Fragging mushrooms

[OgreMkV]

Hi guys, I need help. I've never fragged anything before (one attempt gone horribly awry). So, I've got about 10 of these pretty blue and purple mushrooms and I just don't know how to frag them.

I tried on some ugly red shrooms. I cut them near the top, patted them dry, glued them to a frag plug and two days later, there was nothing there.

Any advice, tool list, etc would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Kevin

[Christian]

to frag the mushrooms, you'll need a paper towel to place them on.A razor to cut the stalk and the tops of the shrooms. also a cup with some rubble at base of it so the mushrooms will grow on. also a mesh like a window screen to rubber band across the top of the cup/container.

1:You'll first cut the top of the mushroom off than put the tops on the the paper towel.

2:once all the tops are off that you want to frag. the base will grow into a new one and so will the tops.take the razor and cut the caps into 4 pieces. half than in half again the other way.

3:place the new frags of the top into the cup and place the screen mesh onto the cup and rubber band it on.

4:place the cup into the fish tank in a well lit spot.

5:let the cup sit their for 1-2 weeks and the new frags should look like the original cap.

6:in about 3-4 weeks remove the cup from the water and see if the frags are attached to rocks and if so than you can place the rock w/frag back into the main tank.

good luck.

[JamesL]

Very nice description of the process Christian

[Derry]

+1 for Christian. I've even tried supergluing mushroom frags to rocks and plugs, but they're so darn slimy that they end up drifting off in a day or two anyway. The cup method that Christian described is the only way I've had any success attaching mushroom frags.

[mFrame]

to frag the mushrooms, you'll need a paper towel to place them on.A razor to cut the stalk and the tops of the shrooms. also a cup with some rubble at base of it so the mushrooms will grow on. also a mesh like a window screen to rubber band across the top of the cup/container.

1:You'll first cut the top of the mushroom off than put the tops on the the paper towel.

2:once all the tops are off that you want to frag. the base will grow into a new one and so will the tops.take the razor and cut the caps into 4 pieces. half than in half again the other way.

3:place the new frags of the top into the cup and place the screen mesh onto the cup and rubber band it on.

4:place the cup into the fish tank in a well lit spot.

5:let the cup sit their for 1-2 weeks and the new frags should look like the original cap.

6:in about 3-4 weeks remove the cup from the water and see if the frags are attached to rocks and if so than you can place the rock w/frag back into the main tank.

good luck.

Very nice, the only modification I would make is to step 1. When you cut the top off try to get a little bit of the stalk as well. When you cut the tops into quarters, try to get a little of that stalk with each quarter. Both of these steps will help the mushrooms grow faster.

[Zarathustra2]

My experience, I have not been able to mess this up. I have used scissors, scalpels, razor blades and cut as far down as into 1/8 pieces and i get a good amount of return back.

For my part for best practice i use the three tupperware container method. One is a shallow with a sterilized cutting board that i have that fits in it. The second I put in a heavy iodine dip and the third is a rinsing and resting area. I use clean fresh saltwater in all the containers.

I take a shroom and slice it off the rock as close to the base as i can. Put all the shrooms I'm doing in the first container and slice them into 1/4s with an exacto knife. Sometimes 1/8s if its a big honker of a shroom. Dump those into the Iodine dip for about a minute. move to the rest area. I like to leave the shrooms in the rest area for about 10 minutes before moving to the rubble cups. I like to use plastic cups with most of the cup cut off and small rubble pieces on the bottom. Put the shroom cuttings in there and cover with bridal veil. They usually attach in about a week. Then you can spread the rubble about to where you want the shrooms to grow.

That being said, I have even heard of people taking mushrooms into a blender and putting it on low for a while then pouring the mix back into the tank. you can put a rubber band on the thing to get it to split. I've even heard of people using bridal veil tied down tightly to get the shroom to split in hundreds of spots and make a shroom rock.

[JamesL]

That being said, I have even heard of people taking mushrooms into a blender and putting it on low for a while then pouring the mix back into the tank.

I had also heard about this method... and I even heard of someone who tried it on another forum. You would have to take things like filtration and powerheads into account, and probably set up a special "gorw" out tank with a sponge filter for the mushroom soup.

I've even heard of people using bridal veil tied down tightly to get the shroom to split in hundreds of spots and make a shroom rock.

This is an ingenious idea to creat a rock with multiple mushrooms on it! But how do you get the veil off after all of the new mushrooms have formed? I would assume the mushrooms would grow up through the veil openings.

[Zarathustra2]

I had also heard about this method... and I even heard of someone who tried it on another forum. You would have to take things like filtration and powerheads into account, and probably set up a special "gorw" out tank with a sponge filter for the mushroom soup.

The post i read on it didn't mention. I'm not sure it would matter. I like the idea of the sponge filter getting colonized itself. Considering we are talking about mushrooms you could probably just have a big rock in a plastic bucket with a air pump going to keep it oxygenated for the week or two it would take to colonize.

.... You know, i might try that out. I have an extra bucket and can source dry rubble... just make the rock "live" and add a air sponge filter.

This is an ingenious idea to creat a rock with multiple mushrooms on it! But how do you get the veil off after all of the new mushrooms have formed? I would assume the mushrooms would grow up through the veil openings.

The bridal veil will just dissapear after a few months in a saltwater environment. Remember, we are talking about cloth in saltwater here. Same thing with the rubber band method which i have used to some success. The rubber band just dissapears after a month or so.

[Christian]

Rubber bands don't dissapear. I had one holding a coral on a peace of stirofome, for almost 1.5 years.

[cardsfan12]

Good stuff! I'm definatly going to try some of these methods. I'm in the early stages of an sps dominant tank, do you guys see the mushrroms causing any problems for my other corals? Or do you think, if say I went with the blender method they would just form around the other corals? I think I'm leaning toward the tight bridal cloth method to keep them in basically one place.

[Christian]

I don't think if you put them in a blinder many will make it. Because each peace has to have part of the mouth of the mushroom to make a new one. The bridal method of geting more than one frag stuck to a rock works but does not work when their is a nother coral on the same rock that you can not cover. They should not harm your other corals but the other corals may harm them.

[chatfouz]

I don't think if you put them in a blinder many will make it. Because each peace has to have part of the mouth of the mushroom to make a new one. The bridal method of geting more than one frag stuck to a rock works but does not work when their is a nother coral on the same rock that you can not cover. They should not harm your other corals but the other corals may harm them.

i think your partially right.

the blastoderm will only form from cells of the inner stalk. however if the cells are viable then the main stalks should form blastoderms and grow into full organims. but the cells and bits of the distal ends will just die off. they are epimorphollaxis, it just depends on how the blastoderms are formed. (is it blastoderm? I know in salamanders it's a blastoderm for regeneration but idk if that is the right term for an invert...)

[Brooks]

Each piece doesn't necessarily have to have a mouth. Its the same basic principle as fragging Chalices with no mouths... the will form one eventually.

Mushrooms can still produce their food via photosynthesis, making it unnecessary to have a mouth for a period of time..

[Derek]

Each piece doesn't necessarily have to have a mouth. Its the same basic principle as fragging Chalices with no mouths... the will form one eventually.

Mushrooms can still produce their food via photosynthesis, making it unnecessary to have a mouth for a period of time..

Brooks is correct. When I frag my rhodactis mushrooms I keep every part that gets cut off. I prefer not to frag mushrooms inside the display tank because of this. Any little part that floats off will potentially explode into a new colony.