My top picks - Mushrooms
My top picks
This is part of a new series in which I pick out all my favourites. This time we take a look at Mushrooms.
As these are the best, brightest, or rarest, some of them will naturally mean spending quite a bit to get them, but, that’s not always the case, as there are some truly stunning Mushroom corals you can get, that actually cost very little.
Generally Mushroom corals are extremely easy to keep, making them a great choice for your first step into the world of corals. Because they are so easy to keep it’s a bit less daunting to splash out on something really special, as you’re unlikely to lose any even if something goes badly wrong.
Mushrooms soon start popping out baby Mushrooms too, especially Discoma species, which are generally the fastest at popping baby ones out. Given a bit of time they can cover quite a large area making them a great way to fill space with lots of colour.
The baby ones are very saleable too, and once you get a little garden of them growing away you can sell them, or trade them in, and it can soon end up funding your whole hobby or paying for your next upgrade. Many of the Mushrooms that we sell online I farm myself in store.
Here are all my top picks of Mushroom corals.
James Goodchild
Salty Revolution
Tonga mushrooms - Rhodactis species
Tonga mushrooms can get to 3” or more across. While they don’t pop out babies as fast as Discoma mushrooms, because each baby can grow quite large quite quickly they are a great way to fill large areas in 500 litre plus tanks.
Discoma mushrooms - Discoma species
Discoma mushrooms are my favourite genus of mushrooms. They mostly only grow to 1” to 2” (25mm to 50mm) across, although some do grow larger. Because each Discoma mushroom doesn’t take up much space, it makes it easy to collect lots of different types even in a small nano tank. There are lots of different Discoma mushrooms to choose from too, literally hundreds of different ones.
They suit all budgets too. You can get spend hundreds or even thousands of pounds, on a single Discoma mushroom, but, there are also a huge amount you can pick up for £20 or less. Discoma mushrooms pop out the most babies too, so are an ideal choice if you wish to start a little garden that will soon start funding your hobby.
Yuma mushrooms - Ricordea yuma
No serious Mushroom collection would be complete without some Yuma mushrooms. Yumas are perhaps the trickiest mushrooms to keep. Mostly it’s a case of keeping them in heavy shade so you don’t bleach them. Yumas are more reliant on the food they catch than on photosynthesis, in fact I used to farm the orange and yellow Yumas in virtual pitch black in the sump!
Yuma mushrooms typically only get to an inch or two across (25-50mm). They are the slowest growing of all Mushroom corals, and the slowest at producing babies too. Most people that collect Yumas do so in Nano tanks. This is mostly because Yuma mushrooms contain a lot of fine details and it’s easier to see these features in a nano reef where you can more easily see them close up.
Jawbreaker mushrooms - Discoma eclectus
Jawbreaker mushrooms originate from Australia. They are unbelievably brightly coloured, and very highly sought after. Unfortunately this does mean collecting Jawbreaker mushrooms can hit your wallet pretty hard! They are so nice though!
Other Mushrooms
There are far more types of Mushrooms than this of course. I’ve probably got 80+ types on farm in store at the moment, although not all of those are on the website.
We do have a huge range of them online though, so make sure you take a look at all our other Mushrooms too!
Also check out our all new ECOSYSTEM 7 - Pack 7 - Mushroom garden.
Click the Main menu button below to see all our livestock.
Here are the other Blogs so far in our new Top Picks series. Make sure you sign up to our FREE VIP mailing list so you don’t miss out on the rest of our Top Picks series. Find out more on our El Presidente’s VIP club page (button below).
James Goodchild, Salty Revolution.
