TheGooseWhisperer Posted August 29, 2008 Share Posted August 29, 2008 I was watching some videos on fraggin shrooms and in a couple of them the people cut the stalk of the shroom and then halve or quarter the cap. In this scenario... Does the base pop up a new cap? If not, does the base end up decaying away (seems like this would be pretty bad for the tank)? The shroom i would want to frag is attached to a small rock that is easy to move so I could flip it over or try to peel it off if these methods are better. What fraction of the cap segments will survive and make a new shroom? How long do the cap pieces need to "recover"...one video put the pieces in a dish with large grain crushed coral, covered it with netting and placed it in a grow out/propagation tank...how long does it need to stay in that format before placing back on the rock work in the display tank? I'm asking because I dont have a prop tank and want to know how long I would have a plastic tub in the back corner of my display tank:p I have a red shroom thats pushing 4 inches across and while its nice I dont actually care for having one big shroom like that in a small tank like mine (only 29g). I would rather have 3-5 smaller ones covering the same area. My last question is just a general shroom question. I have a 150W 20k XM halide (8 hrs/day) and 2x 75W (24") VHO actinics (11 hr/day) on a standard 29g (30long x 12 wide x 15 deep iirc)...the "happiest" shrooms seem to be the ones that are more on the shaded side. In fact, 2 shrooms in the middle of the tank jumped ship and settled on the bottom of the tank...one of them is fuller now and one of them has been less full since the move. Is this my imagination or do shrooms actually prefer lower light? img for reference...you should be able to find 3 of the 4 shroom frags...4th one is on the far left and is barely visable from this angle. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JManrow Posted August 29, 2008 Share Posted August 29, 2008 All sections, including the stalk, should regenerate. Once the disk sections have grown enough to become well attached to the crushed coral, they can be moved to the main tank and glued to the rockwork with superglue gel. Give them a few weeks. Plastic tubs or glass jars will all work for containing the shroom frags while they grow out. Place them wherever they seem to do best. They will probably spread to where they want go go anyway! Here's a GARF Mushroom Frag link http://www.garf.org/trever/MUSH.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob Allen Posted August 29, 2008 Share Posted August 29, 2008 You would be surprised what mushrooms can take and still survive. Anthony Calfo once threw a coral, which if I remember correctly was a mushroom, in a blender and chewed it up. He pulled out the pieces and had an surprising success rate. You should have a very high success rate when fragging mushrooms. Keep in mind that corals on some reefs can be completely out of water during a low tide, get baked by the sun and still survive. My point, most coral is hardier than we give it credit for. They will typically not like a lot of light and want to get to a more shaded, lower area as you stated. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dsoz Posted August 29, 2008 Share Posted August 29, 2008 There is a thread on Nano-reef.com that had a bunch of people trying the mushroom-in-a-blender trick. They ended up with a large number of small mushrooms. The conclusion was that it was more productive to slice and dice to get larger daughter shrooms that could be cut again sooner. You get more larger shrooms, faster, than by blending to get a lot of small shrooms. dsoz Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
undrtkr_00 Posted August 29, 2008 Share Posted August 29, 2008 In your case, if you want the multiple shrooms all together, it is really easy to split that one big shroom into multiple small ones. Just put a rubber band (or 2 or 3) around the rock so that it crosses the shroom. It will pinch the mushroom until it separates in two (or more) pieces. All the pieces will probably stay attached to that one rock, and shortly will grow their own mouth, etc. Super easy. HTH (bored) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheGooseWhisperer Posted August 29, 2008 Author Share Posted August 29, 2008 In your case' date=' if you want the multiple shrooms all together, it is really easy to split that one big shroom into multiple small ones. Just put a rubber band (or 2 or 3) around the rock so that it crosses the shroom. It will pinch the mushroom until it separates in two (or more) pieces. All the pieces will probably stay attached to that one rock, and shortly will grow their own mouth, etc. Super easy. HTH (bored)[/quote'] DING DING DING! We have a winner! This sounds perfect! Only problem is I always use scissors to open the bags when i get home from the LFS...and seems I have zero rubber bands in my house...guess I'll have to make a special trip to the LFS to get some rubber bands, oh and maybe something to go in the bags too:p Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
