What's a "frag"?

[d9hp]

Not to be a dumg newbie, but whats a frag? Coral, Anemone, Rock?

 

[michealprater]

it is a small start off a coral.

 

[reefrunner69]

Not to be a dumg newbie, but whats a frag? Coral, Anemone, Rock?

To expand on what Michael said...The term is a contraction of a litteral meaning. A "frag" is a fragment (small piece) of a larger coral. In SPS coral this is typically achieved by actually breaking a limb, or small piece of the coral off. In soft corals it is achieved with a pair of scissors or a scalpal. LPS (unless branching species) can be very tricky to frag, and can easily result in an infection that could kill the coral. This is a risk in fraging any coral, but IMO, it is amplified greatly with LPS.

 

[d9hp]

o so i suppose "frags" would be a lot cheaper than the whole shabang?

 

[reefrunner69]

Absolutely! I pay about 7-15 per frag, depending on how many I buy. That is from a LFS. From fellow reefers....we often trade frags, I got something they want, they got something I want...And of course you can give them to your friends. It also has the benifit of preserving a specific piece. I know of a reefer on this board that fraged a coral, it ended up with an infection and died. But because he was generous with his frags, he was able to get a frag of his prize coral and begin to grow out a new one.

BTW, I'm going to split off the "off topic" posts and move them to the reef discussion forum.

 

[d9hp]

Great idea for the move....So corals are somewhat like worms or somin, you break off their parts and the grow them back? Do you have to break off a specific peice, like the base or something?

 

[reefrunner69]

So corals are somewhat like worms or somin

Sort of, in like a really no strict since of the word...Corals have the ability to heal a severed limb and will then regrow. There are no specific pieces to break, but some are better than others. On a branching type coral, the best place to frag is one of the branches. It is recommended that you not try to frag the base of the coral or any branch that is really big. This will offer the largest injury and therefore increase the chance of complications like infections.

 

[d9hp]

so do you just break off a small limb and throw it in the tank wherever you want it to go, and it will grow a base on some LR?

 

[reefrunner69]

Well if your going to sell or trade your frags, you will want to attatch them to pieces of reef rubble. I have a few in my tank that I detatched from the rubble they came on and attatched them to larger pieces of rock. The method you use to attatch the corals will vary depending on what type of coral you are attatching and who it is that is doing it. There are many methods to attatch different coral to different substrates. With the exception of LPS corals, the coral will encrust to the rock you are attatching it to.