fragging zoos.....clueless..

peckhead

Active Member
i only have a few corals in my 90g but they are all growing every fast and i want to give fragging a try on my zoos. here are some pics of them. I am unsure of the difference between polyps and palys.
any tips on fragging this coral would be great.
i dont know what to use to cut it or how close to the rock i should be cutting it. i dont know how to tell which polyps i should cut off. if i should start at the top or the bottom. i dont know if i should take the coral out of the water when i do the procedure. any tips, links, videos or advice is welcome. thank you...


 

oceana

Active Member
very very easy. bust out a hammerr and chisle and go to town. place it between the polyps at the base and break, thats about it. i like to cut the base at the rock with a razor prior so that its a nice clean break instead of a rip. very easy coral to frag
 

peckhead

Active Member
can i cut off polyps and attactch them to different rocks/??see how i ahve green ones on orange and brownish/yellow ones? what if i want a rock with only green ones or only orange. can i slice them off this rock with out breaking the rock?
 

oceana

Active Member
Originally Posted by peckhead
can i cut off polyps and attactch them to different rocks/??see how i ahve green ones on orange and brownish/yellow ones? what if i want a rock with only green ones or only orange. can i slice them off this rock with out breaking the rock?
unless you are only wanting to bring over 2-3 zoas your normaly going to break atleast some rock. your best bet is to make a frag of the zoa you want and then glue that small rock to the rock you want. i use a product called aquamedic. it is sold at home depot for around 4 bucks per large tube.
 

bnutz24

Member
just a suggestion look in the reef section here and reefkpzr has a few vids on how to frag as well as some text info very good got me a perfect frag my first attempt
 

michaeltx

Moderator
another option that takes some time is to add some rock around the main colony and they will migrate on their own then you can cut the contecting tissue to seperate the rock.
on a caution note though zoas have a toxin in them that can get really nasty PLEASE where gloves and protect yourself from this do a search on the subject there are several good threads about it.
mike
 

reefkprz

Active Member
Originally Posted by MichaelTX
another option that takes some time is to add some rock around the main colony and they will migrate on their own then you can cut the contecting tissue to seperate the rock.
on a caution note though zoas have a toxin in them that can get really nasty PLEASE where gloves and protect yourself from this do a search on the subject there are several good threads about it.
mike
True, the brownish ones are a type of protopalythoa and DO contain palytoxin, Gloves and eye protection are a must. the other ones may or may not contain palytoxin, so please play it safe.
 

peckhead

Active Member
Originally Posted by reefkprZ
True, the brownish ones are a type of protopalythoa and DO contain palytoxin, Gloves and eye protection are a must. the other ones may or may not contain palytoxin, so please play it safe.

i will where gloves and eye protection.
let me get a couple things strait...
can i keep the coral out of water while i am fragging?
and can i take a razor to a couple polyps and rubber band them to a new rock? or would this not work?
as u can see, the rock i have it pretty crowded and i just wanted to take a couple poylps off and put some on the other side of my tank, and maybe give some to a friend...
 

spanko

Active Member
Yes you can keep it out of the water.
Yes you can take a razor blade or xacto knife to it. You want to cut the mat that they are attached to and try to lift it where you make the cut. then you can pick how many polyps you want from there.
Rinse them in clean saltwater afterwards before putting back in your tank.
Wear gloves
Wear eye protection
Make sure and cuts you have are covered.
Don't rub your eyes nose mouth or any other body parts until you have deepsixed the glove and washed with a good antibacterial hand soap.
Can't say this enough the stuff is very poisonous.
 

peckhead

Active Member
wow, im glad i asked because i woulda just cut and had no idea about the poison.
any other tips would be awesome too, i prob wont make any cuts for another day or 2
 

stanlalee

Active Member
I use a box cutter and get underneath them almost and sometimes getting a thin layer of the rock itself they are on. I bust up a small piece of liverock to use as frag rocks and glue them on. simple
april these three frags looked like so

by june the red and aqua had covered the rocks they were on completely. greens arent ready for fragging yet.

fragged onto busted peices of rock. I left the original rocks half covered and hopefully they grow back just as fast as they did the first time so I can repeat (with green included hopefully)


 
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