need help fragging ??

[lReef lKeeper]

i am currently working on some fragging articles for the ReefReaders section of the site. anyone have any suggestions on corals that they would like to see fragged ?? so far i am shooting for Acropora and Montipora, both plating and branching (using MY techniques, there are a lot of different ways to do these), various mushrooms (including ricordias), toadstool leathers, pagoda cups, zoanthids, and frogspawn. any suggestions will be great. if you have something in your tank that you want to know how to "chop up", post it here or feel free to PM me.

[CarmieJo]

I've read about fragging plate corals and think this would be an interesting demo.

[lReef lKeeper]

i will have to see if one of my buddies have one. do you mean something like a fungia or tongue coral ??

[CarmieJo]

I think that what I read about was a fungia.

[lReef lKeeper]

OK, i have a friend with a few that are ready to be fragged. maybe he can hook me up with one to demonstrate with.

[lReef lKeeper]

Carmie, i have a NICE fungia coming very soon, AND it is pretty LARGE !! so i guess we have found our speciman !!

[CarmieJo]

Very cool. I will look forward to seeing it and your articles.

[SoCalReefer]

Yeah!!! I need to find out how to frag encrusting montipora. I see the more surface area it has the faster it grows, and i want to frag it onto a larger piece of rock. Any info would be great!

[lReef lKeeper]

i have found that when fragging an encrusting montipora, such as supermans, that it is easiest and less stressful to the animal to just chisel off a piece of the rock that it is currently encrusted onto, and mount that rock to another rock of your choice. or use a razor blade and slice off a small piece of the rock with the monti on it.

that being said, you could always just lean a portion of the monti against the rock you want it to encrust onto and let it happen naturally. i prefer this method, but the two options in number one also works well for me if i need them fast. i think i will add this to my "articles to be done" folder for reefreaders.com. it will be cool to actually see this technique on a video clip.

[SoCalReefer]

Thats does sound like a good method; with the placement of another rock by it's side, I'd like to try that out. It might even be really neat to set up a digital camera, (and/or mark the spots so you can use it in the meantime) to create a scene to playback over a month's time to monitor it's growth. Well you might need more than a month's time to notice a difference, but you get what i mean. That has the potential to be an awsome vid, and very informative.

[lReef lKeeper]

Just a little note to everyone ...

this thread has been sticky-fied. if anyone wants to know how to or see how to frag a coral, post it here.

[Pescaiolo]

Hello,

I was wondering if there is a way to seperate individual zoanthid polyps. Any info would be appreciated! God bless!

[lReef lKeeper]

there is an article i just did on zoanthid fragging coming very soon to a back issue (June issue) of reefreaders. as soon as carmiejo gets it added i will post it here.

[Pescaiolo]

Thank you Bobby! You're awesome!

[lReef lKeeper]

you got it buddy. i will contact her and see when it will be added.

[TheApprentice]

I would realy like to know how to frag my torch! Think you could give me some advice?

[lReef lKeeper]

to frag a torch (Euphyllia), all you need is a pair of side cutters. just snip off the branches that you want to take off. the key is to cut them off as close to the main colony as possible (so try to cut were the branches meet the main "stalk" of the colony). this way you do not damage any tissue that may be in the branches.

[graphixx]

I would like to make a suggestion on fragging zoo's (not sure if this has been said) but if you can frag in the center of the colony that makes the regrowth faster. and the smaller the frags the better they seem to fair. I literally frag zooanthids at least 3 times a week. I honestly dont think there has been a day go by in the last 90 days where I have not fragged some form of coral. I have been doing alot of enchinata and aussie acans lately.

[lReef lKeeper]

got any "high end" zoanthids Greg ??

[graphixx]

yeah I have.... ked reds, eye of ra, mean greenies, tubs blues, shiznits, alien eye, RPE's, speckled PE's, kiwi crush's, zombie eyes, safecrackers

[lReef lKeeper]

yeah I have.... ked reds, eye of ra, mean greenies, tubs blues, shiznits, alien eye, RPE's, speckled PE's, kiwi crush's, zombie eyes, safecrackers

PM me a price for a few polyps of each !! when did you become the zoanthid collector ??

[graphixx]

I really wouldnt call myself that. I dont have many I just mainly keep the harder to find ones. pretty much across the board is $7.00 a polyp and you want to do at least 2-3 polyps

[lReef lKeeper]

can you get the Bali safecrackers ??

[jim t]

bobby
I have sent you a pm but I found this forum.
I have 3 leathers that I want to frag. I have watched
your video on the toadstool leather but I have a few
questions.
1. my toadstool frag is splitting can/should I frag this?
2.how big should the frags be, the coral is @12" x 9"on top
3. should I frag just 1 side of the split or both?
4. I dont know how to frag the other 2 leathers

[lReef lKeeper]

i think that i would just wait on the big one to finish its natural split before fragging
it. the others though, all you want to do is to cut whatever pieces of them that you want
off and attach them to a piece of rubble using the method in the article that i wrote on
fragging a toadstool. the key to healing for them is flow after being attached. you want
a mild flow so that they are able to attach to the rubble easily. the fast they can
attach themselves ... the less likely there will be any complications.

for future reference ... you can make the frags as big as you want. i usually make them
about 1" - 1 1/2" and i usually get about 12-15 frags from one fragging of a toadstool
around the cap.