I have a couple of soft corals I would like to propagte in my tank.. I am kinda nervous in this undertaking and would like to start slow. Ihave a rock that had 3 mushrooms on it now i have 3 new ones and would like to progate the larger ones to cover another rock in my tank. Is there anyone that might be willing to walk me through this process and or give me tips to make this a succesfull event??
propagating tips
- Thread starter reefmutt1
- Start date
reefmutt-
I just did this exact same thing for the first time about a month ago. So I can tell you what I did.
I took my mushroom rock out of the water, lifted up the mushroom so that I could get at the stalk, and then sliced it with a razor blade. I then cut the mushroom into quarters, trying to get part of the mouth in each piece (didn't quite succeed with that).
I did this with three mushrooms.
Then I took the mushroom pieces and put them in a plastic cup that I had put some gravel in, and set it on the substrate inside my tank, in such a way that it wouldn't tip over. After about a week and a half, the pieces had attached to some pebbles.
I took the pieces that had attached to pebbles, and superglued them onto the rock that I wanted them on.
It's been, oh, about 4 or 5 weeks now, and they all survived, and are showing growth. Also, new mushrooms are growing where I cut the old ones off.
BTW, don't be alarmed when some really weird looking stuff comes out of the mushroom when you slice it. CRAZY SLIMY.
I read a LOT about this before I tried it, and it seems like you just can't possibly go wrong propping shrooms. Just don't want them to float away and attach where you want them.
HTH.
I just did this exact same thing for the first time about a month ago. So I can tell you what I did.
I took my mushroom rock out of the water, lifted up the mushroom so that I could get at the stalk, and then sliced it with a razor blade. I then cut the mushroom into quarters, trying to get part of the mouth in each piece (didn't quite succeed with that).
I did this with three mushrooms.
Then I took the mushroom pieces and put them in a plastic cup that I had put some gravel in, and set it on the substrate inside my tank, in such a way that it wouldn't tip over. After about a week and a half, the pieces had attached to some pebbles.
I took the pieces that had attached to pebbles, and superglued them onto the rock that I wanted them on.
It's been, oh, about 4 or 5 weeks now, and they all survived, and are showing growth. Also, new mushrooms are growing where I cut the old ones off.
BTW, don't be alarmed when some really weird looking stuff comes out of the mushroom when you slice it. CRAZY SLIMY.
I read a LOT about this before I tried it, and it seems like you just can't possibly go wrong propping shrooms. Just don't want them to float away and attach where you want them.
HTH.
A slower (and easier) way of repopulating mushrooms to another part of the tank is to place a small piece of "rumble" rock next to the original mushroom field. The shrooms will naturally replicate onto the rock, after which you can simply move the small rock to its new location.
If you leave the base it will grow into a new shroom, so try to cut just the cap off the shroom.
Quartering the shroom works very well I have done it many times with exactly the above described method.
But if this makes you a little nervous, you can just cut off the cap, dont bother to quarter it and place it in the cup of rocks. The stem will grow a new shroom and you will have a complete shroom to transplant in about a week.
You will get less shrooms this way but they will be larger. I have had 100% success with propagating shrooms, haven't lost a piece yet.
I have never tried this with ricordia yet, but I am considering them next HTH
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economic predictions
Quartering the shroom works very well I have done it many times with exactly the above described method.
But if this makes you a little nervous, you can just cut off the cap, dont bother to quarter it and place it in the cup of rocks. The stem will grow a new shroom and you will have a complete shroom to transplant in about a week.
You will get less shrooms this way but they will be larger. I have had 100% success with propagating shrooms, haven't lost a piece yet.
I have never tried this with ricordia yet, but I am considering them next HTH
_________________
economic predictions
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