more fragging fun

[reefkprz]

Originally Posted by brstwv
Hey reefkprZ, I picked that bit of info from one of your threads. ReefkprZ not to sidetrack thread, but seeing you have a lot of experience with corals. I was wondering how long can it take zoas to open after 2 day shipping ? There all still closed but at night when the moonlights are on there colors are glowing.
It can take over a week. the ways to tell if zoas are dying are if the polyps are close and they start to lose the solid fleshy look (they get kind of fuzzy looking), they also lose color and turn a hazy grey/white.
if they look like closed zoas they are fine, if they shrink a little without getting fuzzy looking chances are they are fine, I have had zoas go for two weeks closed and shrinking then they just opened.
wait it out, if they disintegrate, of your fish eat them then thay are dead. fish wont usually (coral predatory fish excluded of course) eat live polyps as they contain palytoxins and chemicals that make them taste bad. if your cleaner shrimp shreds them they are dead.
not a side track, no worries.

 

[reefkprz]

Originally Posted by Kilhullen
OK, I don't understand this yet, so sorry for the stupid qustion...
This finger leather (for example) is "tall and branching" but it seems like you have it rubberbanded down flat to the rock. Why didn't you superglue it or put it in some sand to attach itself then superglue it? How/When do you take off the rubberband?
Is there a book, or something I can read that will help me understand what to do when?
some times I do the dish method, but usually I rubberband because its quicker and less effort. rubber band it ionce then remove the band, with the dish method its cut, wait, dry LR, dry sand or rubble, then glue.
rubber banding is cut, band, wait, remove band.
you can take the rubber band off as soon as its attached (exactly the same amount of time you have to wait to glue it)

 

[brstwv]

Thanks for the info one of the frags look hazy, but my snails, crabs, or shrimp haven't messed with it yet. I'll continue with my patience. Thanks for the info reefkprZ. Gotta go to work talk to you later.

 

[rbrockm1]

hey reef i got a ? for ya. when you use krazy glue, how long do you rinse your corals off b4 sticking back into tank? this glue isn't toxic?

 

[reefkprz]

No the glue isnt toxic at all. the rinsing is to remove anything that may have come out of the coral, just a quick swish for most items is enough.

 

[rbrockm1]

oh ok that works then thanks. im going to do my first frag today. hopefully it worksout

 

[reefkprz]

good luck.

 

[brstwv]

ReefkprZ, thanks to your posting I fragged my finger leather, Yellow fiji toadstool, and some zoos. Everything looks good all polyps open thanks

 

[sk8shorty01]

WOW! I just bought my first coral piece yesterday (its a combo rock with zoos, some GSP, and two others that I forgot the name off hand) and this info is great. I know I still have a while to wait before I frag anything but this is great information and is very easy to follow, even for the novice like myself. Thank you for taking the time to create this "how to" on fragging as I am sure it will help many others that have not already posted in this thread! I see you mentioned videos a few times throughout the thread but I did not see any links for them. Was I just blind? Thanks again!

 

[reefkprz]

https://forums.saltwaterfish.com/t/272990/short-fragging-videos
the videos have their own thread I never linked to them. but here is a link for you.

 

[forcrz6]

Ok so I did as you said for the frag w/ my toadstool. I took a nice little chunk out of it about 1 1/2 inch long and 1/2 in wide. Now the Toadstool itself is doing good and healing. But the frag I am worried about. How long tell I see some progress from it. It will not put its tentacles out all the way and I'm kinda worried about it.

 

[reefkprz]

Originally Posted by forcrz6
Ok so I did as you said for the frag w/ my toadstool. I took a nice little chunk out of it about 1 1/2 inch long and 1/2 in wide. Now the Toadstool itself is doing good and healing. But the frag I am worried about. How long tell I see some progress from it. It will not put its tentacles out all the way and I'm kinda worried about it.
no more than a couple days it should start extending tentacles on the edge furthest from the cut, usually about 8-10 hours after the cut I see some sign of extension. not putting them out all the way is fine as long as there is some extension, the total recovery would be about 3-6 weeks for it to look like a normal coral it should stick in about one to two weeks tops.

 

[rattler739]

I just got done reading this entire thread and thanks will help me out in the future when i start fragin but i have one question, i was going to order a ric and once i know it is growing i was thinkin of fragin it but i have also heard that they are harder to frag than regular shrooms and they die a lot easier
any hints on this.

 

[reefkprz]

I have a couple tips that may help out.
1 make sure its growing in your tank before fragging it.
2 make any cut as clean as possible try not to saw back and forth one smooth cut is best.
3 when dividing the head half is best for faster recovery and larger results, quarters is ok but the recovery is doubled. 8ths is more work than its worth and recoverytime is doubled from halving and the resulting frag is so small it takes a long time to grow into a respectable sized frag.
4 when dividing the head try to make the cut along a linear tissue line {if you look at the bumps you can see a pattern radiating out from the center to the edge try not to cross over the lines (easier said than done) the more perfect the pie piece is the better the chance of recovery}

 

[rattler739]

Originally Posted by reefkprZ
I have a couple tips that may help out.
1 make sure its growing in your tank before fragging it.
2 make any cut as clean as possible try not to saw back and forth one smooth cut is best.
3 when dividing the head half is best for faster recovery and larger results, quarters is ok but the recovery is doubled. 8ths is more work than its worth and recoverytime is doubled from halving and the resulting frag is so small it takes a long time to grow into a respectable sized frag.
4 when dividing the head try to make the cut along a linear tissue line {if you look at the bumps you can see a pattern radiating out from the center to the edge try not to cross over the lines (easier said than done) the more perfect the pie piece is the better the chance of recovery}
so are you talking about just cutting the entire shroom in half or choppin the cap off and then cutting in half, or is there really a cap to chop off with rics

thanks for the reply

and will probably just do that when i get it (if that is what you are talking about)

 

[rattler739]

and also if you wouldnt mind postin a pic of the linear tissue line, cause i looked at some pics of rics and had no idea of what you were talking about

sry

 

[reefkprz]

I cant post a picture right now, my camera is out of commision, but I should be getting a new one in a week or two.
What I was talking about was cutting the cap off the ric, then cutting it like a pizza into four pieces, you want to cut to be as perfect as possible for the best chance of healing, there are tissue lines (visible or not) that radiate from the mouth like spokes on a bike, to get the best fatstest cleanest heal and the best chance fior recovery, when cutting you want to cut between the spokes without crossing back and forth over one or two or three of them, the best cut will fall right between them (to do this 100% you need to do it under a microscope) obviously this is not usually feasible, but you can sort of see the lines in most rics and shrooms so tricky at best but you can get it good enough with the

[hr]
eye. to keep it fropm sliding around so much on you place it on a piece of paper towel instead of a solid surface when cutting. I have attached a mouswepain of what your cut should and shouldnt look like.

 

[kaddamia1]

I Would Like To See Some Pic. New At This And Loving It!

 

[renogaw]

i got a ric from swf.com that's grown about 3" wide, good time to try fragging it?

 

[reefkprz]

Sure, If your ready it is. I would give it a couple weeks to get used to your tanks and recover from shipping stress then go ahead frag away.