Anchoring a soft coral

[shwnicus]

Hi again,

I just got a beautiful red mushroom coral from my LFS. problem is, it wasn't attached to anything, was in a shallow tank with nothing my sand, and must have fallen off whatever it was attached to before. Is there a good way to get it to attach to live rock? I have a lot of flow in my tank, so it keeps getting blown off. I've always had at least something to attach to the LR via adhesive or rubber bands, but this time....nada.

thanks for your help.

 

[Lotus]

Some people use bridal veil to tie it down to the rocks. You can also put it in a container of live rock rubble (such as a tupperware container) that will protect it from too much flow while it attaches.

 

[KahluaZzZ]

Lotus said it, best way to attach it. If if doesn't work there is always the needle trick.

 

[TRe]

ive always had good success just sticking the base of the shroom in a hole in the rock.... or if that doesnt work you could put a shallow container with some rubble and itll attach for sure..never tried the bridal veil method but heard it works great

 

[Lorna]

Actually I think Tre's method works best as I have tried all of them. I have placed the shroom into a depression in the live rock and then placed a small rubble beside it to protect it from flow. The small container can be a yogurt container with the sides cut down to about 1/2 inch with rubble in the bottom, place the shroom in then cover the top of the conatiner with bridal viel (fine mesh) with a rubber band, place this in a low flow area and in a week or so it will have attached. The pushing it into a depression is quicker though and not as work intesive and believe me the mushroom pretty much will find it's place pretty quick. Once established it is going to spread like mad regardless......

 

[CoolWaters]

i recommend doing a mesh/net method. using that to hold down the coral but still give it flow and light.

http://www.garf.org/MPegs/XeniaPropagation.html

 

[shwnicus]

thanks for all the advise.

I tried wedging it into a hole in the LR. It looked like it would stay there, I had found a spot of relatively low current, but the next morning, the coral was gone. I've moved rocks, pointed the heads in different directions, and I can't find it. I'm in a bit of a panic now, I don't want it to die and foul the tank. Anyone ever had this happen?

 

[Lotus]

My first mushroom rock had a mushroom top fall off. It also floated around in the tank for several weeks until I found it again. It was fine, I fished it out and tied it down to a rock with some netting while it attached.

It probably won't die, but if it does, the cleanup crew will take care of it.

 

[Lorna]

It is unlikely to die, it probably found a nice hidey hole to attach to. I have mushrooms that are constantly spitting off babies that will float around to relocate. They will detach themselves and move if they don't like the spot they are in also. Mushrooms are pretty much indestructible. I have a rubble pile in one corner that I place any strays on and once they attach I move them.............then again they are so prolific i sometimes don't even bother In fact I have so many that I may have to juice some just to keep their numbers down.