Walking mushrooms - why?

[pwall]

I have several blue mushrooms in my 20g tank at work.
They quite often detach from the LR and then settle in another part of the tank.

Is this normal that they 'walk around'? I was thinking perhaps I didn't have enough light in the 20g.

Here is a picture of one of the mushrooms getting ready to let go off the rock and float around.

[StephG]

As far as I know mushrooms don't 'walk around'. I think it's just that it's not anchored to the rock and getting caught in the flow of the tank.

[pwall]

I didn't litterally mean 'walk around'..that's why it was in quotes. Sorry for the confusion.
The mushrooms are anchored, it's just that they slow release and then end up floating around the tank.

[StephG]

You could use an rubber band (or string) and a piece of wedding veil (small meshing) and put the mushroom under the piece of veil and tie it to the rock with the rubber band. This technique is commonly used in coral propagation to get the coral to stay in place.

HTH

Steph

[Carolpol]

In my experience with mushrooms.... they tend to "move" when they have inadequate lighting either because the rock is not in the right place or because the "colony" is spredding and it gets too crowded. when I moved everything from 110 g to 220 g I put some of the rocks with only 1 mushroom pretty much anywhere and some of them have made some pretty long transparent "extentions" and then either reattached themselves to lower rocks or just float around till they find something to attach themselves on.
If you want to make them attach to something you can try netting but i've noticed that the best and easiest way is to take the piece of rubble you want that shroom to get on... put both of them in a glass container... put the container in the aquarium and wait a few days at the most! I always choose the lazy way of doing things lol

[reefmutt]

Usually, when mushrooms start moving by letting go they are simply reproducing and looking for a new site to start a new colony. Or as Carolpol said, looking for a better spot.

[Grimstalk]

I agree with Reefmutt...when they are moving, orsliding on the rock you will probably see very, very small mushrooms in its place. I have a hairy mushroom which is moving like mad leaving extemely small baby shrooms that are growing well.

[Toutouche]

Yeah, as everyone else already mentioned, it's just "their way" of doing "their thing". I also wanted to 2nd the method of placing some rubble in a container, then lie the loose piece on top and place it in a low flow area for a few days or week. They will attach very quickly if they are otherwise happy. This works for most soft stuff such as shrooms, buttons, leathers, Ric's, etc...

[pwall]

Thanks everyone for the responses.
The next time one decides to wander of, I'll place it in a small container with a small piece of rock.