moving tiny mushrooms from a rock ?

[cracker]

Hello, I found an old mushroom rock I had forgotten about in my old refugium. Problem is this rock has some realbristle green turf algae on it. I want these pretty red shrooms with blue spots but not the rock ! These mushrooms are very small like the size of a tums to the diameter of a cigarette. You think I can pluck them off with tweezers and put them in a basket with ruble? Thanks

 

[StevesLEDs]

There is not a 100% guaranteed method that will work. Shrooms tear really easily. Some will come of easily, and some will fight to the death. Even if you can peel them off, they don't seem to hold where you want them to and will roll around on the sandbed.

The only way I am able to reliably remove some of those "holding till the death" was to take the rock out of the water, place on a wet towel on a work bench, and use a flat screwdriver as a chisel and try to chip of the rock just underneath them. For a pea sized shroom, just chip off a pea sized rock underneath them. Then you can use CA to glue that wherever you like. Granted, you may tear some because the type of rock they are holding on to can vary greatly, but you'll get better after practicing. That said, practice a bit first!

Alternatively, you could always try scrubbing the rock with a stainless steel brush (looks like a metal bristled tooth brush that can be had at a local welding supply store), and scrub the algae off. So long as your phosphates are low it shouldn't grow back too fast.

Hope that helps?

Jeff

 

[IanReefer]

+1 on the chipping up the rock

 

[cracker]

Thanks for the replies ! I ended up using a utility knife with a new blade. Very lucky the rock was fairly soft. I just dug under these tiny little blobs of slimy stuff. I just happened to have a small container very similar to Paul B's brine shrimp feeder. I put 27 of them in this container with the bottom covered with small rubble pieces. I placed the contraption in the back of the tank. So we shall see! Thanks again !

 

[cracker]

Hey Folks, just an update on my shroom tranfer experiment I started in June ! So last night I pulled the little container I had the micro shrooms in.
There were quite a few that had indeed attached themselves to the rubble and sand. They are still micro sized though ! Hopefully they will get a "little" bigger. I remember in the past they were normal sized.

Any way the rubble in a small container did work ! Thanks for the tips !
also here is apic of a coral that was given to me. I think it is a fuzzy mushroom front center. Anybody id it ? The others are coming back from the brink. The 2 sps left and right I thought were history !