Ricordea Yuma care and trials tribulations

[BluEyedBlenny]

Since I’ve brought it home I moved it three or four times within 8months.

 

[terri_ann]

I have several rics that are laying on the sandbed nesting. They have attached to each other. Can I separate them by using a sharp razor? I dont mean for probation as I know they can be cut through the mouth. These guys are attached on the rims![emoji848]

 

[terri_ann]

Noone?

 

[norfolkgarden]

I have several rics that are laying on the sandbed nesting. They have attached to each other. Can I separate them by using a sharp razor? I dont mean for probation as I know they can be cut through the mouth. These guys are attached on the rims![emoji848]

They are physically connected?

 

[terri_ann]

Yes

 

[maleks.reef]

I know this thread is like 12 years old now but I have only recently found out about yumas and I am in love. I desperately want to get one but this thread really scared me away. They are expensive and im only a studnet so i would hate to lose such an expensive coral. So, do we now know more about yumas and how to keep them? If so, what do I need to do to ENSURE that my yuma will thrive?

 

[Nano sapiens]

I know this thread is like 12 years old now but I have only recently found out about yumas and I am in love. I desperately want to get one but this thread really scared me away. They are expensive and im only a studnet so i would hate to lose such an expensive coral. So, do we now know more about yumas and how to keep them? If so, what do I need to do to ENSURE that my yuma will thrive?

Sounds like you're asking if there's something you can do to guarantee success with Yumas. IME, best to think in terms of 'best probability'..

Not much has changed in 12 years. I do notice that less and less of my local stores have them since the wild ones they typically have access to are often difficult to keep healthy.

Some key points to keep in mind...

If at all possible, try to buy or obtain captive raised or find a specimen that's been healthy in someone's tank for a few months. These can usually be placed in low/moderate lighting/ lower flow as they are typically much less likely to experience light shock.

If your only choice is buying wild, and this is based on my personal experience, I would suggest passing on the large and often very showy Yumas that have a distinct row (or rows) of distinctly larger and often differently colored 'bubbles' (vesicles) radiating from the mouth to the rim like this one (tend to be very difficult to acclimated):

...and look for the type that have largely uniform vesicles like these two below. Keep them in a partially shaded spot with slow flow for a few weeks before slowly acclimating them to more moderate lighting and a bit more flow.

I currently have a few of this type (both wild and captive raised) and they usually do well if not over-stressed with high lighting and/or high flow.

Good luck!

 

[muzikalmatt]

I'm pretty sure these purple and orange mushrooms are yumas. I bought a single polyp the size of a dime from my LFS not quite 2 years ago and probably have 20+ now.

I think OP is spot on though as I placed it on a ledge on the left side of the tank that was slightly shaded and just left it alone. Eventually it grew pretty large and then just started splitting like crazy.

They all started out as this little guy...

 

[i cant think]

I feel sorry for you who have to try to grow yumas…

I’m joking, but seriously I just left them to do their own thing for 2 years. High light, high flow, the whole lot, absolutely loving their life. I was told these are often known as “King Kong Yumas”, and honestly from wild caught 4 years ago these have flourished. Even passed through freezing temperatures and then pretty much straight into an ammonia spike during the upgrade. I lost essentially everything except one or two Yuma, leathers and a child coral. The photo above are the yumas a while ago, however that’s not even all of the ones I’ve got.

 

[fishgirljockey]

One of my best successes with yumas was this one red one that I got from a lfs that was fresh off a wild colony. I acclimated it for a few weeks in a long established 10 gallon/70 watt mh 14K, not the most stable parameters or anything. I added a hang on skimmer and the output of the skimmer with bubbles and all was being shot down right on top of the yuma. It moved quickly to escape the added flow and left some babies in its trail. I got 6 babies off that one in short time and it was a small polyp. The vendor at the lfs lost his whole colony... I still have mine 3 years later but haven't had a single baby... no more skimmer on that tank... so....


Because I've been thinking yumas for the last 30 min typing this up it occured to me. I went snorkeling in Thailand two years ago and saw many small anemones near a break at the end of this lagoon, they were getting a lot of oxygen and bubbles from the break and were growing like crazy, I mean carpeting everything everywhere only near the break. I initially thought they were yumas. This info coupled with my best experience above with yumas got me thinking about Dissolved Oxygen levels. I also had some yumas in a 45g tank with an Aqua-C EV-180. Thats a skimmer rated for a 180g tank on a 45g and the yumas in there did very well compared to other tanks.


