
the metal halide lights are on. Under regular fluorescent lights,
they look more brown.
Here is a Green Mushroom in closeup
Here it is again, only this time with one side
lifted up. Although they appear at times to be very limp, all of
the changes in structure which you see are entirely due to their
"muscles": the currents in my tank are too small to
effect them.
Here is a group of Warty Mushrooms. You can see
the green which the metal halide lights produce.
One day, one of the Warty mushroom polyps
decided to draw itself in, like a purse. I know of no special
reason why this took place (like a feeding or a change in tank
inhabitants or water quality).
It ended up looking like this: quite a change
from a circular "leaf"!
And here it is from above. The other greenery
aroud it are other Warty Mushroom polyps which had not decided to
exercise in this particular fashion.
