Shrooms, The Latest Hot Trend???

[Legendary Corals]

great pics, thanks

Very good read! Thanks for sharing...

Thanks for sharing Darwin!

Thanks all! I suppose the love for shrooms is strong with all this response.

So does the bounce require high light? Can it be put in a standard bio cube?

In my experience, it's a relatively easy to care for piece. It doesn't need high light and most of the owners tend to keep them on the sandbed. I see no reason why it wouldn't do well in your care.

Nice write up Darwin! I was also curious about what kind of shroom the "bounce" type shrooms were. I thought it was simply a rhodactis that for some reason bubbled in certain conditions. Doing a little more research I think they may be a species of rhodactis, Rhodactis Sanctithomae. Not 100% positive but think it may be a possibility.

I think rhodactis sanctithomae is a St. Thomas shroom, which I've brought up why I don't think it's a st. thomas above. But it does make sense why we may think it's a sanctithomae, since the bounce is definitely somewhere in the bounce family. Perhaps it's a combination of the shaggy/ carpet rhodactus variety and shares the bubbly traits of st. thomas, making it some weird variety of its own?

Whasn't Rommel's Tie Dye bought from the person who first imported it as the first JB though?

This is what I heard as well. I think it's Dr. Lee of Aquatic Gallery. I guess my next mission will be to find out the actual story behind this shroom. I do know Dr. Lee and can contact Mark and Ed.

 

[spsaddict]

Awesome read man! I love a lot of the nicer shrooms out there right now. But, I don't think they would fare well in my tank unless they grow in the tidal zone! Lol

 

[stiky]

I acquired one of the beast rhodactus and the other hairy shroom. They grow so slow which is good. No threats of invasion. I had greens take over my 180. Had to burn a few unfraggables off in the downsize. The beast is stunning. Very deep grower. It started to pale in full light so now it's under an overhang making a full recovery.

 

[kmaintl]

Hello fellow reefers,
Discosoma
This was the first shroom species to start the craze with the infamous Jawbreaker/ Tye Dye. Now there are a couple of other heavy hitters that have joined the spotlight and are sought after by reefers all over (I believe this is the group that has the most famous pieces). These shrooms are characterized by their smooth shiny bodies. In my experience, these are the most finicky and most likely to float off when upset (all you disco collectors know this pain, especially those JB hunters).

The Jawbreaker:
This shroom is the first high end shroom to hit the hobby. Collected from Vietnam, this mushroom is infamous for gaining more colors as it matures. The colorations typically starts with orange/yellow, red, green, and (if you're lucky) purple. This is what I know of for how it got into the hobby (I'd love it if someone else who knew more about this shroom could shed light on it as well). The mushroom came into the Bay Area, California and went under the care of Dr. Lee of Aquatic Gallery. From there, pieces of the babies sold locally and the jawbreaker strain was spread. Now we'll go into the infamous The Tye Dye/ Jawbreaker debate. From what I've learned over the years, the Jawbreaker mother was purchased from Aquatic Gallery and sold through very few locals (1-2 people) until it got into the hands of TDF. When I was young, I do recall seeing a shroom that looked just like the infamous photo from TDF of the Tye Dye at Aquatic Gallery. So from what I can recall, it does support this story that the original Jawbreaker and Tye Dye are the same. This is just what I know of, so if someone else who has talked to these fine folks of the older reefing days please chime in! Based on the stories I've heard, I believe that Jawbreakers and Tye Dyes are the same, for I've seen Jawbreakers that get the infamous purple that people believe only Tye Dyes get (like the one we own in the photo :angel.

Cheers,
Darwin

I am hardly ever on the forums nowadays... but someone (not RichieT) forwarded me this thread. BTW, Darwin, great writeup and looks like you and your partners are doing well with your new venture.

What you state is correct. I never disclosed Dr. Li's name nor the first hobbyist that purchased the original mother from Dr. Li because he asked me not to and I respected his wishes. The first hobbyist that owned the Mother Jawbreaker (assumed it was named by Dr. Li as he was first to receive this import around 9 years ago now) was one of my customers who purchase reef equipment and I purchased some corals from him for my other customers. He shall remain nameless until he changes his mind and would like to reveal his identity. He lived in San Jose area and I still remember the month he brought the Mother Jawbreaker home, my jaw dropped when I saw it. So, the name for the mushroom was appropriate.

from other R2R posts: My colony is shared ownership with my son-in-law's younger brothers and we still have our original 1st daughter that was produced by the original Mother Jawbreaker that now resides with Zack at TDF. Since we've owned the colony for 9 years now, we've kept at least 9 granddaughters with nice amount of green and one of them actually had purple before that tank crash and we lost her. 2 years ago, we split the mother colony among the 3 partners and each has several green polyps in their colony. We still keep a mother colony where we frag out for sales, so we do have frags throughout the year. The zoo location is SF is where our mother colony is located.

The 2nd daughter went to a hobbyist in Sacto area, who sold it 3 years ago when he was relocated to Hawaii. He sold everything before moving. The 3rd daughter is still in the San Jose area and I don't know much about the history behind the 3rd daughter. But as of 3 years ago, the hobbyist that owned the original Mother Jawbreaker said the 3rd owner never dropped a baby, just got very big and happily settled in one place in his tank.

Getting back to history, Rommel made the San Jose hobbyist an offer he couldn't refuse (to this day my San Jose customer regrets letting go of the Mother Jawbreaker) and Rommel flip it and sold to Zack at TDF. My only regret is seeing the original Mother Jawbreaker escape from the West Coast. Zack didn't know that the Jawbreaker already had a name and said that Rommel referred to it as a mystery mushroom, unknown and one of a kind. So, Zack named it Mystery TieDye as that's what the Mother looks like.

