Mushroom splitting by hand?

[kris walker]

Hi everyone,
I've read a short article on a website recently that said you can take a razor and split a mushroom into 4 quarters and place them in separate parts of the tank. They will take hold of the rock in a weeks time (providing they are kept in place with a string), and will start to grow into 4 separate full mushrooms. I've already searched this topic in the search engine, but no luck. Have any of you tried this or heard of success or failure? Intuitively, it seems to me that this would be stressful on the mushroom, and it would get infected and die.
sam

 

[tom45678]

I have tried it once, and it worked. Its actually a pretty popular method. Make sure you do it in a seperate container,NOT IN THE TANK. The mushroom will release toxins and possibly kill everything.Mine sort of looked deformed for the first 2 months. Try it.

 

[mal]

BillyV does this all the time with his 'shrooms, he's a freak that way. Someone on the BB suggested to use cheese cloth to hold them on a piece of rock until they attach. All of Bill's are doing really well. It's pretty easy, I've done it too with mine. I use three separate tupperware dishes with tank water. first one I just put them in from the tank, second one I Cut them up and rinse, and the third one I attach them to a rock and hold them until they go back in the tank. I also use Kent Tech D in the second and third containers. When they go back in the tank, I rinse them off in the first container to get the Tech D off.

 

[teetee]

Mal,
How long do you leave the shrooms in the containers?

 

[kris walker]

Thanks for the replies everyone. This sounds really interesting. I'll have to give it a try. Is Kent Tech D some sort of supplement? Do you mean use cheese cloth in your tank, or in one of the tupperware dishes?
sam

 

[davidcanupp]

I have heard of doing this too but never tried. I want to attempt it but i only have two mushrooms and i don't want to kill them. Has anyone ever had bad luck or is this a pretty easy and safe thing to do?
And what about if the mushrooms are already attached to a rock? How do you get them off?
Thanks -David

 

[q]

You don't have to cut up the whole thing. If you want to just cut a pieco out in the shape of a pie. The shroom should grow that piece back and the frag should attach to the rock in a few days.

 

[mal]

The Tech D is just an antiseptic wash, to gaurd against infections of new cuttings. The directions for using it are right on the container, and can be found at the kent web site. They also have a step by step you can follow there. I personally have not used the cheese cloth, but BillyV has. He uses the cheese cloth to hold the 'shroom onto a piece of rock, then puts it back in the tank. When you can see it is attached, take the cloth off. We haven't had any fatalities from cutting them, we usually cut them into quarters. We have lost a few in the tank though, sometimes they float off. I have several blowing around in my tank from time to time. Depending on how many 'shrooms you're cutting it takes about 15-20 minutes.
[ November 10, 2001: Message edited by: mal ]

 

[kris walker]

Hi Mal,
Thanks for the detailed info. It gives me the confidence to give it a try.
sam