| Difficulty | Very easy |
| Time Required | 10 minutes |
| Healing Time | Days to 2 weeks |
| Best Method | Cut through the mouth, or rubble cup |
| Coral Type | Corallimorphs (Discosoma, Rhodactis, Ricordea) |
Overview
Mushrooms are the closest thing to un-killable frags in the hobby — in nature they reproduce by tearing themselves in half as they crawl. You have two methods: the scalpel method (fast, more frags) or the rubble-cup method (zero cutting, zero risk). Ricordea are the slowest and touchiest of the group; Discosoma barely notices being quartered.
What You’ll Need
- Sharp scalpel or new razor blade
- A small cup or container of coral rubble (rubble-cup method)
- Plastic mesh or a bridal-veil square and a rubber band (optional, to hold cut pieces down)
- Coral dip
Step-by-Step
- Scalpel method: peel or slice the mushroom off its rock (get the foot if you can) and lay it flat.
- Cut through the center of the mouth into halves or quarters — every piece that includes a bit of mouth tissue regrows fastest, but even edge pieces usually make it.
- Drop the pieces into a cup of rubble in a low-flow spot, with mesh over the top if your flow or fish will scatter them. In one to two weeks each piece attaches to a rubble chip — glue that chip to a plug.
- Rubble-cup method (no cutting): place a whole mushroom, or its rock, in the cup and let it wander/split on its own; collect attached babies from the rubble.
Aftercare & Healing
Cut pieces look like sad deflated blobs for a few days, then re-inflate as tiny complete mushrooms. Keep them in low-to-moderate light and gentle flow while they attach; a fresh cut piece in strong flow becomes a drifting pizza topping somewhere behind your rockwork.
What Can Go Wrong
Pieces disappear: flow carried them off — use the mesh. A piece melts: rare, usually Ricordea cut too small; halve Ricordea rather than quartering. Parent detaches and floats: normal escape behavior after disturbance; put it in the rubble cup and let it re-foot.
Related Care Guides
Discosoma Mushroom · Ricordea Mushroom · Rhodactis Mushroom · Yuma Ricordea