Ricordea/Rhodactis Mushroom Question

[JeffDubya]

I have some small (1-2 in) green “hairy” mushrooms I bought several months ago that have done very well. The store IDed them as ricordea, but they look kinda like a Rhodactis to me. About a month and a half ago, one of the polyps dropped off and before I could grab it, the current blew it around the back where there was absolutely no way to get to it.

Three weeks after it dropped off, the current continued moving it along, and with the use of a large syringe I was able to blow it to where I could access it. I grabbed it and dropped it into a hole in a piece of live rock, where it eventually attached and it is still doing well to this day.

My question is this; when I finally was able to capture it, it had lost most of its’ color. I wouldn’t call it white, but where the others are brownish green, this one is very, VERY pale in color.

I got this from an article by by Jason Buchheim, the Director of Odyssey Expeditions on coral bleaching (http://www.marinebiology.org/coralbleaching.htm):

Bleaching, or the paling of zooxanthellate invertebrates, occurs when (i) the densities of zooxanthellae decline and / or (ii) the concentration of photosynthetic pigments within the zooxanthellae fall (Kleppel et al. 1989). Most reef-building corals normally contain around 1-5 x 106 zooxanthellae cm-2 of live surface tissue and 2-10 pg of chlorophyll a per zooxanthella. When corals bleach they commonly lose 60-90% of their zooxanthellae and each zooxanthella may lose 50-80% of its photosynthetic pigments (Glynn 1996). The pale appearance of bleached scleractinian corals and hydrocorals is due to the cnidarian’s calcareous skeleton showing through the translucent tissues (that are nearly devoid of pigmented zooxanthellae).*

If the stress-causing bleaching is not too severe and if it decreases in time, the affected corals usually regain their symbiotic algae within several weeks or a few months. If zooxanthellae loss is prolonged, i.e. if the stress continues and depleted zooxanthellae populations do not recover, the coral host eventually dies.

So, I guess my first question is: is bleaching truly what has happened here? Has anyone else experienced this type of situation with a mushroom polyp? Everything seems to be fine with it right now in terms of how extended it gets during the day... it’s really a mirror image of the healthy ones, save for the color.

And... assuming this is some form of bleaching, if the pigmented zooxanthellae do not recover and health of this mushroom deteriorates, how will I know?

[Rob]

it is a form of bleaching and is very common for any coral that goes though something like this (assuming they can live through it)

now that you have to coral back out in the light it should regain its color. it wont be right away, but in time it will

[V]

Rob when the cogs start turning again, this dude sounds like an orsome candidate for the show!

I got this from an article by by Jason Buchheim, the Director of Odyssey Expeditions on coral bleaching (http://www.marinebiology.org/coralbleaching.htm):

Simple, dirrect, oozes knowledge!

Jeff thanks for post that by the way!, and your coral took quite a beating behind your rockwork, unstable positions and currents, limited light, substrate grazing, who knows maybe more. As you know that sort of thing takes time to recover from, regardless of the species.