Ever fragged a Bubble Coral? - I did! (updated pics 6-3)

[Devilishturtles]

Hey guys. I've been reading up on how to frag bubble corals. I have a huge one that is growing too long and curling around the bottom of the rock that I'd like to attempt fragging. If you've ever done this before, I'd love to hear some input.

I hear conflicting information on the safeness of trying this. Some say one wrong move could kill your whole colony, others say that it bogus. My plan was to try the method of attaching a thick rubberband over the area I'd like frag, wait a few days until the flesh below dies, then chisel away the area where I want to frag. But fact is that they tissue goes all the way down into the skeleton, so it's more tricky than simply chiseling the area away.

Anyways, here are some pictures to show you what I want to do. What do you guys think?

 

[MT79]

Bless your brave soul LOL! I only have one experience housing a bubble coral and it did not end well. It just would not settle in. They seem kind of delicate IME. Since yours is well adjusted, it may prove to be much more tolerant. I'm interested in what others say.
Good luck

 

[Ziggy953]

From what I have seen of bubble coral (mine included) they don't look to be great candidates of fragging because of how they grow their skeleton. Of course mine is much smaller then yours but I don't see how it could be done without cutting the felsh and that I think would be a bad thing for this coral in particular....I'm no expert....I'll check around and see if I can find any info for you....

 

[melosu58]

Let me know if you find out or if you do it. I have a monster bubble coral also that I`m considering Lindsay. I`m looking at him now and he`s as big as a volleyball. Good Luck on your venture. I`ve just not been brave enough to try.

 

[Devilishturtles]

Thanks guys, now I'm really nervous, hah.

I found a thread that explains a different route. It involves cutting grooves in the bubble coral, the drilling a hole though the skeleton, then wedging the coral apart until the skeleton breaks. Allow it to break all the way up to the fleshy part, then stop, and put it back in the tank, and apparently the polyps will seperate on their own. Atleast, that's what I make of it. It's not that clear (it's like guy talk terminology that I don't quite understand) haha.

http://www.netpets.org/fish/reference/reefref/bubcoral.html

What do you guys think? I'm ready to give it a go.

Edit: I've got a Dremel, that should work right?

 

[roka64]

I would have liked to see some pics of the process.

 

[melosu58]

What do you guys think? I'm ready to give it a go.

I`m behind you Lindsay. Cant wait to see if it works. We will experiment with your`s first. LOL

 

[Devilishturtles]

okay, surgery is scheduled for around 6-7 pm tonight. I'll let you know how the patient is doing afterwards.

Oh, and I'll take pics too.

 

[roka64]

surgery is scheduled for around 6-7 pm tonight

LOL! Good luck.

 

[Ziggy953]

Good luck....I'm sure you will do fine!!

 

[Devilishturtles]

Thanks guys, I just saw this link..

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1025836

and I'm worried. I *might* just go ahead and try and do the whole thing tonight. I guess I'll see how it goes. I don't really want to have to joggle around my entire colony in the tank (it's huge!). That thread says that I could just use a sharp blade and cut across the flesh... maybe that's what I'll do. Hmmm. Trying to slowly pry apart a 5 inch wide, 10 inch long coral is gonna be more tricky than I probably want.

Alright, I'm excited. Nervous

 

[Frogspawn]

grats lindsay go for it.
good luck

 

[melosu58]

That fragging post is self expanitory. Great info Lindsay.

 

[surjer]

ok - its 8... What happened? lol

 

[roka64]

LOL! I was going to ask the same thing.

 

[Ziggy953]

I just logged in to check on the progress and I see she hasn't informed anyone yet....guess we will have to wait....She is probably uploading tons of pics...

 

[Devilishturtles]

Haha, here is the update!

It was definitely NOT as easy as I thought. Actually, nothing went as planned, but I already started so I figured I might as well finish.

First off:
The skeleton on the coral is EXTREMELY soft and porous, which I didn’t expect. Put too much pressure in one spot and it seems the skeleton cracked. This made it hard to actually pry apart like the “directions” said. But...no problem.

I ended up being too scared to try and pry it apart with the screwdriver, sooo… I took a drill bit and I drilled holes every few mm, hoping that the porous skeleton would work to my advantage. It did. After I finished the holes, the fragged area practically fell off. I used the razor blade to carefully cut away the tissue inbetween the ridges in the coral and the pulled gently and it came over good as new.

So far everything seems to be fine, but a few days will tell.

--

I’m umm…excited? Hehe. I took this because goggles are important! Yuck does go in your face. And it’s not pretty. Eye protection is good.

So equipment. The Dremel, goggles, gloves, a razor blade, screwdriver, also a bucket of saltwater is needed, and the coral, of course.

A shot of the coral with the bubbles retracted. The trick is to fan the coral with your hand until you get it to retract.

Here is a shot of the coral during the dremel process. It wasn’t working too well, mainly I think because I had the wrong piece. So then I decided to try a small drill bit to drill down, because of the unusually porous skeleton…

Another “in process shot”

What you don’t want to happen while you’re cutting a coral…

After the fragged part came off. You can see how pourous the skeleton is in this picture. Very fragile.

Another shot of the coral post fragging. I didn’t like how the edges were turning brown, so I thought I’d ought to wrap things up quickly.

This little piece chipped off unexpectedly. There is some flesh there, so we’ll see how it does!

The successfully fragged part. Turned out pretty good, except it is cracked in the middle. I’m hoping that letting it sit still for a few days/weeks will sorta heal it over.

Another shot of the fragged piece.

The coral 10 minutes after fragging. It’s opened up completely, which really makes me feel good!

The big frag. Doesn’t look as good in this picture, but even minutes after I took this picture more bubbles are coming out. I’ll get an updated picture before I go to bed.

Finally, the small piece. Got some bubbles sticking out! Which is nice too.

Overall, I’m happy! It seems to have worked, even though nothing went right.

 

[Frogspawn]

WOW GRATS Way 2 Go

 

[Ziggy953]

Nicely done!!! You are far braver then I!!!

 

[austinsdad]

Dr. Lindsay I presume....

Great work and thanks for sharing!!