Travis L. Stevens
New member
Fragging Frilly Mushrooms (Rhodactis sp.)
Selecting the Mushroom
We need to select the fragging candidate. It is a good idea to make sure to frag something that is healthy, but might potentially be in an area that might be less than ideal. Fragging will present a way for you to move the frags to a better selected area for the benefit of the coral. In other cases that the coral is already in an ideal position, fragging gives you the opportunity to have copies in case the mother colony doesn't make it, or to sell or trade for fun.
In this article, the mushrooms were being housed under powerful T5 lighting. We knew that the closer to the lights that they were, the less happy they would be. So we took the top most mushroom off. This also kept it from being stung by a few other encroaching coral.
Detaching the Mushroom
You might be lucky to have a mushroom that has already detached from its base, but in case you don't you will need to cut the cap off from the base being careful as to not cut the slice up too horribly. The more complete the cap is, the better the chance of survival. This can be done by using a scissors. If the base of the mushroom is too large for scissors, carefully using a razor blade will yield decent results. If you aggitate the coral and make it deflate and retract into itself will make it much easier to get to the base.
In the case of the Frilly Mushrooms pictures below, the base was too large to be cut with scissors even after aggitating it for about five minutes. So a razor blade was used instead. Using as few cuts as possible yields the best results.
Readying the Mushroom
Now that you have the mushroom cut or if you fortunate enough to have one that was already detached, you will need to lay it out on a cutting surface face up.
As you can see in the picture below, a little extra damage was sustained from the cutting while using a razor blade.
Fragging the Mushroom
Now that the mushroom is laid out flat with the top side up, it's time to do the fragging. While using a sharp razor blade, cut the mushroom through the center making sure to leave a piece of the mouth on each side.
You should now have it cut in half with a piece of the mouth on each side. Repeat the steps cutting it like a pizza making sure to leave a piece of the mouth on each of the slices. The more pieces you make, the less chance of survival each of them have. It's safe to just cut them in quarters like below.
Mounting the Frags
Finally, the mushroom is all cut up in to frags. You'll need to mount these pieces to a rock to get them to attach and to regrow. There are many ways of doing this. You can put them in a small dish with a lid that has holes in them with the bottom filled with rubble or rocks and let them attach on their own. Or you can use a needle and thread and sew them to the rocks. Or you can use netting and a rubber band. There are many other ways to attach frags, but these tend to be the most popular. Still, other ways aren't as good. Superglue Gel rarely works because the coral will produce a slime coating under the stress and will detach from the rock. In our case, we ended up using netting and a rubber band, making sure to puff the netting out a little to make room for expanding.
Conclusion
This is a simple way to frag mushrooms of all types, and best of all there is really no wrong way to do this. Just experimenting on this hardy coral will help prepare you for fragging other corals. Also as an added bonus, if you chose to cut the cap off of a rock, the base that is left over will make one or more mushrooms from the tissue left on the rock.
Selecting the Mushroom
We need to select the fragging candidate. It is a good idea to make sure to frag something that is healthy, but might potentially be in an area that might be less than ideal. Fragging will present a way for you to move the frags to a better selected area for the benefit of the coral. In other cases that the coral is already in an ideal position, fragging gives you the opportunity to have copies in case the mother colony doesn't make it, or to sell or trade for fun.
In this article, the mushrooms were being housed under powerful T5 lighting. We knew that the closer to the lights that they were, the less happy they would be. So we took the top most mushroom off. This also kept it from being stung by a few other encroaching coral.
Detaching the Mushroom
You might be lucky to have a mushroom that has already detached from its base, but in case you don't you will need to cut the cap off from the base being careful as to not cut the slice up too horribly. The more complete the cap is, the better the chance of survival. This can be done by using a scissors. If the base of the mushroom is too large for scissors, carefully using a razor blade will yield decent results. If you aggitate the coral and make it deflate and retract into itself will make it much easier to get to the base.
In the case of the Frilly Mushrooms pictures below, the base was too large to be cut with scissors even after aggitating it for about five minutes. So a razor blade was used instead. Using as few cuts as possible yields the best results.
Readying the Mushroom
Now that you have the mushroom cut or if you fortunate enough to have one that was already detached, you will need to lay it out on a cutting surface face up.
As you can see in the picture below, a little extra damage was sustained from the cutting while using a razor blade.
Fragging the Mushroom
Now that the mushroom is laid out flat with the top side up, it's time to do the fragging. While using a sharp razor blade, cut the mushroom through the center making sure to leave a piece of the mouth on each side.
You should now have it cut in half with a piece of the mouth on each side. Repeat the steps cutting it like a pizza making sure to leave a piece of the mouth on each of the slices. The more pieces you make, the less chance of survival each of them have. It's safe to just cut them in quarters like below.
Mounting the Frags
Finally, the mushroom is all cut up in to frags. You'll need to mount these pieces to a rock to get them to attach and to regrow. There are many ways of doing this. You can put them in a small dish with a lid that has holes in them with the bottom filled with rubble or rocks and let them attach on their own. Or you can use a needle and thread and sew them to the rocks. Or you can use netting and a rubber band. There are many other ways to attach frags, but these tend to be the most popular. Still, other ways aren't as good. Superglue Gel rarely works because the coral will produce a slime coating under the stress and will detach from the rock. In our case, we ended up using netting and a rubber band, making sure to puff the netting out a little to make room for expanding.
Conclusion
This is a simple way to frag mushrooms of all types, and best of all there is really no wrong way to do this. Just experimenting on this hardy coral will help prepare you for fragging other corals. Also as an added bonus, if you chose to cut the cap off of a rock, the base that is left over will make one or more mushrooms from the tissue left on the rock.
All for you!
