how harmful is fragging to lps?

kirkland

Member
There is a neon-green tipped hammer that another reefer is willing to trade but not sell. We have 2 frogspawns that are big enough to frag a few heads off. How harmful or stressful is this to the coral? Will it need a few days to recover before moving the frag to another tank? They are both branching frogspawns - do we just break a few branches off? If I do this, it will make me feel terrible at the time but afterwards, will know that the frogspawn has shared itself with another reefer, hopefully keeping 1 more coral in the reef and not in the trade.
 

nano reefer

Active Member
depending on how you frag it. If you use a tile saw, and make a clean cut, there would be almost no difference. if you just snap it, there could be damage.
 

kirkland

Member
Originally Posted by Nano Reefer
http:///forum/post/2668898
depending on how you frag it. If you use a tile saw, and make a clean cut, there would be almost no difference. if you just snap it, there could be damage.
how long can lps, euphyllia especially, be out of the water without any ill effects? if i do this, will do it right how you suggested it.
 

morval

Member
I would use smithing like dremmel if you have it. Make sure u iritate the FS so it closes up. The weight of it fully inflated out of water can damage it. Then when you frag it be sure u cut at least 1" below the flesh they can go in the skeleton pretty deep. They can b out of water for a while just have everything preped b4 u start.. Towel, bowls if tank water, etc.
 
A

alexmir

Guest
I have fragged a couple LPS (sun coral, blastos frogspawn, galaxea) and just used a very small chisel, a drill, and a hammer, and the coral recovered VERY quickly, and have split polyps right down the middle, never killing a single head.
 

reefkprz

Active Member
some LPS dont handle fragging well at all and others seem immune to it. the hardiest would be blastomussa, micromussa and acanthastrea, branching LPS are relativly easy as long as your not splitting the flesh. wall type LPS are the tougest.
 
For frogspawns, torches and hammers use a dremel with a reinforced cutoff wheel. If you can cut it where the branch meet the main trunk that way you won't hit any of the flesh. I've cut them and had them open up within an hour or two.
 

mr_x

Active Member
i use a pair of clippers and cut the branches right off of the skeleton. i've never had a coral object, or stress out from it. like reefkprz said, i would not try to frag a wall type coral. i don't bother cutting a LPS through the flesh either.
 
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