Larry Ng April 26, 2016 0 comments

Step by step method of fragging Mushroom coral

Step by step method of fragging Mushroom coral

It all started with a simple yoghurt or any plastic container that you can find. Well, now I am going to share with you guys a detailed step by step method to propagate mushroom coral.

Mushrooms are a beautiful soft coral, they are hardy and come in various colours commonly found in the pacific water. However, mushrooms can be difficult to propagate comparing to other types of corals like leather and SPS. They take a long time to reproduce simply by fission, dividing in two, and cutting individual mushrooms up into pieces and putting them into a tank to attach is usually a wasted effort, because the pieces will float into the pumps and be destroyed, or disappear under some dark rock.

To prevent this, I put the mushrooms in the bottom of a yogurt container. Of course, you don’t have to use a Western Family brand vanilla yogurt cup. Any container will do as long as its made of smooth, nontoxic plastic. Make the container about half an inch tall.

First of all, i cut the base of my Yogurt cup and fill the container with rubble, or large pieces of gravel. I use CaribSea rough grade or coral chip that you can find. These should be clean, meaning that they start out with no algae or anything else attached to them. If you’re using fresh gravel, be sure to rinse it off first. The mushroom pieces will attach themselves to these pieces.

Next, get several full-grown mushrooms. Cut the mushroom head off of the rock leaving a piece of the stalk behind. This stalk will regenerate, growing a new mushroom. You can use these pieces as broodstock.

You’ll want to cut the mushroom head into pie-shaped pieces. It is important for each piece to have some of the central stalks. This stalk contains the stomach of the animal and is the part that attaches to the rubble.

Place these pieces in your container. Then, put a piece of bridal veil netting over the entire container. Use a rubber band to hold this covering over the container. This bridal veil netting will prevent the mushroom pieces from being swept out by the current.

This entire container should be put somewhere that will be free of strong current and light. The mushrooms will attach fastest in a relatively quiet corner of the aquarium.

For me, the next part is the hardest. You have to wait for 3 to 4 weeks before all the pieces are attached. Do not try to skimp on time and open the container early. You’ll end up with just a bunch of loose mushroom pieces. Patience is a virtue!

Finally, you can take your mushrooms out.and glue them to any rock or substrate or frag plus. These plugs can then be placed into an aquarium where they will grow into adult mushrooms over time.