undrtkr_00 Posted August 29, 2008 Share Posted August 29, 2008 Glad you liked that suggestion. That method will actually work with a number of other kinds of softies, too. I discovered this accidentally when trying to hold a shroom in place with a rubber band so that it would grow onto a rock, but I know Dennis (dsoz) and others have gone about it deliberately with good results. Make sure the rubber band is plenty tight, so that it will pinch all the way down against the rock. (fingers) Good luck. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markdadof2 Posted August 30, 2008 Share Posted August 30, 2008 Has anyone tried this with a Florida Ric? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JManrow Posted August 30, 2008 Share Posted August 30, 2008 I have heard of cutting attached Ricordia down the middle with a clean razor. I don't see why the rubber band method wouldn't work (unless on a very large rock!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob Allen Posted August 30, 2008 Share Posted August 30, 2008 As John mentioned this same technique will work with Ricordea. Unless attempting to create many, many frags, just leaving a Ricordea alone usually produced plenty on its own by naturally splitting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CCR Posted August 30, 2008 Share Posted August 30, 2008 Hate hearing of the blender!!!!!!!!(nono) A lot of excellent suggestions.(clap) I learned the GARF method for shrooms, ricordia and zenia. Had a couple thousand when done. Yes your lighting is on a long photo period. They prefer lower light, crevices, and the edge of bright light. Reflective off sand or other rock.They can stand stronger light and do adapt well. When actually cutting them and returning to the tank, after a few SW rinses, I would add some carbon to the system. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheGooseWhisperer Posted August 30, 2008 Author Share Posted August 30, 2008 OK, thanks for the feedback on the lighting. I was pretty sure of it myself from keeping a good eye on the tank and seeing which shrooms were doing the best. I'll move things around to maximize placement in partially shaded areas. So I *tried* the rubber band thing (after searching the house for 20 minutes to find one:p)...The problem was that the rock the shroom is on is tiny..as in less than 10% of the surface is exposed with the feet of the 3 shrooms covering the rest. Doesn't sound like a big deal, but it made the rock such a pain in the butt to hold onto that about all I did was severely piss off the shrooms:( It also didnt help that the only rubber band I could find was pretty heavy duty. So i'm gunna give this guy some time to recoup and take a scalpel it later. In the mean time I did manage to chip off the little shroom that was completely shaded under the other 2 and gave it a new home on its own. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snowpunk Posted September 11, 2008 Share Posted September 11, 2008 Sometimes pissing them off will make them split too. I had a huge 5" red one that was attached to a rock that rolled over. It smashed the shroom until I got home 9 hours later to fix it. A week later one was 3. I also have some green ones that my eel always rubs against and there were about 3 6 months ago and now there are about 10. Other green ones have not even split in that time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThePremiumAquarium Posted September 11, 2008 Share Posted September 11, 2008 Snowpunk, I have had much of the same experence myself. Causing some minor abrasions or cuts in the shrooms will often force them to replicate to increase the chance of spreading or keeping their genome alive. I have found this the best way to easily cause replication and still end up with almost no loss. I have also done the scalpul in halves or quarters and that does do well, just a few more losses or loose shrooms floating around. Garrett Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
puntific Posted October 23, 2008 Share Posted October 23, 2008 Man, what a great idea. I am going to do it today to some of my bright purple furry shrooms! If only my post would post... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JManrow Posted October 23, 2008 Share Posted October 23, 2008 Man' date=' what a great idea. I am going to do it today to some of my bright purple furry shrooms! If only my post would post...[/quote'] puntific, Glad to see that you are now able to post again! I'm not sure what happened.(scratch) Anyway... Welcome back to the PNWMAS Forums! If you would like to receive notifications of PNWMAS Meetings & Events, send me your e-mail address in a PM. You will then be added to the PNWMAS Evite list! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheGooseWhisperer Posted October 24, 2008 Author Share Posted October 24, 2008 Snipping the cap off the stalk works great. The base recovers in just a couple days and the cap can be frag'd up in half or quarters depending on the size. I use a small plastic dish that I hit along the sides with a hole punch and then some cheesecloth over the top to put the pieces and some LR rubble into. In about 2 weeks I'll pop it open and remove anything that is healed and attached. Usually a couple are just stuck to the plastic and need to be removed and given a few days to reattach to rock. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrgreenthumb Posted October 24, 2008 Share Posted October 24, 2008 Ok so anyone brave enough to try to this with their precious yumas??? Or what about tonga shrooms?? I have a hard time takin a scalpel to 100 dollar shrooms!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheGooseWhisperer Posted October 24, 2008 Author Share Posted October 24, 2008 I have a pdf of a yuma fragging article. If i can get it uploaded here I will share...if i cant I'll try to track down the link. Here's a start: http://www.ricordia.org/mushroom_coral/propagation_basics.htm Also check out the "taking the slice" and "recovery" links on the left. Those 3 articles have basically all the info from the pdf. Oops appears that the pdf is about 740kb too big for uploading. PM me and I'll email it to you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrgreenthumb Posted October 24, 2008 Share Posted October 24, 2008 Cool pm sent....has anyone done it successfully locally??? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheGooseWhisperer Posted October 24, 2008 Author Share Posted October 24, 2008 just to be clear I can send that pdf to anyone:) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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