Cut Ricordia Experiment w/Pics

[Yancey]

I finally got the nerve to cut up one of my orange ricordia polyps. It turned out to be a lot easier and painless then I thought. The half dollar sized polyp is attached to a 1.5" x 0.5" piece of rock.

Here's my steps:

- Place ric on paper towel on my desk
- Cut with a sharp razor blade from mouth to edge on one side
- Cut from mouth to opposite edge
- Cut slow and hard from edge to edge to made sure the polyp was severed
- Place back into tank

So far the 2 new rics look to be doing well and reforming themselves nicely! Enjoy! My orange yuma is shakin in its pants noW!

[Yancey]

24 hours after cutting

[Yancey]

3 days after cutting, what you can't see is that both mouths are reforming and each polyp looks like a pie with a single slice taken out.

[Yancey]

4 days after, you can clearly see that the two mouths have seperated.

[Jimnorris]

Outstanding job!
Jim

[Sherri]

Wow Yancey, nice job and great pics by the way...

[scuba_steveo]

awesome thread...i too am scared to do it

[dan]

how did you get the ric off a rock to get it to the paper towel?

Place ric on paper towel on my desk


then how did you put both pieces back in the tank and still look like they are one piece? did you glue the two halfs on a new rock? i'm confused........

[Yancey]

Dan, that is a little confusing, I just ment I placed the whole thing(rock with ric attached) onto a paper towel so I wouldn't make such a mess.

I'm seriously eyeing 2 more rics for slicing... i'll post pictures of those too if I do.

[dan]

so you just cut the ric while it is still on the rock? ok that makes more sence now. maybe i'll give it a shot. thanks

[samiam_orami]

Beware of FRAG FEVER ! ! !
once you start ... you can't stop ;-)

[brewercm]

I wish my rics would repoduce like my purple shrooms do. I have about 30 to 40 now and started with about 10 on a rock about 9 months ago.

[RobertG]

Hey Yancey want to sell a frag or two? This is awesome if it turns out to be a success!!! I have some that seem to be reproducing bright green next to others, real small. I got these on a rock @ lps. I paid 10 $$ for the rock as they were very small. Have colored up nice, Started with 3 now have 5 with 1 little guy I mean little. Will try to get pics. They, I think mistaked them for regular mushrooms.. :-D

[brewercm]

I have one rock that has a bright green that has spawned off three smaller ones. The other rock still has the two originals, they just don't reproduce as fast as the others I have.

[RobertG]

Pic, I dont know how to resize these pics. Much better pic but cant get it small enough to post. Well not with better image. Notice the green nest to Ric. then lower to the right 2 others.

[reefer]

nice job at fraggin! let me know when your ready to trade frags of those orange ricordias!
8)

[Yancey]

Thanks for the support guys. And as soon as I get some extra's propgated I would love to trade for some ric's or zoo frags. So I'll keep you guys updated on my progress. Here's a pic from today (monday).

[dan]

once they split can you cut them again or do you have to wait for awhile? do you have them under low light? i'v heard that they don't do well under MH.

[Yancey]

Dan, i'm not sure when i should cut them again, I was thinking of at least waiting till they are completely whole and circular with no signs of the last cutting. BTW, i feed both mouths a small piece of food tonight and each ate!! JOY!!

They are under 32W 50/50PC at the bottom of the tank (7gal), I think they do good at the bottom of the tank under MH's.

[RobertG]

Yancey what are you feeding them?

[Yancey]

Rob, I get raw shrimp from the grocery store and cut up tiny pieces for them. I turn the powerheads off and use bamboo skewers like chopsticks to place the food near each mushroom mouth. I have also used mysis shrimp before, but its more of a hassle to feed individual mysis.

[brewercm]

Dan,
I have my ricordia under 2 400 watt 20Ks in my 75 and they seem to have acclimated well to them. Actually better than the other mushrooms in the tank have, but they are sitting at the bottom of the tank.

[RobertG]

Cool I will try that. I feed mine a piece of krill. Big piece! It took him a while but it disapeared. He ate it. I never thought to feed them like this. All my corals seem to like a big chunk at times. Just never tried Rics this way.

[Yancey]

Here is the final picture for this thread, the Ric's are split and almost entirely healed! I'm going to be doing one into fourths this time, so as soon as i get a weeks worth of pics i'll post'em.

[::pete::]

I have an orange with purple rim that has 4 mouths. When you cut the ricordea did you keep the blade between the "bubble tips" or doesnt it matter?

[Brett Wilson]

I dont think it would matter....

[btacker]

Ok... so I have 1 green ric ( which is pretty big... around 2 inches across ) and I have 2 smaller ones. From what I am getting from this is that I'm supposed to be feeding these guys? Just put a piece of shrimp on them?

[brewercm]

I've never directly fed mine. I figured they'd get some of the brine as it is dropping on to them. I might have to try and see what happens if I direct feed.

[::pete::]

I thaw frozen brine, mysis, cyclop-eze and add some Dt's to thin it out. Then use a pipette to feed.

[GaryP]

I just fragged some huge elephant mushrooms. I started with 2, now I have 5. I gave one of them to Taxman.

Gary

[cvonseggern]

Can you frag regular mushrooms this same way? Just cut em down the middle?

And how much "juice" do they release? I've got one in a nanocube that I'd love to frag, but it's on a really big rock that I don't want to remove from the tank. In my 100g I wouldn't worry about it, but in the nano I wonder if it'd be safe to frag a shroom in the tank.

[::pete::]

You can just cut pieces off the mushroom not worrying about the mouth portion.