Ricordea Propogation

[itzclayyo]

 

Ricordea Propogation: 101

 

 

 

-So about a week ago I decided I was gonna frag one of my larger rics (Ricordea Florida) that only had one mouth. It is a blue-green morph. I realized that rics seem to be stereo-typed as hard to frag, and that is not true. They are actually extremely easy to frag if done properly. I have been fragging rics this way for about 3 years now and have always been successful. I have never had a death with this method. So here we go-

 

Supplies

 

-1 Florida Ric

-1 Net to retrieve the ric from the tank

-1 Pair of sharp scissors, razor blade, or scalpel

-1 Small container full of tank water

-1 Towel for fragging

-1 Towel to keep your hands dry

-1 Top to small container filled with tank water

-1 Superglue gel or Aquamend

-2 pieces of rubble, frag disks, or frag plugs

 

 

Here is the ric before fragging it, mine wasn't attached to anything so it was very easy. If you have it attached to a rock, carefully take a razor blade as close to the connection as possible to kind of pick it off. Be very gentle when doing that, it is probably the most difficult part.:

 

All the supplies you need, I put Aquamend in the pic but I only use superglue, I've used aquamend before but superglue is easier to me:

 

The top of the container is full of water, I have found it to be less stressful on the coral when it is submerged nearly throughout the entire process:

 

Now that you got it out of water and onto the top, it should be starting to slime up, it is completely normal:

 

Now for the cutting, I use scissors the most I can. I find that one easy snip is easier on yourself and the coral then a back and forward motion as you do with a razorblade. Cut directly across the center of the mouth. One snip should do it. I only cut it in half usually, but on large rics it is possible to do it more, just be sure to get a piece of mouth in each frag:

 

 

It should be extremely slimy now. Perfectly normal. Now put a dab of glue onto your pieces of rubble:

 

GENTLY press on each ric. It should seem like you are only placing it on there, the only pressure you should apply is just putting it on securely:

 

Now soak the two frags in tank water to let the glue cure. I do it for a couple minutes:

 

Here's a better pic of the cut, it came out nicely!!:

 

 

Now just place in your tank, that's it, you're finished. It should be sliming up now noticably. It's normal, don't worry. Here's my frags right after putting them into the tank:

 

 

Now you wait, rics can take from 1-4 weeks to fully form again. Don't place your frags on the same piece of rubble because they will just rejoin and form one ric. The frags will obviously be a lot smaller then the original piece was. Here's mine only a week after:

 

 

 

Congratulations! You now have fragged your rics and have 2 of the same morphs! Fragging is a great way to save the natural reefs, and I try to frag my corals as much as possible. It is really easy and a great way to get more for your money!

 

The hole process took me a total of 10 minutes including setup and pictures. Do not be afraid to frag your rics, it's way easier then it may seem. Hopefully this helped you guys out there that are curious about fragging your Ricordeas!!

 

-itzclayyo

[schaferfred]

Awesome tutorial....Thank you.

[yarmouthshipping]

Fantastic, Rics are hard to get in the UK if you do loads of money.. Was lucky enough to get some frags so will be using this tutorial in future thanks

[bberning]

Great stuff! I am going to try it in a few weeks once finals are over!

[FLIPbmw]

Nice, but I've still had bad luck with ric's.

After cutting, some may last a few days then do the brownslimeofdeath on me.

 

I use medical grade utencils to choppem up and steralize them before and after use.

 

How would you recommend getting a ricordea off a rock in the first place?

[itzclayyo]

Awesome tutorial....Thank you.

 

Thanks!

 

 

Fantastic, Rics are hard to get in the UK if you do loads of money.. Was lucky enough to get some frags so will be using this tutorial in future thanks

 

Thanks, glad to hear it helped!

 

Great stuff! I am going to try it in a few weeks once finals are over!

 

Thanks again

 

Nice, but I've still had bad luck with ric's.

After cutting, some may last a few days then do the brownslimeofdeath on me.

 

I use medical grade utencils to choppem up and steralize them before and after use.

 

How would you recommend getting a ricordea off a rock in the first place?

 

I've found that using utensils such as scalpels don't get the job as done, I feel that one quick snip with a pair of scissors is the best way. I have those pair of scissors that I only use for reefing, and I frequently sharpen them.

 

How do you steralize them? That may be the problem. The only thing I would consider doing is a quick iodine dip after fragging it, but I've never done that myself.

 

To get it off the rock if it's already attached can be pretty tricky. The times I've had to do it I took a brand new razor blade and kind of sliced the foot off of the rock while lifting the edges with my other hand. After I do that I iodine dip them and give them a week or so on the sandbed. Then I frag.

[Ocho Cinco]

Great thread! Now that I know how easy it is I'll have to try it. Would I do it the same way with mushrooms?

[burtbollinger]

nice job, thanks for taking the time to do this....

[Kraylen]

Awesome info man!

 

One thing I would like to say about the scissor method to split the ric... Make sure the scissors you use are VERY sharp and clean! Some mushroom mouths have been destroyed using scissors ####### the frag off horribly.

 

A little tip for fragging the ricordea with a razor blade, When you have the mushroom laying flat on the surface spread it out with your middle and index finger of the left hand.... using a NEW razor blade cartridge center the blade over the mouth of the mushroom so you can see half on each side.... press the new razor against the surface with pressure and use a free index finger and slide the side of one ric half away from the blade... this will keep them from rejoining once the razor blade if lifted due to the slime/excretion they produce when stressed/fragged. one side of the ric will still be attached to the blade and you can sweep it off to the side after the other piece is out of the way.

 

 

Sorry to hijack I got REALLY excited.

 

You should also note that if you cut away an attached ric from a rock, any remaining foot left on the rock should form a new mushroom.

