coral propagation...

[Terry64]

My ricordea are reproducing but very slowely, is there a way to encourage them?

i know nothing happens fast in this hobby, maybe i just have to be patient.

Terry.

[SpriTzin]

I've had some for about 3 years, they are extreamly slow growing from my experience. i've read that you can split them by cutting, but i have not been successfull doing it. i just keep my rocks on the sand, and when they have no more room to spread, they float off. gota be able to catch the floaters though ;)

[miriclemudreefer]

ya i havnt had much luck splitting them either, i was tolad a while back that if you cut them on 4 sides it will encourage splitting, but it did nothing but come back together and become one huge ricordea lol. id like to know as well

[Terry64]

it seems cruel to do that to a living thing so i havn't done it, mind you i have cut flowers in the garden, same thing i guess.

if you kill the ricordea it's an expensive mistake too.

Terry.

[swhobbie1]

I tried splitting a really nice green mushroom I had a while back and felt so bad about it I havent done it again. I dont think I will either. They all just float away and grow someplace else as well as grow new ones on the rock they left where they left a piece of themselves.

[Spyder]

If you try splitting another mushroom a little trick to get them to attach to a small rock of your choosing is to put the rock into a small plastic pixie cup and put the mushroom on top of the rock for a few weeks. Once in a while the mushy will attach to the cup so you need to keep an eye on it.
I got the idea from my local reef club.

[Fiji Live Rock]

I would use some form of mesh....you place it on top of the newly cut mushroom and anchor it down...after a while the mushroom will attach to the rock and you can remove the mesh.

[Terry64]

i did get some mush frags one time and put them on some rubble in a small glass dish with a piece of netting over them, they did adhere to the small pieces of rock but they ripped off when i removed the nettingm the shrooms had kind of grown into the netting material.

Terry.

[Fiji Live Rock]

Bummer. The netting and rubble should have worked. Have you tried putting the rubble in like a tupperware container that has higher walls (ziplock makes nice ones cheap) and then placing the mushrooms on the rubble? The higher walls should slow the water movement down enough to keep them in one place until they attach to the rock rubble.

I have seen it done that way with good success.

[GSELLERS1245]

an easier way is to chisel the shroom off the rock then split it in half so that each half will have a piece of rock attached. Superglue it wherever you like and watch it grow