Shipping really cuts down on Dissolved Oxygen. I remember reading somewhere that DO levels on the reef are supersaturated and that most tanks don't even get close to saturated nevermind supersaturation. Also I feel like oxygen content will help fight bacterial diseases. Stagnant water grows bacteria. I've been working with yumas for years and I feel like I should have thought about this before but it makes perfect sense to me right now.

My experiences seem to show that yumas respond well to increased oxygen saturation.

Could oxygen play a critical role in their response to shipping and acclimation?

This is the king of the corallimorphs as far as I am concerned there are none that can compare to the color combinations that these mushroom corals come in except for Florida ricordea.
One would think since that they are mushrooms that they are very simple, easy and there for hardy corals to take care of. This thought would be far from the truth, with 10s of 1000 imports of this coral coming into the country they are in the similar percentages of death rate as Elegance corals.
I cannot count how many threads have been posted on many forums about these corals and them melting for what seems to be no reason. I personally have had many a purchase go south 1-2 weeks after acclimation. In most cases it is some form of bacterial infection that seems to infect these corals at a high rate.
There are many color forms of the Ricordea Yuma with the most sought after being the Hot red and Fluorescent pink. Both of which I have spent $1000+ over the years and have nothing to show for it other then a good thrashing from the wife. In fact the one I have had the longest just melted a couple months ago after a year in my tank but that is another story. Over the years of observation on these corals in captive systems I have gathered quite a few ideas to help with getting these corals over the 2 week hump( this is what I call it).
In most cases of melting after acclimation it is the first 2 weeks that the infection will show itself. Sometimes longer but this has been the rule of thumb for what I have personally seen and in talking to some other Ricordea collectors.

Ricordea Yuma enjoy the same conditions as most other corals parameters in the proper ranges that we reefers keep Ca 400, Alk 8+/-, Nitrates 0-10, Ammonia 0, Nitrites 0. I have noticed that when alk drops to lower levels they tend to not expand and look as nice much in the same manner as Ricordea Florida and other soft corals.

The 2 week hump.
Most of the high end Yuma that we see posted on forums are usually sold over the internet unless you live in an area like California where most if not all indo pacific imports come into the U.S. These shops in the west coast get the cream of the crop when it comes to high end Yuma and allot of them end up on on-line websites. In the pictures they look great, healthy fully expanded and worthy of the high dollar price(IMHO). So we pay the cost and have them shipped over night to us and our tanks. Over the years I have acclimated them over and over the same way. Float, temp acclimate, turkey baster some water into bag over time etc.....One thing that has never really been discussed with these corals in particular is Photo acclimation which we will discuss later.

So after we feel they have been acclimated to our water conditions we place them into our tanks. Most read on-line sites that they like really low flow, low light etc, so now they are placed in what we think is a good spot and the next day the lights come on. The lights come on and they look great and fill up and expand to show their glory. Day after day they seem to look good. We are happy with the purchase and take pics to show pics on-line to show off our new acquisition. Everybody says their Ohs and As and life goes on, so we think.

What happens next from my experience and others I have conversed with is they start to shrivel and don’t expand like they did the first few days. Now there seems to be a clear most times and dark brown others slime that starts coming out of the mouth. Ooh NO! we think to ourselves what is happening? So we go on line to find some answers and what do we find? Not much as far as info when it comes to infections of Yuma, although I am sure you will find posts by a few Ricordea collectors like Madadi, Azurel(myself) and a few others. So far there has been no answers from anyone in the industry or hobbyist as to the answer to how to stop and save them. What are the signs of a sick or dying Yuma?
Well first and foremost like I said they began to shrivel and spit a clear slime. If left alone they will soon be covered in a heavy slime around the base of the polyp. One thing that I noticed that had first been unknown was that these Yuma seem to all have a hole at the base of the inside of the polyp. This hole is directly across from the mouth or oral cone, It seems this infection eats a hole into the base of the Yuma from the inside out and travels into the stem and up into the polyp disk. At about this time the polyp will begin to gap open, where as the mouth expands and opens up to non-normal size and looks slack. The slime has increased and death is imminent.

I have tried many things to try and save these corals and others have as well. One collector that I have had personal contact with Madadi has even tried human antibiotics to no avail. All the signs of his Yuma that died also showed the same signs as mine and others.

