Bounce mushrooms are taking the marine aquarium hobby by storm, and catapulting mushroom anemones to the top of elite coral reefers most-wanted list. About a month ago we reported on one especially endowed specimen of the original Bounce Mushroom selling for a record-setting $6000 for a single polyp.
In the ensuing weeks the heat has been on to find the next great Rhodactis mushroom with equally or even more impressive fluorescent bubble vesicles. For years the only corallimorph that any aquarist cared about was a nice large and brilliantly colored Ricordea yuma. However these ‘shrooms did not propagate very well, or not fast enough.
So when the ‘Jawbreaker‘ type mushroom anemones showed up with their thick tissue, brilliant colors, and especially their propensity to being cut, grown and shipped around to different aquariums, the hunt was on to find more shrooms to satisfy our growing desire for the next best mushroom anemones. The reef aquarium hobby, especially the frag traders and coral collectors have now clearly shifted gears to focus on finding and growing more ‘Bounce Mushrooms’.
We are happy to declare that there is already a litany of new and different strains of Rhodactis mushrooms which sport incredible colors, huge vesicles and an otherwise collector-worthy appearance. Thanks to Dan Lacitignola of The Coral Kings, today we are sharing with you a sampling of three such newly acquired specimens of Rhodactis which carry the torch of the original Bounce Shroom and beyond.
Rhodactis have come a long way from the days of bing simple ‘bullseye mushrooms’ which were sold for $40 to $80 per rock. Now if your Rhodactis has even a hint of potential, you’re easily looking at that same price per polyp! Unlike rare fish or super bright LPS, what makes Bounce Rhodactis shrooms so exciting is that you don’t really know what these polyp animals will do in a captive home aquarium.
It takes a certain kind of extended care to nurture and develop the new bullseye shrooms to their full potential – the rewards of growing and cultivating your own specimens of Bounce mushroom can result in awesome specimens such as these, and many more strains and colors are being discovered for the marine aquarium hobby on a daily basis.
