How do I frag a mushroom?

[spleify]

I have these shrooms in one of my tanks and would love to put a couple in my other tank. What is the best way to get these off the rock they are on now? And what is the best way to get them to stick in the other tank? Thanks in advance for any help.

[spleify]

Sorry. Here is a pic of them.http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/117519Xenia___shrooms.JPG

[IslandCrow]

To get them off, a razor blade or a pair of scissors works great. It's sometimes hard to get the scissors in there. There are many ways to then attach the frag, but my favorite is to take a piece of rock rubble (or frag plug), some bridal veil (also called tool) and a rubber band. Put the mushroom frag on the rock/plug, cover it with a piece of bridal veil at least twice the width of the rock/plug, wrap it around the frag and rock/plug, and rubberband the veil in place (avoid rubberbanding the actual frag). Make it just tight enough to keep the frag against the rock. It should attach in a couple weeks. In addition, the piece of mushroom left behind in your main tank from where you cut it will more than likely grow back into a full mushroom as well.

[pledosophy]

You can cut them off with an exacto knife. Cut them up like a pizza making sure to get some of the central disc onto each piece. Then place rubble rock in a tubberware, cut a few slits in the tubberware on the sides. Place the tubberware in the water. Using tweezers place the mushroom pizza pieces on a rock in the tubberware. Then cover the tubberware with a piece of bridal veil, securing with a rubberband.

Let sit for two weeks, open the container to a tubberware full of mushrooms.

If you just want to half one then place a rubberband around the mushroom so the rubberband divides it's central disc. The mushroom will split.

Sounds scary but is not to hard.

[flyyyguy]

Razor blade and super glue.

slice them and then after wiping as much slime as you can off the base with q-tips, set them in a glob of glue on your piece of desired rubble on the counter for 30 minutes or so

Sounds kinda brutal(and i suppose it is), but its instant gratification and you can simply place them where you want when done without having to mess with rubber bands or anything else.

[drummereef]

You can also remove the rock and take a chisel and chip off a piece under the foot of the shroom you want to move. That will give you a 'base' to superglue the frag to the new rock. Shrooms in general don't like to be superglued directly to a rock. They will slime up and the glue won't stick. Absolutely beautiful colony btw. :)

[spleify]

Thanks everyone. Thanks for the compliment drummereef. Ok so just to get this right, when you guys say take a razor blade or even scissors. Are you guys just cutting it on the stalk of the shroom? Do you cut it high or low? Then as far as the "pizza slices" do you cut that exactly in the center hole? Thanks again for all the help.

[jbarone]

I like to cut mine on the stalk just below the cap. The stalk will regrow into another mushroom. I then place the mushroom on the sand bed with the top from a small clear plastic soda bottle over it. Be sure to remove the cap from the soda bottle. It will attach to the sand in two weeks. Then glue the sand disk to a rock. I have found there to be very little stress on the mushroom.

[paran]

Answering the question on the pizza slicing, you want to make sure each pizza slice has a bit of the "center hole" in it, or else that piece will not survive.

And I agree with the avoiding the super glue. It tends to be really rough for the shroom.

[flyyyguy]

Not that I really care.....but as far as the glue goes, If you do it how i explained, it works every time.

As well Ive glued hundreds of mushrooms/ricordia and have never killed one. If a mushroom dies in your tank, youve got more serious issues than a little glue burn going on. lol

[spleify]

Ok thanks for all the advice everyone has given. I am going to attempt my first mushroom frag this weekend. I will try to give updated photos of progress. Thanks again.

[doomicon]

Reefvideos.com has a video of the mushroom fragging process. So you can see it being done before taking on the task yourself ;-)

[IslandCrow]

Good luck. By the way, if you mess up a cut and don't get through the center, definitely don't assume the frag's not going to survive. There's a very good chance it will. Cutting through the center just seems to greatly improve the odds of survival (pretty near 100% with most mushrooms).

[aquarius77]

Those look like blue stripe shrooms to me, there is nothing you can do to kill them. butcher one off the rock with a razor blade, no matter what you do that shroom will regrow and then use a veil and rubber band like explained above to get the one you cut attached to some rock.
Seriously, dont worry about the shrooms, IME you cannot kill them. I have tried to get rid of them and always just ended up with more shrooms.

[spleify]

doomican, that's an awesome site and great video. No other explanation needed. Thanks a million. I am gonna have fun with this, this weekend.
Here is the link in case anyone else want to look.
http://www.reefvideos.com/