Frag experiment

[Fluff]

You can take a pair of scissors and cut about a 1" thick slice all the way around the rim, then cut that big piece into smaller pieces. The leather will slime up heavily and will look bad for a few days, but will recover.

This is the simplest way to do it and after the coral heals, it will not hurt it as bad aesthetically as just clipping off pieces.
Cutting the rim into one inch pieces works, or you could make your frags larger. I also agree with ziggy to take the coral out of the tank to frag it. I would also have a bucket of water from the tank to put the cut coral into to rinse much of the slime off before returning it to the tank.

Ziggy, that birds nest is really looking great!

 

[Ziggy953]

To add to what fluff said I would also wear some gloves....surgical/latex gloves the leather will be VERY slimy when you start cutting on it.

 

[ccCapt]

Here's the latest...

May

Aug

Sept

 

[Fluff]

Wow, that's alot of growth for one month (aug to sept). Looks great!

 

[ccCapt]

Thanks.
Care to give a shot at an ID? The colony I fragged it from is more table-like than stag-like, and this already seems to be taking on that form.

 

[fijiwigi]

Thats prett cool. Maybe its better that way because it gets more light across the entire frag instead of mainly on top???

What about mounting lights to shine threw the sides of the tank and maybe the front. If its just a frag tank it wont have to look pretty then you would have light on all sides. And growth patterns from all angles. Just throwing a crazy thought out there. Those corals are amazing and you are definately doing good at perfecting the science of aquarium oceans.

 

[Fluff]

Thanks.
Care to give a shot at an ID?

Me? Ummm. After some searching, my best guess is a thin branched table-top acropora.

*disclaimer* I know very little about sps corals.

 

[ccCapt]

Little update. It's about 1 yr now since I mounted the 1" frag (you can still see it in the middle) flat on the rock. The "colony" is a little over 3" tall now.

Nov 08

Jan 09

 

[Tank2379]

Sweet I'll Take One!

 

[Innovator]

Neat formation At work when we get frags the base would either break off with the plug or we would break them ourselves, drop them in the tank, and they'd grow every which way imaginable. It will also work with soft corals, but I've only tried with leathers, briareums, and xeniids.

 

[neilanh]

Very impressive!

 

[melosu58]

Nice Larry. You can really see the difference.

 

[ccCapt]

Time for the experiment to end.
If anyone going to the swap at TFP is interested, I'm selling the now "mini-colony" for $25. I will also have it listed on FragSwapper.

And to get an idea of growth rate, this is from about 7 months ago.

 

[Ziggy953]

Larry, what is that under the clam and behind your experiment? On the ledge.

 

[ccCapt]

It's encrusting hydnopora. When the 75 was still running, the big piece I had spread onto that peice of lr. I fragged and got rid of all the other hydnopora I had.

 

[dano79]

i had a hydnopora frag that was glued upright it was only about an inch tall but for some reason it broke in two so i just laid the one piece on its side and the other is still glued to the frag plug think it will have the same effect as the acropora that was laid down

 

[ccCapt]

Yes, but hydnopora was a very slow grower for me. I got rid of all I had.