How to mount a Corallimorpharian

[Lazylivin]

You ever mount a Ricordea to a plug or rock and the next day it is gone. I have, after loosing a couple at 20$-30$ a pop came up with this method that is working pretty well, so thought I would share.
Tools
- Bridal Netting (Tooling) can get it at any fabric store very cheap
- Live Rock or Reef Plug
- Scissors
- Rubber Band
- Small pieces of PVC











After a week or two remove the tooling, PVC and rubberband. If the Ricordea foot attached itself to the PVC I have found you can lightly twist the PVC and it will slide off because of the smooth surface.

Here is one I did last week on a rock plug.



Some distributors put some small pieces of rock chips (not rubble rock) in a container and drop the mushrooms down in. Over the period of a couple weeks they attach to several pieces. The issue I have experienced is that the rock chips are sometimes very small like a 1/4" x 1/4" and it is not large enough for us to get glue on it to mount to our rock. It also will cause the Ric to not mount well using the method I described above or any method for that matter. Half of it will always be swaying in the current. I think that is why a lot people say that Rics like low current because 1/2 the shroom is not attached and it is flapping in the current agitating it and causing it to deflate. My personal experience is that if a proper mounting can be achieved they can thrive in medium to high indirect current. Yuma’s are much less susceptible to this issue because they move across the rock and are constantly getting a better hold also leaving a piece of its foot behind to re-grow a new mushroom.

If you notice your mushroom is not completely attaching check to see if the foot has these rock chips between it and the substrate. If so you are going to have to pull it out. It is a slimey job and hard to hold on to the shroom but removing it you will be much more successful with a strong complete mounting

[BradsOcean]

great idea! I'm mounting a mushroom right now this way! thanks!

[Tallinu]

Someone please sticky this because it applies to all mushrooms and is a great visual post for one of the good ways of accomplishing this goal.

[Lazylivin]

Glad you found this helpful.

[Gdubb]

Sweet, thanks for the tip. Hoping to get some rics soon!

[shadowz40]

Thats a great way of doing it! Thanks!

[shadowz40]

Thats a great way of doing it! Thanks!

[fote03]

Works well with leather as well!

[acro76]

Great idea! Especially for tanks with higher flow rates. I usually put rics in a tray with course calcium reactor media (rock rubble works too). In 1 to 2 weeks they attach.

[BruinQB7]

I've been planning on attaching a ricordea to a pretty flat piece of live rock in my tank. When I see them at my LFS, they're usually attached to a plug or a small piece of LR. I'm wondering if there's a good way to detach the ricordea from either the plug or the LR and then reattach it to the piece of LR already in my tank without hurting its chances of survival. I've never detached any coral from anything other than straight up ripping my leather coral off of a piece of LR (this was months ago and it's been doing amazingly well).

[Phoenix19]

Awesome How-to! Thank you very much! I will be using this method to round up all my loose mushrooms. Should work fairly well on zooanthid frags as well...

[ducklabdad]

That is the absolute best idea I have seen on doing this.

And I almost did not read this post as I thought it would just be the "same old same old" thanks I did. I will personally ulilize this method today!!

This should be stickied> I will certainly pass it on to all I know might be doing this!!

[Rendos]

Here is one I did last week on a rock plug.

That looks like a Fish Heads Coral Plug. Did you use their plug or is that a Fish Heads ricordia? Just curious.

[Chyendra]

This method works great! I had a particular ric that was so small I couldn't get it to attach to anything, but this method worked great! It attached in less than a week.

[Lazylivin]

Originally posted by Rendos
That looks like a Fish Heads Coral Plug. Did you use their plug or is that a Fish Heads ricordia? Just curious.

Good eye It is a Fish Heads Plug. I buy corals from a LFS here and their supplier is Fish Heads. Very nice stuff. I always remove the coral from the plug and glue directly on my live rock and save the plugs to mount stuff to.

[Lazylivin]

.

[FL.Joe]

i've had a 2headed ric for a couple of months now and its still rubberbanded to a piece of LR because it wouldnt attach. it does have a small chip of rock that it came with and thats the problem. i'm not sure i would be able to pull the rock off, could i use a razor to cut it off?

[thetrueclown]

I will have to try that next time. Thanks for posting!

[shovel]

i also foun that if you stuuff them into a snail shell if the shroom is small enough then put a rubber band over the hole and 9/10 they never move and no net or frag tank is needed

[Dave Harms]

Cool thread and nice technique. Thanks for sharing.

[SuperOstrich]

Great post. Thanks for sharing the technique. I will definitely use this when it comes time to mount some of my mushrooms to sell them. It seems this would work for tons of different soft corals, mushrooms, and zoos too.

[entropygain]

Just fragged a bunch of mine this way.

Bridal netting $0.99/yard
Travertine 1" tiles ~$11/100 at home depot (just pull them off the backing)

Now even if the stupid Maroon drags them all over the tank, they're still good!

thanks

[Reefer08]

Great idea with the pvc tube! Im going to have to try that out.

[entropygain]

I made a slight mod where used the rubberband around the PVC to make a tight cap with the bridal netting, then use a rubberband to attach to a tile. However, somebody keeps cutting my rubberbands!

Could it be:
a) the hermits who like to sit on top?
b) the maroon clown & blue damsel who keep rearranging them?
c) the shroom trying to escape?
d) rubber failure because of cheap rubberbands?

[urbanrat84]

This is such a great thread. I've been keeping a bunch of morphs in a plastic container for ages now and they've attached to the plastic. Reading this thread motivated me to put them on some rock and get rid of the container. I got my bank card and slid it gently under the foot of the morphs to detach them from the plastic without damaging them and put them on small pieces of live rock covered with bridal veil and a rubber band. Within a day they had all turned themselves upside down so I unwrapped them and tried again with the same method but made the bridal veil tighter. They stayed in place but were trying to expand thru the bridal veil. I was worried about losing them so I undid it (after a day) and they had already attached.

Just thought I would post my experiences and bring this thread to the top of the pile at the same time - I also think it should be a sticky!