There is at least 3 lineages of mushrooms called Jawbreakers and that's what makes it confusing. Unless yours leads back to TDF's Mother, you don't have the one that grows to about 5"-6" across, comes in with green and purple as it matures. The other lineages that came in about 9 years ago only grows to about 2"-2.5" and only red and orange. The lineage that came in about 2 years ago is smooth and small, but has the 3 colors quickly. The newest lineage also faster grower. HTH so, yes, one of Jawbreaker lineage is the same as the Mystery TieDye, not the others.

 

[Macropora]

This is a great writeup. Thanks for sharing and thanks to kmaintl for clearing up the lineage/controversy on the Jawbreakers.

 

[Legendary Corals]

I am hardly ever on the forums nowadays... but someone (not RichieT) forwarded me this thread. BTW, Darwin, great writeup and looks like you and your partners are doing well with your new venture.

What you state is correct. I never disclosed Dr. Li's name nor the first hobbyist that purchased the original mother from Dr. Li because he asked me not to and I respected his wishes. The first hobbyist that owned the Mother Jawbreaker (assumed it was named by Dr. Li as he was first to receive this import around 9 years ago now) was one of my customers who purchase reef equipment and I purchased some corals from him for my other customers. He shall remain nameless until he changes his mind and would like to reveal his identity. He lived in San Jose area and I still remember the month he brought the Mother Jawbreaker home, my jaw dropped when I saw it. So, the name for the mushroom was appropriate.

My colony is shared ownership with my son-in-law's younger brothers and we still have our original 1st daughter that was produced by the original Mother Jawbreaker that now resides with Zack at TDF. Since we've owned the colony for 9 years now, we've kept at least 9 granddaughters with nice amount of green and one of them actually had purple before that tank crash and we lost her. 2 years ago, we split the mother colony among the 3 partners and each has several green polyps in their colony. We still keep a mother colony where we frag out for sales, so we do have frags throughout the year. The zoo location is SF is where our mother colony is located.

The 2nd daughter went to a hobbyist in Sacto area, who sold it 3 years ago when he was relocated to Hawaii. He sold everything before moving. The 3rd daughter is still in the San Jose area and I don't know much about the history behind the 3rd daughter. But as of 3 years ago, the hobbyist that owned the original Mother Jawbreaker said the 3rd owner never dropped a baby, just got very big and happily settled in one place in his tank.

Getting back to history, Rommel made the San Jose hobbyist an offer he couldn't refuse (to this day my San Jose customer regrets letting go of the Mother Jawbreaker) and Rommel flip it and sold to Zack at TDF. My only regret is seeing the original Mother Jawbreaker escape from the West Coast. Zack didn't know that the Jawbreaker already had a name and said that Rommel referred to it as a mystery mushroom, unknown and one of a kind. So, Zack named it Mystery TieDye as that's what the Mother looks like.

There is at least 3 lineages of mushrooms called Jawbreakers and that's what makes it confusing. Unless yours leads back to TDF's Mother, you don't have the one that grows to about 5"-6" across, comes in with green and purple as it matures. The other lineages that came in about 9 years ago only grows to about 2"-2.5" and only red and orange. The lineage that came in about 2 years ago is smooth and small, but has the 3 colors quickly. The newest lineage also faster grower. HTH so, yes, one of Jawbreaker lineage is the same as the Mystery TieDye, not the others.

Thanks so much Ed! This definitely saved me a couple of phone calls and I love hearing the story behind coral history. Now the case for Jawbreakers and Tye Dyes is closed.

 

[birdmandan]

Awesome. I was always curious as to the history of the tyedye/jb. Thanks!

 

[nelson.jdautobody]

i got one of those from ed about 2 years ago (it actually melted in shipping but he quickly warranteed it for me, thanks ed, and i went to SF to pick up a replacement from his nephew. his nephew was ***** cool too). mine is orange, red, and green and is getting close to 5" around and kicks out babies that are sometimes bigger than the size of a dime when they are born-no joke (i read another article that said one of the differences between the old school lineage and the newer ones is that the older ones can produce large babies out the gate with multiple colors while the other ones always start out as pencil erasers and only orange for a good while. i can not confirm that yet. i also recently made a trade of one of my babies with another guy that has a jawbreaker for one of his babies and recently purchased a SC Game Over shroom so i will be able to compare the difference on overall growth and babies, colors, etc. shoudlbe a nice little tanksperiment)

 

[ritter6788]

What species is the gumdrop shroom?

 

[revhtree]

Bump! I really need some more shrooms in my life!

 

[ESVAreefer]

Don't we all!

 

[Pirate Randy]

Love this write up. Thanks for bumping it rev. Would not have found it otherwise. I just got my third and fourth shrooms and would love many more

 

[revhtree]

Still as popular?

 

[Psiber_Syn]

How bout lava lamp shrooms what are they

 

[Legendary Corals]

What species is the gumdrop shroom?

I'd put that under the "carpet" rhodactus variant.

How bout lava lamp shrooms what are they

Lava Lamps are definitely discosomas.

 

[Shroom boi 101]

Now I think we can all say that the “shroom craze” is here to stay. Crazy rare and expensive shrooms are not going away anytime soon. We should start talking about what the next thing will be. But once you do that you come to realize there are still shrooms that can top that lol

 

[Reeferguy365]

I thought Poletti was one of the original jawbreaker owners? At least that's what I was told

 

[pompeyjohn]

Great write-up - thank you. Very interesting and informative. You asked for suggestions on next coral for a write up. How about Rock Flower Anemones? Or if there is not enough variation to that, perhaps Torches. Thanks again. Great post.

 

[LRT]

Great write up and bump for history!
@BighohoReef check it out.

 

[JaimeAdams]

Nice resurrection, great read