How to remove Ricordea from rock

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mike333

Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Joined
Apr 4, 2005
Messages
45
Location
Tampa Fl
Does anybody know how to remove Ricordea mushrooms that are attached to a rock. I would like to place them on my existing rock from the piece of rock they are attached to now. How do you get them loose?
 
You could try gently lifting up on the edges to nudge it a bit. Use stress coat on your hands and/or use thin latex gloves. A smooth edge knife with a thin edge can be useful or a sharp piece of plastic. Try not to damage the 'foot'. I use my nails. Don't expect it to be happy right after. Move it over to where you want it and leave it be. Watch it. Usually they're fine. Very tolerant critters. Turning the rock upside down over a bucket of saltwater works with getting anemones off of rocks. I don't know about mushrooms. They may just shrivel into a blob first and take too long...lol. That's what they look like on a new shipment of live rock. Well, that's my input. Perhaps someone else can add his or her ideas here too :)
 
I use a powerhead.
A mushroom will move/relocate itself if it is in a high-flow area. This may be unintentional too.
He won't need direct hard flow, but enough to make his sides blow upward. In a day or 2 he should be mostly, if not all detached; foot and all.

That's my experience and my $0.02 worth.

HTH
 
You could also take a very sharp knife and carve off the rock just under the foot. That rock is soft enough, usually, to be skinned without too much trouble. The other option is to "frag" it and cut it off the stalk just below the cap. Then take the cap and cut it in half (if you want more of them) and tie it down to the rock in a low flow area with netting of some sort (bridal veil material, for example). The rock you cut it off of will grow a new ric and the ones you cut up will grow too (try to keep a part of the mouth on each ric).
 
How big shold the ricordia be befor you cut them. The ones I purchased yesterday are about the size of a nickel. Would like to frag later but don't know haw big they should be before I try.
 
Phyl said:
You could also take a very sharp knife and carve off the rock just under the foot. That rock is soft enough, usually, to be skinned without too much trouble.

I use a chisel. getting under the ric leaving it on a lil piece rock is nice when you want to relocate them cuzz you can glue the small piece off rock the ric is attached to to the larger rock. best way to get them to stay.
 
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