Bullseye Mushroom

Care at a glance

Overview

Keep it in low to moderate light around 80 to 150 PAR with gentle flow, on lower, partly shaded rockwork where the disc will not be blasted directly. It is peaceful, low sting and forgiving of nutrient swings, making it a solid beginner corallimorph. Polyps detach or split when they are happy, and a single rock can carpet over within a year or two.

In the wild

The bullseye mushroom is a small Rhodactis from calm, shaded reef zones of the western Pacific, with most trade pieces historically exported from Tonga. The compact disc is covered in short papillae arranged in cauliflower-like patterns, usually violet to blue with a contrasting rim and often a red mouth. Colonies form slowly expanding groups on rock rather than single large polyps.

Good to know

Rhodactis inchoata is a corallimorph in the family Discosomidae, described by Carlgren in 1943. It is one of the smaller members of the genus, with more developed surface tentacles than the smooth Discosoma mushrooms but far less than an elephant ear. Zooxanthellae provide most of its energy, and it reproduces in the aquarium by splitting and pedal laceration.

Did you know

Decades after the first exports, hobbyists still call this species the Tonga mushroom, because so many of the blue and purple pieces in circulation trace back to Tongan collection.

Common questions

Related species

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• 

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  Mushroom Coral

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• Umbrella Mushroom

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• 

  Elephant Ear Mushroom

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