Mushroom Propagation Requirements

[peterh1975]

What is the best way to propagate mushrooms? i am more interested in propagating recordias but was wondering what would be the best lighting and I have notice mushrooms do not like waterflow period and high instense light.

 

[esmithiii]

My ricordeas like high light and medium to low flow. As for mushrooms, they are tolerant of medium and sometimes even high light.

I simply cut a head off a given mushroom and then cut it into fourths. I then place these pieces in a bowl full of small gravel-sized (1-2" diameter) pieces of liverock. They attach to pieces within a couple of weeks. I then use epoxy to attach the pieces of gravel with the cutting to a larger piece of LR.

Ernie

 

[goofyreefer]

Check out Garf. They have directions on propigating Ricordia. I was going to try to do it myself for the first time.

 

[peterh1975]

Thanks for the replies. I have done mushroom propagation before but what is the best way of approaching it? example water to prevent unwatned algae without distrubting the musrooms at the same time. I have seen mushrooms not like to much like such as the recordias i have under halide. would to no bulbs be suffienct for recodrias on a 12 inch high tank?

 

[Anonymous]

Ernie said:

I then place these pieces in a bowl full of small gravel-sized (1-2" diameter) pieces of liverock. They attach to pieces within a couple of weeks.

Do you leave this bowl in the tank, like covered with something? Or do you just leave it sitting on the kitchen counter?

 

[danmhippo]

I put cuttings in pvc/abs end caps with gravel. I also cover it with bridal veils to prevent water blowing it around and critters irritating them.

 

[esmithiii]

Do you leave this bowl in the tank, like covered with something?

I leave it in the tank! Very important! It will rot in your kitchen without the flow of water and the lighting. I do not cover mine, but many people do cover it and experience a lot of success.

 

[goofyreefer]

I have one of those clear specimen containers that hang on the side of the tank so i just drilled a couple holes in the plastic to allow some water flowand put some gravel oin the bottom of it. Sounds like it would work fine but I haven't done any frags yet.

 

[oranje]

I think I must be mean to my mushrooms, then. I usually just pull one off a rock, and secure it onto another with a piece of rubber band. This cuts it in half down the middle, and now you have two! Epoxy has never worked well with mushrooms for me, and I'm just too lazy to go out and find bridal veil.

The ghetto approach, but I've had good success. The "$5 for loose mushrooms" sale at my LFS made my little tank very colorful very quickly.

 

[esmithiii]

Epoxy has never worked well with mushrooms for me, and I'm just too lazy to go out and find bridal veil.

Epoxy will not work with mushrooms. I use the epoxy to mount the small pieces of gravel to larger pieces of liverock.

I have tried the rubber band technique but find that the mushrooms tend to slip off the rock out from under the rubber band.

Ernie

 

[Reef Fever]

I have used the specimen holder with holes drilled in it full of gravel inside the tank successfully. I prefer cutting the head off as described, cutting it into fourths, using bridal veil-like stuff to strap them onto the rocks I have selected so that I can choose where I want them. The bridal veil was available in a convenient $2.99 roll about 5 inches wide at Wal-Mart in the crafts section. You don't have to have high light, but you do need moderate water flow or they will melt.

I have a 20-gallon long and a 10-gallon tank side-by side longways under a pair of 48" NO 40 watt Super Actinics and a single 40- watt Actinic White. I am running Skilters on both tanks and using them for propagation only. I have found that I can put the Skilter on the 20-gallon all the way on one end of the tank, leaving one end with low circulation. I sometimes just cut off mushrooms and toss them in the low-circulation side where they find some gravel and grab it within about a week or two. Then, I move them into the current to make sure they are gripping tightly before I glue them where I want them in one of my other tanks.

I have about 5 colors I like to mix on the veil-rocks. You can make some interesting "Rainbow rocks" this way.

As long as you keep water moving at least a little, you can pretty much just hack these babies up mercilessly. The only way I have been able to kill them was in a bowl of gravel that was outside the tank. This will quickly become a bowl of mushroom soup. The people that reccomended a gravel bowl must have meant to put the bowl in the bottom of a tank.

They are quite hardy and adaptive. The stem you cut the head off grows back too, sometimes into more than one if you are careful to be sloppy with the cuts!

Have fun.

 

[Anonymous]

You can attach them just like xenia cuttings. You use super glue(cyanoacrylate glue). Just dry the rock and the shroom pieces and then glue the shrooms to the rock.

 

[Reef Fever]

Have you ever tried actually glueing mushrooms to rock?

They slime off badly. They react to the glue worse than any other coral I have worked with.

 

[SPC]

Here is what I do:
1. Place mushroom rock in aquarium.
2. Watch as mushrooms spread all over tank.
3. Remove the mushrooms I can get to and sell them to LFS.
4. Spend 6 months trying to get all of the mushrooms out of the tank.
5. Don't place anymore mushrooms in my tank .
Steve

 

[Reef Fever]

How do I get rid of all these dang corals and live rock?

My tank is stuffed with live rock and corals. It is gorgeous and really getting on my nerves.

I also have other various beautiful lifeforms breeding happily. How can I stop this??

(Sarcasm)
:wink: