my plan for fragging ricordia

[Metznreef]

i have a riocrdia that is like 6 inches accross when fully open in my 7 gallon nano-reef. as you may guess, it takes up alot of space. i would like to frag it so here is my plan: put the ricordia in a bowl with some tank water and cut off the peices that are already starting to seperate from the main body. put the small peices in a JBJ mini-tank i have with a 13 watt PC over it. there is no flow in there so the ricordia should attach to the rock rubble quickly right? after they attach, put them back into the nano and let them grow. sound good? any suggestions?

[Satchmo]

I don't think it will attach that quickly if you cut it up. When you cut free a shroom and leave the pedal "foot" intact, it will attach quickly. When you hack a shroom up, those pieces have to regrow new feet. This takes a little while. Just bridal veil them to rocks and let them be for a few weeks.

[Metznreef]

what is "bridal veil"?

[Satchmo]

Bridal viel is a mesh material. I use it to frag everything. It holds things to rocks without damaging the frag like rubberbands can, and it's more fool proof than messing around with glue, especially with the slimier corals. It's a mesh, so it lets water flow and light get through without a problem. You can find it at any artsy-fartsy craft store like Rag Shop or something.

[MKramer]

When cutting ricordia frags, do you slice through the mouth or pedal disc? Or do you leave that intact on the original mushroom, only slicing pieces off the edges of the top disc (whatever you call it)?

 

Thanks,

Matthew

[NanoReefer53]

keep the ricordia on the piece of rock that it's already on. slice from the mouth to the side of it. This way it'll split itself and you won't worry about trying to attatch it again.

[Satchmo]

Matthew-

 

I fragged my ricordea only once- I cut like a pie slice out of the side. That piece eventually grew into a complete shroom. The parent shroom was left attached to the rock, and split on its own the way NanoReefer53 described. I did it like this because I needed a frag for trade, but didn't want to butcher the one I had because I like the way it looked in there.

[Palmetto]

The tank with no current at all is a bad idea.

 

They run a big risk of turning into slime if they do not have some current. I did that at first. The way I propagate them now is to cut the cap off, cut it in half or in quarters (a 4 slice pizza), then I put them in a shallow tupperware bowl in the bottom of an established tank. I try to cut them so that each piece has a bit of the mouth. (They don't have to, but they form a full disk more quickly that way!) I make sure they are getting SOME current, but not enough to move them out of the bowl. I put smashed live rock rubble in the bowl for them to attach to, which they do very quickly. My guess is that yours is a Yuma, being that big, correct? They recover very quickly from the slice and will attach in no time. I allow a couple of weeks to let them get a good grip, then I put them where I want them in the main tank. You can glue the rubble to big rock if you would like to, just don't get glue on the Ric, they hate it and may release the rock they are holding to if they come into contact with cyanacrolate glue.

 

In your case, since you have such a monster there, you could just slice small pieces off the outside that are already trying to split and put them in the same sort of little bowl. Anything that will keep them on top of a rock without restricting them directly will work. Tying them down tends to promote sliming, although it will sometimes work. Bridal veil forming a loose cage works alright, but I have better luck not restricting them at all.

 

I have also sliced and left them on the rock the way nanoreefer suggested, but a lot of the time they just grow back together. Sometimes they will form a little patch of babies at the base of the cut when doing this though, it is just the luck of the draw.

[Metznreef]

i don't know what kind of ricordia it is. i bought it from anthony812. i'll try to get a pic of it soon. the little bubble/tentacle things seem to be alot farther apart then on most the rics i see on the net though.