propagate my toadstool

[IndyReef]

Okay i have a toadstool coral about 8 inches in diameter and 8 inches tall. is there a way to cut a piece off of some place on the coral and make a new one? i know you can do this with many corals, but I am just afriad of cutting the big fella and then the part not grow, or worse cause some more harmful injury to the big guy.

TIA

 

[steve r]

i have never done it, but be sure to cut it out of the water. they will deflate and release toxins into the water

steve r

 

[PatM]

Shouldn't be too bad. I have cut a few different leathers all with great results. The one thing is that I've never tried to cut small portions. Usually you can cut the entire crown off and chop it into many small frags to spread around the tank or to sell/trade to the LFS. Give em' an undisturbed place to attach to some rock and plenty of flow to keep them clean, they will shed some filmy substance the first couple of days that you want to keep off of the frag and the parent colony. Also, definitely cut out of the tank if possible, I cut mine on a cutting board and about 2 cups of grey water poured out and it deflated to about 1/5 of it's size. I've fragged almost every soft coral I have and traded with others, it's a great way to get more specimens. Also here's more fragging info including video (go to propagation, then sarcophyton in side bar menu): www.garf.org

 

[clowninround]

I had to cut mine because it looked like it was rotting in one spot (temp got too high one day) and I cut the affected area completely off the crown with a clean razor blade. That was last month, it has completely rehealed itself. You almost can not see where I cut it. But I do know that you want to cut the crown and part of the stem?/base? with it to frag it.

 

[IndyReef]

the www.garf.org site was very helpful on this. i encourage you guys to look at the site and spot referenced above. pictures and a movie oon how to do it.

 

[PatM]

Yeah, GARF is the best place to go for propagating info. Good luck fragging.

 

[ellisz]

I have done finger leathers where I just cut a finger or a branch of the main body. I have wondered about big leathers myself. I have a big toadstool and a big sinularia and I think it would be tough to just cut the head off. A big knife would be needed.

 

[PatM]

I used a 10" butchers knife to cut mine, it was scary, then cut it up like a pie leaving part of the stalk on each piece. I got 8 frags the last time and all survived, 3 are still in my tank now.

 

[ellisz]

Do you put the stalk back in the tank? I have cut the tops off xenia and kentya tree and the stalk will grow back.

My big sinularia leather is attached in 3 places on separate pieces of LR. It would be near impossible to remove it to frag. I normally just do a small stalk. I just know that this thing is getting too big. My toadstool is the same way. I have it in the back corner because I really don't have room for it.

Maybe I should cut them up ... :?

 

[PatM]

Yes definitely. The stalk will grow a new head, I've seen polyps grow back on my leathers in as little as 2 weeks. Cut it then you have babies to pass out to all yer friends and trade with LFS. The top left leather has had the whole top cut off twice now. Also sorry, I don't know why these pics showed up 3 times! My pop up software does crazy things with upload/download of files.