fragging mushrooms by cutting the foot

[organism]

Has anyone tried this before with good results? I tried searching and couldn't find much of anything, but have these two mushrooms I love that just never split. Going on a year now with nothing... I figured since I have two and one usually has the foot stretched over the rock that I'd give it a shot, so far so good

We'll see how it goes, but definitely a lot less stressful than cutting it in half across the oral disc. I just couldn't bring myself to pry it off the rock and really mess with it, chances are it wouldn't have made it.

Here's what it looked like beforehand with the foot stretched out on the right hand side.

Just took a razor and sliced off the last 3/8" or so, day one.

Day two, I figured it was a bad idea at this point, but that's as deflated and stressed looking as the mushroom ever got.

Day 3

Went diving yesterday and skipped day 4, but here it is on day 5, the area that got cut is closed up and looking like it's thinking of surviving.

 

[buck326]

I have cut rics in half with a razor through the mouth a few times and never had one die with good results.

 

[awcasper]

I also prefer to cut the foot. your shroom should be fine.

 

[Thisseemsfishy]

+1 cutting the foot is a great way, it looks fine.

 

[organism]

I also prefer to cut the foot. your shroom should be fine.

+1 cutting the foot is a great way, it looks fine.

Nice, thanks for the info! I'd searched but not much came up, had no idea there was such an easier way to frag them in the tank without stressing them as much. Any chance you guys have pics?

 

[awcasper]

Will from Sustainable Reefs showed me that one. Yup, not a lot of reliable info floating around.

Don't have any fragging pics atm.

 

[philosophile]

I've tried a couple of times.... The foot ended up detaching and lost in the tank for ever (probably melted away) or would heal back with the mushroom.

I think it depends on how much you cut off. I admit I wasn't cutting much off.

But yours already looks like its beginning to form a mouth, so it looks like you've got a frag.

 

[Mbachota]

Ive seen some people just cut part of it not through the mouth and foot and generate another mushroom

 

[organism]

Ive seen some people just cut part of it not through the mouth and foot and generate another mushroom

Do you mean like through part of the body as well?

 

[UnoZeus]

This is how I have fragged all of my shrooms. Not only is it easy but you don't have to worry about sticking it to another piece of live rock.

 

[gh0st]

They can be sliced up like a pizza, or "pedal laceration" by slicing a bit of the foot itself instead.

Pedal Laceration if how they most often spread if left to their own devices. As they slowly crawl, a little bit of the foot gets caught on something and left behind to form a new polyp.

Slicing just speeds up the process. As long as foot cutting gets light and isn't overshadowed, they should be fine.

Much less stressful on the mother polyp, but the new frag is much smaller.
Having the frag already attached to rock is the tipping point for me. I hate waiting for softie frags to attach and trying to keep them in place long enough to do so.

 

[organism]

This is how I have fragged all of my shrooms. Not only is it easy but you don't have to worry about sticking it to another piece of live rock.

Having the frag already attached to rock is the tipping point for me. I hate waiting for softie frags to attach and trying to keep them in place long enough to do so.

That part's huge, I still have two loose mushrooms floating around my tank from when I got them a few months ago... Tried using a cup of rubble but in a nano that's just too much of an eyesore.

 

[ziyaadb]

awesome im gona try it as well

 

[mkart]

I cut a frilly mushroom as close to the rock as I could this morning. It's in a specimen cup with rubble and netting over the top now. It does not look to good at the moment. I hope to cut 10 of them off a rock and mount them individually on a frag plug.

 

[organism]

Make sure the cup's getting good flow, did you cut the top off and leave the base? I didn't want to go that route since they take forever to reattach, and I've lost some really nice ones that ended up floating into euphyllias or powerheads before

 

[mkart]

I was thinking I wanted to keep it out of the flow so it could attach. Looks great today but has not attached. I have the lid off the cup and netting over the top so it stays in on top of the rubble. If it attaches I am going to cut 5 at a time. I have a lot of mushrooms I can cut if this works.

 

[bwidner]

Any new pics? That is a great looking shroom

 

[organism]

Any new pics? That is a great looking shroom

Thanks, it's one of my favs I put pic on photobucket and spaced it, here's daily shots starting two days after the last one up top. I stopped taking pics when I upgraded to a new tank, but it's a fully formed tiny mushroom now. I've been doing the same thing with different mushrooms around the tank that just never split and it's working out great :thumbsup:

Day 8

Day 9

Day 10

Day 11

 

[quicktater]

What a great sequence of Pics. Thanks for posting them.

 

[Reef1589]

i love your mushroom