mushroom frag disaster - Frag Outpost Forums - Coral Propagation and Reef Aquarium Forums

stephanie · 01-31-2006, 01:08 PM

Okay, this is not a "question", "tip", or whatever the third thing was, but a slightly humerous horrid story. I decided to try to frag a mushroom. I had 2 big ones a medium one and 2 tiny ones. It had been my plan to chop one of the big ones. Obviously, that was the best choice. But then I noticed that one of the tiny ones had its base stretched to about an inch. I bought it last week and it was attached to both a shell and a rock. Well, he musst have been in too high of flow because the rock was an inch away from the shell and the poor guy was all stretched! I totally knew that if I just left him, he would be fine and might even split on his own. But, alas, it was too tempting. So, I took him out and prepared to cut.
That slimy little guy felt the razor before it even touched him! Detached from the rock and got small. Still, I couldn't leave well enough alone and I cut what I hoped was in half. It wasn't. It was more like a quarter with no mouth...
Wait, it gets worse. So I acclimate the two pieces to my frag tank, do an iodine dip, etc. I had a container with a fishnet over it. I read the post on here about the little guys floating away, so I was very careful. But, not careful enough. The container was bigger than I thought it was and I had to tilt it to get it past a rock. The biggger guy who was still attached to the shell slipped right out and under a rock!
Even then I was thinking that if i just left him, he would be fine. But again, I couldn't leave well enough alone. So I lift the rock and all the other rocks tumble down! Now I have my container floating around in the water and a plume of under-rock crap messing up the water!
I finally find the shell guy and get him back into the container.
Everything seems to be okay now.
My levels are fine, but I did a little water change anyway. The shrooms seem okay...
Well, it was one heck of a mushroom fragging experience...

FragOutpost · 01-31-2006, 04:43 PM

HeHe. Sorry to laugh but that's funny.
I have experienced the liverock avalanche before.
At least you didn't loose any of the frags right?

FragOutpost · 01-31-2006, 04:49 PM

Your thread inspired me to get out the camera and take some photos

http://www.fragoutpost.com/forums/showthread.php?t=229

stephanie · 01-31-2006, 08:53 PM

thanks for the photos!you make it look easy. The frags are looking good and no-one was harmed from the avalanche.

FragOutpost · 01-31-2006, 09:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by stephanie

The frags are looking good and no-one was harmed from the avalanche.

That's good news.

What kind of fishnet did you use to cover your container?
I've been meaning to get some bridal veil but lately have been using the netting that oranges come in.

stephanie · 02-01-2006, 07:26 AM

I literally just took a standard green fishnet and put it over the top.

Question: When the shroom is reforming, so the sides pinch together and then start growing a brown tissue to fill in the rest of the gap? (I hope so because that's what's going on with Mom!). I took her out of the container and glues her to a piece of rock so I could see the progress better (she's attached to a shell). Baby is attached to a few grains of sand.

This is so exciting! I'm going to try to find my camara later and take some pics.

FragOutpost · 02-01-2006, 07:44 AM

Quote:

Question: When the shroom is reforming, so the sides pinch together and then start growing a brown tissue to fill in the rest of the gap? (I hope so because that's what's going on with Mom!).

Yeah that sounds about right. It will take a few weeks for the shroom to regain it's circular shape. Glad to hear that everything seems to be making some progress. Can't wait to see some pics!

stephanie · 02-02-2006, 10:28 AM

I'm having trouble with pics because the camara won't stop focusing on the glass. Here's one of the little guy that stayed attached to the shell. The other is in the fishnet container.

FragOutpost · 02-02-2006, 10:30 AM

The little guy looks like it is doing pretty well so far.

Does your camera have a macro mode?

stephanie · 02-02-2006, 10:32 AM

Yep. That was taken with macro. It works fine through the acrylic tank, but not the glass for some reason.

D12monkey · 02-16-2006, 09:48 PM

Great story... Alls well that ends well. Next

I guess you'd let it be?

JeffDubya · 12-24-2006, 11:53 PM

So, when you say you "glued" your frag... did you glue the actual shroom? Or did you wait until it attached to something small, then glued *that* to whatever...