I have dipped in SW/ Iodine, FW/Iodine, Amino acids, Furan 2, Melafix Marine, and a few others I can’t think of I am sure. None of these dips worked and the only one that has shown promise so far is Melafix Marine a Tea tree extract. I think that one of the things that is needed is a actual lab study like on the scale of E. Borneman did with Elegance corals.

Photo acclimation? What do I mean by this?

I have found through the years of acquiring these corals and trial and errors is that they seem to be very sensitive to lighting. Photo acclimation as I describe it is after all other acclimation procedures is placing these corals into a highly shaded area of the tank and leave them there. Here is how I have done it to the few that I have in my tank that are doing good.

I find a place that still has mod flow, almost completely shaded from direct or indirect lighting. I place it there and leave it. As long as it shows signs of being healthy and it expanding I leave it till it stretches for light. Usually it has taken the ones I have bought about a month or so before they show any signs for reaching. One thing to keep an eye on is that they don’t bleach from not having enough light and in that case you will have to move them out a little bit more so they can get a small amount of light. But the ones I have had will begin to stretch for light and will need to be moved.

I do not move them very far so the conditions will be about the same but lighting will increase but not by a whole lot. I then wait for them to stretch more and move again till they are in in-direct lighting. I personally have only a few that are in direct lighting or high indirect lighting and they were purchased locally.

Although some of them seem to be bleaching at the moment from direct lighting and will be placed into indirect lighting to regain color and health. I have seen some reefers that keep them in direct lighting of MH, and T-5 but I have not had a single one that has made it long term in that lighting strategy. It is in my opinion that photo acclimation is the number one thing in the long term health and survivability of Ricordea Yuma. It seems that there is something that takes place with these corals during shipping that reduces the survivability of these corals. I have seen them online time and time again and have talked to many vendors that will take updated pics of them for me and they do look healthy but for some reason after shipping there tends to be an increase in the death rate. I have talked to these vendors and they have had the same issues with Yuma in their shipments also LFS’s many of which have quite ordering them for the very reason of having them melt on them. Which for them is a loss in sales and their livelihood. I plan to continue my quest for Ricordea Yuma and the elusive Hot red and fluorescent pink Yuma.

If any others have anything to add lease do so, if you have saved these through chemical dips etc please let me know so I can add that to my arsenal to save these corals.

Its been 10 years since this post... has any figured out how to keep Yumas? lol I currently have one and it seems at the moment that they like the water very dirty. I keep the phos and nitrates high. I have the lights at 20% white and 80% blue (this is when he really opened up). I have him in very very light flow. I use the turkey baster every now and then to clean him. Other than that he barely gets flow. Mushrooms don't like to be moved or feel moved. He's a beautiful sucker too. Neon orange with neon light purple; neon green mouth.

 

[i cant think]

Its been 10 years since this post... has any figured out how to keep Yumas? lol I currently have one and it seems at the moment that they like the water very dirty. I keep the phos and nitrates high. I have the lights at 20% white and 80% blue (this is when he really opened up). I have him in very very light flow. I use the turkey baster every now and then to clean him. Other than that he barely gets flow. Mushrooms don't like to be moved or feel moved. He's a beautiful sucker too. Neon orange with neon light purple; neon green mouth.

I would move him into a higher flow area. my yuma colony is in the highest flow area on my rockwork and they’re thriving.

 

[fishgirljockey]

I'm pretty sure these purple and orange mushrooms are yumas. I bought a single polyp the size of a dime from my LFS not quite 2 years ago and probably have 20+ now.

I think OP is spot on though as I placed it on a ledge on the left side of the tank that was slightly shaded and just left it alone. Eventually it grew pretty large and then just started splitting like crazy.

They all started out as this little guy...

That's amazing! Do you still have?

 

[fishgirljockey]

I would move him into a higher flow area. my yuma colony is in the highest flow area on my rockwork and they’re thriving.

