Giant Cup Mushroom Coral

 Quick Care Facts

• Care Level: Easy   • Temperament: Semi-aggressive   • Waterflow: Low to Moderate
• Placement: Middle   • Lighting: Medium   • Color Form: Tan, Brown, Green
 • Supplements: Iodine, Trace elements   • Water Conditions: 72-78° F, dKH 8-12, pH 8.1-8.4, sg 1.023-1.025
• Origin: Indo-Pacific   • Family: Discosomatidae   • Species: Mushroom Corals

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The Giant Cup Mushroom Coral is also commonly known as the Giant Disc Anemone, Giant Mushroom Anemone, or Giant Flower Coral, and sometimes the Large Elephant Ear within the marine aquarium hobby. Giant Cup Mushroom Coral is a piscivore, and it uses an attracting scent to lure fishes into the folds of its oral disc, where it slowly closes around the fish until it has trapped it within the sac formed, and then it digests the fish with mesenterial filaments.

While there is an inherit risk with keeping this species with fish species, it is possible to keep in the reef aquarium. The Giant Cup Mushroom Coral reproduces by pedal laceration or budding, while fission may occur occasionally.

The Giant Cup Mushroom Coral is very easy to maintain in the reef aquarium with only a medium light level combined with a low to medium water movement required for its well being. It can expand to over 12 inches in diameter during the day and is considered semi-aggressive and requires adequate space between itself and other corals. When a fish brushes against it, it forms a ball around the fish, from which the fish generally cannot escape.

Since it eats fish, it is best kept in an aquarium that does not contain fish species and has a sandy bottom and rock formations. In the aquarium the Giant Cup Mushroom Coral can trap fish, but it can also be maintained and fed dead fish. Most fish learn to avoid it, but there is always a risk that it will trap and eat your favorite fish.

In the wild this species lures, traps and eats fish, but it can be fed dead fish or other meaty foods in the aquarium environment. Care should be exercised with this species as it is possible that it may eat your favorite fish. Most fish learn to avoid it, but there is always a risk. If kept in a reef aquarium, it should be fed large meals of Artemia and other plankton-like foods. It will also receives some of its nutritional requirements from the symbiotic algae zooxanthellae hosted within its body.