Propogation by necessity!

[reefrunner69]

I as well as many other reefers have found it necessary to propogate out soft corals as well as hard, because it became necessary to save the rest of the coral, rather than because of too much growth. This happened to me tonight, and I thought I would create a photo essay of the event, there are no photos of the actual propogation, cause it's hard to cut up a coral and take pics at the same time

Meet my Sarcophyton leather...


This is what it looked like yesterday. Notice the lobe on the right side, it had already begun propogating itself.

This is what it looked like when I got home from work today...


Here is a closer pic of the necrotic area on the right side...


I decided that to stop the necrosis from spreading to the entire coral, to cut off the lobe.


Here is a close look at the site of the cut, the cut was made with a pair of very sharp scissors..


Instead of just trashing the lobe that was cut off, I decided to cut away just the necroyic area, and place it back in the tank. If all goes well it will attatch to the rock and I'll have another one...


Before anyone asks, I do not know what caused the necrosis, it could have been many things, although I think it is most likely that the coral was injured or irritated in some way and a bacterial infection set in, but that is only a guess. I will continue to post photos as the coral heals or declines. If all goes well, we should see a skin and maybe even some polyps come out on the prop sight within a few days.

[reefrunner69]

Day 2:

Momma...



Frag...had to move it, it fell out of it's original hole, but stays in this one fine

[reefrunner69]

Day 3:

Momma...


Frag...


Well, you should notice the necrosis has returned on the frag, probably din't cut it back far enough the first time . When I removed the frag, it broke into to many pieces to try and cut any from it. I will now have to keep a very close eye on the leather, at the first sign of a necrotic area, I will frag again, making a more drastic cut...