Mushrooms from the genus Ricordea are a highly desirable corallimorph in the reef aquarium hobby due to their unique bubble-like appearance. There are two species of Ricordea mushrooms, Ricordea florida and Ricordea yuma.
At first glance they are hard to distinguish from one another. The way that I tell them apart is the orientation of their tentacles, first near the mouth and then on the body. Ricordea yuma’s mouth almost always has a large concentration of tentacles surrounding it, whereas Ricordea florida’s mouth is usually small and isolated from any tentacles.
A more subtle difference is the pattern of the tentacles on the body. Ricordea florida’s tentacles may show distinctive rings of colors, but the distribution of the tentacles themselves is pretty random. Ricordea yuma on the other hand tend to have alternating rows of large and small tentacles on its body that radiate outwards from the mouth
Although both come in a wide variety of colors, the Ricordea yuma’s colors are by far more vibrant and mind blowing than those of the Ricordea florida.