Frag experiment

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ccCapt

SW 20 & Over Club
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Mar 15, 2004
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Just about all the frags I see are always mounted right side up. I decided to try something a little different and fragged a small piece of one of my acros. Instead of doing the upright mounting, I decided to lay it flat and glued it to the rock.
I have some interesting growth going on here now. This may end up being one huge colony. It has about 10 new "bodies" growing out from it now. You can see the piece in the middle it started out as...about a 1" frag.

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When Calfo was at TFP, he talked about faster/better growth when gluing them leaving the cut area exposed. That looks really awesome. What is the time frame?
 
Thats prett cool. Maybe its better that way because it gets more light across the entire frag instead of mainly on top???
 
Thanks :)

Fluff - I saw Calfo's talk about it too. That's where I got the idea ;) This is about 6 months after I broke off the frag. It's on a flat piece of lr rubble about 4" x 4". It spread the base first and all the new verticle growth happened in the last month or so. The tallest growth is about 1" high.
NCPARS fall frag swap is Nov. 1 near Allentown. Calfo is tentatively set as the guest speaker.

ryshark - I don't know the technical, biological aspect of it, but basically the coral can sense it's not right side up. In nature, when a storm hits a reef and corals break off, they fall flat usually, not standing up. They then spread out a base for stability for the new colony to grow on.
 
That is pretty neat that they can do that. Does anybody know how long coral lives considering it always has perfect water parameters and everything it needs? Is it like a tree and lives practically forever, or more like anything else with a lifespan?
 
That's pretty awesome for only six months time. I'll be looking forward to the next update. :)
 
I have done it both ways and my results are mixed. I actually prefer the old method.

That is some great growth though.

Congrats
 
That's pretty cool. It would be interesting to try that with other frags too and see how well it works.
 
Very cool...I did something similar with some Pink Birds nest frags. I have 6 or so smallish pieces that I didin't feel like mounting so I just laid them on each other. They have all fused together and started shooting new branches straight up. I'll get a pic of it and post so you can see.
 
ok Can someone help teach

Sorry ...not trying to steal this thread but...How can I learn to frag my coral...it is huge and with my new tank I would like to have a second like this but I have no clue how to do this. This is about 12 inches across and 10 inches tall
 

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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.
 
wow....1" all the way around??? Ok that scares me....I love this leather....but if that is how it is done.... how big should the frags be after I have that long piece?
 
If you can get the leather out of the tank to cut it I strongly suggest doing it. Also it is a good idea to run some GAC on your system for a few days after putting the leather back in the tank.

Mine took about a week to fully heal from cutting it. It's getting about time to do it again.
 
Here is a quick shot of my frag experiment, Pink Birdsnest....

These were frags that I had laying on top of each other in my frag tank. I went to put them on plugs and when I picked up one piece they all came out. I decided to leave them alone and let them grow this way. The pics aren't that great but you can see that they are starting to send branches straight up. It should be an interesting looking coral in a few months.
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