A Wild Encounter with Ruby Red Jawbreaker Shrooms

When it comes to spotting them in the wild, Jawbreaker Discosoma are very similar to anemones in many ways. In the same way as Bubble tips anemones (Entacmea quadricolor), you either find a large size colony of various corallimorphs or hundreds of small individual clones. Well for Discosoma it’s kind of the same.

In shallow water Discosoma tend to produce large colonies invading large portion of crevices in dead branching corals.

The Jawbreaker Discosoma, is a recognizable and larger Discosoma species or strain with characteristically thicker tissue and polyps. The Jawbreakers style shrooms are usually found solitary or in very small colonies, as opposed to usual Discosoma that are a kind of a weed and very prolific.

A trio of large Discosoma polyps commonly called Jawbreaker Discosoma

Discosoma are not very aggressive corals, usually trying to outrun other corals with fast growth instead of physically stinging it. They are Cryptic animals, filling gaps between live corals where they are protected from potential predators such as large butterfly fish or Sea Turtles. They prefer the shade of other corals, or the crevices of the reef, where not much competition is happening.

The jawbreaker discosoma are always partially shaded, making it difficult to photograph them.

We always find Jawbreakers in calm, turbid environment. Where food is abundant. Not only do they seek protection in crevices, they also select this kind of location for feeding purposes. These cavities are where the food settles down. Exposing a large surface of cup shaped tissue in the sweet spot where particles drop and settle.

These corallimorph are actually designed to feed with a small mouth at the end of a cup shaped oral disc.

The color of these thick tissued shrooms is probably why they’re called jawbreaker coming in some of the brightest possible colors like Discosoma on steroids. The mix of Ruby red and light speckled pink is very attractive to aquarist but it’s actually the stealth color mode under water as red is quickly absorbed in water. Without much light, by 20 m (60ft) deep, in turbid water, it actually appears, completely grey… disappearing perfectly into the ‘grey’ surrounding of pink coralline algae. It’s only below the artificial light that it reveals its true beauty.

Not all Jawbreaker are spectacularly colored. Nevertheless they’re still very unique and amazing. Most aquarist struggle with them, as they require very low light and motion, and subsequent feeding. Their metabolism is very slow, and take a lot of time to adapt to new conditions, or recover from stress. Collection and shipping is often too much for them. They require a slow chain of custody.

Vincent Chalias

Vincent is a coral passionate aquarist with extensive experience in the industry, travelling the world to learn about corals. His background is a master degree in Marine Aquaculture. He set up the first Indonesian Coral mariculture farms at the beginning of the century and spent over 20 years in Indonesia running them. He's been extensively diving and documenting corals all over the Indo-Pacific.