Fragging a Toadstool Leather

First, I would like to thank everyone at talkingreef.com and reefreaders.com for asking me to do this and future articles (this is my first one so bear with me … they WILL get better with time) !!

In the articles I am planning on writing, I am going to start with the more popular and easier corals to frag. This way … even the new guys and girls will not feel so lost (like I did at first) when we get into the good stuff … ranging from Lobophyllia (lobos) to Catalaphyllia (elegance) corals !!
In this article I would like to go through the process of fragging a Toadstool leather. It is not a hard coral to frag, but a little harder than say … Montipora Capricornus (just snap a piece off in most cases).

So here is what we are going to need for this little adventure … a very sharp razor blade knife or scalpel, a sewing needle, fishing line (I prefer “spiderwire” but whatever you have will do), a piece of live rock rubble, and of course … a Toadstool Leather (of fraggable size).






Cutting the Toadstool


Now for the fun part !! This is the way that I prefer to frag MY toadstools, although I have seen it done MANY other ways, because it seems to be less stressful on the animals.


I prefer to cut the “cap” of the coral, and not the base or “stalk” of the coral. When you cut the cap you can get many more frags than if you cut the base. For example, if you cut the base into four sections, how many frags would you have ?? That’s right four. When you cut the cap around the entire perimeter you can get many more if you cut it right. I have gotten as many as twelve frags, from one leather doing it this way.

Video of toadstool cutting - Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

After cutting the “ring” off of the cap of the leather, you are going to want to cut the “ring” into smaller pieces (I cut them into 1”-1 ½” pieces) using the same razor or scalpel as before.





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