[Pickle010]

Very nice - I've done this before - but never used super glue - i'm suprised that it bonds well with the ric.

 

Here's a question though. I have one ric with 4 mouths and another with 2. Can I make those into 6 rics without cutting any mouths?

[ash71089]

awesome tutorial.. i wish more people would do tutorials for things like this.

[gulfsurfer101]

I've done this before in the past and it always has worked for me. Hardest part was getting them to stick after slicing them though!

[itzclayyo]

Great thread! Now that I know how easy it is I'll have to try it. Would I do it the same way with mushrooms?

 

Thanks, yea normal mushies the same way except you can probably slice them up more.

 

nice job, thanks for taking the time to do this....

 

No problem.

 

 

Awesome info man!

 

One thing I would like to say about the scissor method to split the ric... Make sure the scissors you use are VERY sharp and clean! Some mushroom mouths have been destroyed using scissors ####### the frag off horribly.

 

A little tip for fragging the ricordea with a razor blade, When you have the mushroom laying flat on the surface spread it out with your middle and index finger of the left hand.... using a NEW razor blade cartridge center the blade over the mouth of the mushroom so you can see half on each side.... press the new razor against the surface with pressure and use a free index finger and slide the side of one ric half away from the blade... this will keep them from rejoining once the razor blade if lifted due to the slime/excretion they produce when stressed/fragged. one side of the ric will still be attached to the blade and you can sweep it off to the side after the other piece is out of the way.

 

 

Sorry to hijack I got REALLY excited.

 

You should also note that if you cut away an attached ric from a rock, any remaining foot left on the rock should form a new mushroom.

 

Yea I prefer to use my scissors- I use them for reefing only and frequently sharpen them. Razor is to much of a hassle IME, but it does work. I prefer just one snip method.

 

 

Very nice - I've done this before - but never used super glue - i'm suprised that it bonds well with the ric.

 

Here's a question though. I have one ric with 4 mouths and another with 2. Can I make those into 6 rics without cutting any mouths?

 

It wouldn't be hard. I've only fragged one 4-mouthed ric and I did it like this. 2 mouth is kinda the same way.

 

 

 

awesome tutorial.. i wish more people would do tutorials for things like this.

 

Thanks, I plan on doing some more tutorials in the future.

 

I've done this before in the past and it always has worked for me. Hardest part was getting them to stick after slicing them though!

 

Yea, it gets really slimy!!

[itzclayyo]

I'm glad I could help everyone out! Be sure to post when you do it!

[IMaNoob]

awesome post btw. you need to post more on different corals. my question is i have a ric w/ 2 mouths and doesnt seem to grow very fast (had for about 4-5 months). i try to spot feed and dont notice anything really. would you suggest fraging to speed them up?

[itzclayyo]

awesome post btw. you need to post more on different corals. my question is i have a ric w/ 2 mouths and doesnt seem to grow very fast (had for about 4-5 months). i try to spot feed and dont notice anything really. would you suggest fraging to speed them up?

 

Thanks! I'm gonna try to do more fragging tutorials in the future, just once my frags grow out

 

Fragging them won't speed their growth, but it will just get you more out of what you have. You can get 3 rics out of one with 2 heads, and one of the frags will still have 2 heads. Once they fully recover give them another week- three weeks before you frag that same colony again. Hope this helps your question.

[Militant Jurist]

I currently have two rics with two mouths each. I might try this with one of them!

 

Naturally though, how long does it usually take for the ric to split on its own once it has two separate mouths.

[itzclayyo]

I currently have two rics with two mouths each. I might try this with one of them!

 

Naturally though, how long does it usually take for the ric to split on its own once it has two separate mouths.

 

It can take a while. I've had different results with different rics. Some rics don't even split into two rics at all, but instead just grow mouths like crazy. It all depends on the rics, and there is to many factors that may involve ric growth, ie. lighting, flow, feeding, etc etc

[Militant Jurist]

Well, at least for a while, they're going to be getting more lighting! I'm planning either a 10 or a 20 gallon build, but in the mean time, I've got a T5NO fixture on the way, that will be replacing a few of my ghetto T8s that are on the tank. Will the increase in light help? Also, I've got a skilter that I could use on the tank (for added filtration and flow) if that would help the rics to complete their split. The skilter would be a short-term 1-5 month addition to that particular tank, but I'll do it if it will help my corals. Thoughts?

[itzclayyo]

Well, at least for a while, they're going to be getting more lighting! I'm planning either a 10 or a 20 gallon build, but in the mean time, I've got a T5NO fixture on the way, that will be replacing a few of my ghetto T8s that are on the tank. Will the increase in light help? Also, I've got a skilter that I could use on the tank (for added filtration and flow) if that would help the rics to complete their split. The skilter would be a short-term 1-5 month addition to that particular tank, but I'll do it if it will help my corals. Thoughts?

 

IME rics are always totally different. Some like dirty (as in like 5-10 nitrates), some grow better in perfect water. Some like high light, some like shade. Some like high flow, some like low flow. I think if you put t5's on it will definately grow faster then it did under t8's. The skilter probably won't impact the corals health if you already have normal filtration.

[BibleSue]

Great tutorial. I will add a link on on the fragging tutorial in my sig. Thanks for taking the time to do this. I wish stuff like this was where I could find it when I started.

[itzclayyo]

Great tutorial. I will add a link on on the fragging tutorial in my sig. Thanks for taking the time to do this. I wish stuff like this was where I could find it when I started.

 

A little late but thanks!! That means alot coming from you

[theunion1]

Im still new to hobby and am amazed at the information i am collecting. Thank you!

[itzclayyo]

Im still new to hobby and am amazed at the information i am collecting. Thank you!

 

No problem, glad to help

[thebrainbot]

Wow. This was very informative. Why is this not stickied?