Mushroom Fragging Experiment

[bjhubb]

I did this "on accident" with a mushroom. It had floated free and landed on the sand bed in a low flow area where there were some largish pieces of crushed coral and such. It's foot attached to several different chunks. When I sliced him up, I just went sort of around the little rubble chunks and glued the rubble bits to the the rocks I was mounting the musroom frags on, So i didn't have to glue mushroom to rock, just rock to rock. And they have stayed put very well.

I am going to experiment with doing this "on purpose" by placing a little tray of crushed coral in the tank with high enough sides to limit the flow. Possibly a screen to keep crabs and snails from moving the shrooms around at first. Then, theoretically, when the shrooms attach to some little bits, I can do the same thing again.

Anyone tried something like this?

 

[Lance M.]

If I'm correct, you are going to cut a polyp up and put it in a plastic container w/ cc on the bottom, then they are going to regrow and attach to the cc?

That would be the general way of fragging mushrooms.

Pick a big polyp
Cut it from the rock leaving the "foot" on the rock (that will become a new mushroom)
Cut the disk in half (you can do quarters)
Place the pieces in a small plastic tray w/ cc on the bottom
You can put holes in the sides of the container and/or add a mesh screen to the top so they don't float out.

The less you cut them, the faster they will grow and higher the success rate. Since you are starting out try halfs at first then quarters then blender style if you dont mind losing some.

 

[bjhubb]

Cool, I thought the general way was with the netting holding them down onto the rocks. Thanks!

 

[ReefWreak]

I've heard before of people putting a few mushrooms in a blender, then releasing that into their tanks (a gentle blend, just to throughly chop them up), and then propagating the mushrooms that way. They seem quite resiliant.

I've noticed that the more i cut them up in my rocks to give to people, the more of them grow back I need a hungry butterfly fish

 

[Wett Hands]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15345405#post15345405 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by ReefWreak
I've heard before of people putting a few mushrooms in a blender, then releasing that into their tanks (a gentle blend, just to throughly chop them up#, and then propagating the mushrooms that way. They seem quite resiliant.

I've noticed that the more i cut them up in my rocks to give to people, the more of them grow back :# I need a hungry butterfly fish

.... a blender, like what the wife uses for her daiquiris?!?!

 

[Lance M.]

Mushrooms + daiquiris!?!!?

Sounds like fun.

 

[Wett Hands]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15346929#post15346929 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Lance M.
Mushrooms + daiquiris!?!!?

Sounds like fun.

I agree, but I think the Mrs. would fail to see the fun or humor in using her blender for anything related to my tanks.

 

[bjhubb]

The first mushroom that I split has a complete mouth on each half, and one is almost back to round. The other is growing back more slowly, but has really perked up in that last couple of days. We added a little extra light for them.

Ready to try another, I think.

So you would cut the frags first, then put the frags on the crushed coral instead of putting the whole big mushroom on the coral and waiting for it to attach to a few bits?

 

[Lance M.]

Either way would work.

I guess cutting first would be faster but letting it attach to multiple pieces of cc and cutting it so each piece of cc had a piece of mushroom would be safer/more successful.

 

[bjhubb]

Thanks Lance! I will try go get ahold of some crushed coral and try to get them to attach to it first.

Of the original pair that I split, one half is already back to the size the mushroom was to begin with. And the other is doing good. I didn't get that one cut as clean, it had a little bit of a rough edge at first. But it's mouth has closed over now and it looks good. I am going to try razor blades next time to see if I can use more pressure to get a cleaner cut.

Now, when I cut the next one from the rock, I want to try leaving the foot to see if it grows back there. How much foot do you leave? The whole base, or just a fraction of it?

 

[Lance M.]

Just like if it was a real mushroom, cut the stem in half so that half is attached to the rock and half is attached to the "head." It's easier if you do it straight in the tank when the mushroom is stretched out, but a lot of people seem to be uncomfortable cutting in the tank because it releases "undesirables" into the water but I've never had a problem with it and since your doing one at a time it won't be a problem.

 

[bjhubb]

We've had to remove several palythoa polyps in the DT. Either because of sponge on the rock they are on or because it's stuck to to many other things with epoxy to move it. I've not had a problem yet, but we are just very careful to only to a couple of polps at a time this way. We did rib a huge hairy mushroom in the tank once when aquascaping, and no ill effects from that either. And now we have two big, beautiful hairys, both fist sized.

That's another good point, we did have some 'foot' on the small piece. That's actually what caused the tear, the hairy had settled onto two different rocks, but the smaller one had no mouth. We did not expect it to come back, but it did.

 

[Lance M.]

Hairy mushrooms are insanely hardy once they are established. I've literally ripped them apart and within a couple hours they were looking good and they heal pretty fast.

 

[nanshaw2001]

I recently got 2 mushrooms to attach to a rock after they had been floating around loose for about 6 months! Yea me!!! If I cut to propagate do they need to each have a part of the mouth? Or can you preety much cut anything and mesh it to a rock? TIA, Nancy

 

[bjhubb]

nanshaw, I've heard both that you do need part of the mouth and that you don't. Same for foot. I am just playing it safe and getting part of each. The hairy that we tore did not have mouth, but it did have some foot. So I dunno. Some day maybe I'll get brave and try one with no mouth.

 

[nanshaw2001]

Thanks for your input JB. May try an exacto knife in a few weeks....cut off the head from the stem....slice the head in 2 and see what happens!

 

[nanshaw2001]

Thanks for your input JB. May try an exacto knife in a few weeks....cut off the head from the stem....slice the head in 2 and see what happens!