Honestly, I really think it depends on individual tanks. Everyone is going to have a different bio load. Even tho we all shoot for similar parameters, at the end of the day, each tank is different. Some people can keep mushrooms and some can't. Mine is doing very well where I have it so I'm going to just let him be. Mushrooms are extremely sensitive to movement especially during shipping. Love your setup! How long have you had the mushrooms for? My absolute favorite is the discos! I love love love loooooove the discos. They are by far one of my favorite corals. I have them in bright green, purple mixed with rent tints, the standard copper color and a beautiful royal blue. I am going to propagate them soon; I'd love to have them in different areas. Love all your fish too. I miss having all my fish in my tank. I recently just dealt with velvet. I had 9 and 5 died. What's crazy is the one that had it the worse, MADE IT! My flame angel was on the brink of death so many times. She was swimming upside down and sank to the bottom numerous times, but here she is now swimming like nothing happened. I cannot wait to put her and the others back into the tank. Do any of your wrasses pick on the coral? I have been wanting to get one, but the last one I had kept picking at them. It was super annoying so I had to take him back and he was also one big *******.

 

[bnord]

I guess it is because I have always ended up buying several generations in tank raised specimens, I’ve always considered them to be standbys to fill-in space in an interesting way. Photo below supports the notion that they can live in low light, this one migrated to a higher spot and his left three spawn in her foot prints that seem to be thriving in the shade. I also agree that they do well in high nutrient environments.

 

[i cant think]

Honestly, I really think it depends on individual tanks. Everyone is going to have a different bio load. Even tho we all shoot for similar parameters, at the end of the day, each tank is different. Some people can keep mushrooms and some can't. Mine is doing very well where I have it so I'm going to just let him be. Mushrooms are extremely sensitive to movement especially during shipping. Love your setup! How long have you had the mushrooms for? My absolute favorite is the discos! I love love love loooooove the discos. They are by far one of my favorite corals. I have them in bright green, purple mixed with rent tints, the standard copper color and a beautiful royal blue. I am going to propagate them soon; I'd love to have them in different areas. Love all your fish too. I miss having all my fish in my tank. I recently just dealt with velvet. I had 9 and 5 died. What's crazy is the one that had it the worse, MADE IT! My flame angel was on the brink of death so many times. She was swimming upside down and sank to the bottom numerous times, but here she is now swimming like nothing happened. I cannot wait to put her and the others back into the tank. Do any of your wrasses pick on the coral? I have been wanting to get one, but the last one I had kept picking at them. It was super annoying so I had to take him back and he was also one big *******.

Those yumas have been with me for 7+ years at this rate, they have been in this tank for 3 years however they went under some stress from ammonia during the move of tanks and bounced right back after it!

 

[fishgirljockey]

Those yumas have been with me for 7+ years at this rate, they have been in this tank for 3 years however they went under some stress from ammonia during the move of tanks and bounced right back after it!

Wow! That's amazing! I love mushrooms. They are such great corals. They grow fast and look so dope in the tank.

 

[fishgirljockey]

I guess it is because I have always ended up buying several generations in tank raised specimens, I’ve always considered them to be standbys to fill-in space in an interesting way. Photo below supports the notion that they can live in low light, this one migrated to a higher spot and his left three spawn in her foot prints that seem to be thriving in the shade. I also agree that they do well in high nutrient environments.

When you say they migrated to a higher spot...they aren't attached to any rock? Do you let them just freely choose where they want to go? I always thought they had to be attached. I have a yuma and it seemed like he was just blowing all over the dang place lol so I put him in a cage like area with rubble and he attached to one of them. Now I want to find a spot for him. I just wasn't sure. As far as the nutrients, they looooove when my P&N's are high. It's such a crazy difference in how they look when it is high. They look no joke 5 times the size! I'm a very heavy feeder so my tank stays pretty high on the nutrients. Seems that all the corals do well with it especially the anemone. The only one I am struggling with is the goniopora. Any tips? It comes out, but only like a millimeter and doesn't come out any further. Not sure where to put it and I really hate to move them around so much! I know it stresses them out a lot.

 

[bnord]

I may be corrected by someone with more experience... but, I have seem them gradually shift on a. rock face, and leave a "bud" of tissue that then develops as a clone
will find a picture of a trail of these with a green yuma

 

[muzikalmatt]

That's amazing! Do you still have?

Yep! I still have them and they're still growing/splitting like crazy. I'm trying to frag a few off of the rocks and put them in my 10 gallon bedroom tank as well.

 

[fishgirljockey]

Yep! I still have them and they're still growing/splitting like crazy. I'm trying to frag a few off of the rocks and put them in my 10 gallon bedroom tank as well.

Wow. That's awesome! They are very very hard to keep! What lights do you have?