Blue Mushroom Anemones
Picture taken April 1999, Sony Mavica FD91 digital camera, no flash

Phylum Cnidaria, Class Anthozoa, Order Corallimorpharia

This colony of Blue Mushroom Anemones were added to the tank on January 19th, 1998. They have multiplied but at a fairly slow rate compared to other mushrooms anemones I have.

These mushrooms are easy to care for. They like low flow water currents and intense light. Many mushrooms corals like moderate to low light levels. I kept them under direct VHO lighting for over a year in my 55g tank before they were moved to my 180 gallon. They require no direct feeding.

Mushroom Eggs under Ruler. Picture taken May 2000
Nikon CoolPix 950 Digital Camera, Full Flash

Phylum Cnidaria, Class Anthozoa, Order Corallimorpharia

In May 2000, I was removing a mushroom colony that got to close to an acropora colony. Using a pair of surgical clamps, I started pulling on the mushroom. The mushroom started ejecting hundreds of little blue spheres which I think were eggs. I was able to capture some of the eggs.

In this picture you can see three of the eggs near a standard U.S. ruler. It appears that they are smaller than the smallest gradient on the ruler which is 1/32nd of an inch.

Mushroom Eggs with 17x Macro. Picture taken May 2000
Nikon CoolPix 950 Digital Camera, Full Flash

This picture shows the same three eggs with as much macro /zoom I could get out of my Nikon Coolpix 950 digital camera and still be in focus. This picture used a Tiffen +10 and +7 lenses and partial optical zoom built into the camera.

If you look closely at the lower left egg you can see a darker spot in the center of the egg. Perhaps that is the nucleus of the egg.

Cup of tank water full of eggs. Picture taken May 2000
Nikon CoolPix 950 Digital Camera, Full Flash

This is a plastic cup about half full of tank water. In it you can make out several hundred eggs.

Disection of Mushroom. Picture taken May 2000
Nikon CoolPix 950 Digital Camera, Full Flash

This picture shows the underside of the mushroom coral with the body cut in half. I have drawn arrows on the picture so you can see what appear to be sacks just loaded with eggs.

There are more than 3 areas, the arrows show show you the color to look for. My guess is that this one mushroom had thousands of eggs.