how do you frag zoanthids??

[fins1]

other than having them jump on to another rock, how can you frag them?
thanks komi

[Carlos]

they are easy. Just litterally cut them off (knife) and then glue them to the new surface. They are very hardy and easy. Even if they get a bit squashed, they will still recover and take off (given that the right conditions are provided.)

HTH,

Carlos

[RicksReefs]

ditto on carlos's response,
they're very hardy & will bounce back.

[gooch]

I agree with the above but must add. I wear gloves and only touch one type of zoanthid at a time. I fragged a zo colony once and touched another zo colony right after. In less than a couple days the second colony was gone.

Also be careful they sometimes squirt and the mucus of some zoanthids are toxic.


gooch

[cruehead]

in Eric Bornmans book "Aquarium Corals" he talks about how toxic zoos are. I suggest gloves when fragging these.

[Frick-n-Frags]

Also, in general, if you can remove the colony to a separate container of tank water and do your fragging in there, you will keep all those nasty stress response released chemicals(from the cutting) out of your main tank. Especially Palythoa grandis.

[ThingsReef]

Heard you should watch out for your eyes also.

[fins1]

thanks for all the responses!!! one more question, can you mix different colored zo's?
thanks komi

[RicksReefs]

you can mix'em if you want,
but they can spread rapidly
so i'd leave some space between'em.
i currently have over a doz. varieties
w/no problems.

[aquaria_marine]

I was just wondering, where do you cut the zooanthids for them to propagate. Thanks.

Josh

[RicksReefs]

cut between the polyps with a fresh razor blade,
then frag the rock they're on if possible with a
hammer & chisel :eek1:,if they're on a fairly smooth
rock you can peel'em off,then glue'em to a new frag.

[michaelg]

Anthony gave a great demonstration on using a pair of kitchen scissors- you do snips into the live rock itself just below the polyps. When he suggested this, we thought he was nuts, but they cut into the rock pretty easy. We cut a large mat from a rock this way then proceeded to snip around individual polyps. We then glues these to new rocks (glueing rock to rock). Was real clean and very little mortality on the polyps.

[mmortus]

what kind of glue is the best to use and where do you get it?

[dellrio]

Super glue GEL :rollface: - Make sure to get GEL.

[scubadude]

I make very thin sheets of aragocrete and then superglue frags of zoos onto the aragocrete and that way when they start growing out you just snip off a little section of the sheet....a good way to make it in little cube sections is right before the aragocrete dries you can indent it with eggcrate to give it a perforated even cubes....Good Luck, and FRAG ON!

[TIGER SHARK]

After fraggin zoos in a seperate bowl and rinsing them off, do you think that will remove all the toxins they release? Do you run carbon after fraggin them or has anyone noticed any problems? I cut some a couple weeks ago in a seperate bowl and rinsed them off before putting them into my main tank. I noticed that some of my other corals were closed up for the next few days. I dont know if it was from the toxins or what.

[Ben Wilson]

Great article on glueing all sorts of frags.:) http://www.garf.org/algae2/GLUE.HTML
___________________
Ben

[bookfish]

I just fragged some lg. button polyps and they got 2 rinses and they were still covered in slimy mucus when I put them back. I've read that the ones from silty areas produce more slime.-Jim

[Python73]

FWIW - I've never been able to glue the frigging slimy things. The one time it actually worked, I wedged a strip of 8 polyps (all in a row) into a crevice of a piece of rubble then slopped glue around them. Killed 7 of the 8. :mad2: The one has grown back into 10 or so now, 5 months later under semi-weak light.

I'd like to frag a big rock I have, but don't want to mess with gluing. Think I'll take the dremel to it before the next frag swap.

S !

[mgk65]

Sam:

Use a chisel and a hammer. Really. :)

mgk

[Python73]

Well... I'm not shy about it, but these zoos are on a real old-school boulder, not a nice piece of figi. I figure if I at least score some lines with the dremel, they will break cleaner.

Besides, I'm a dremel freak! The PMASI boys were over tonight fragging some euphillia, and they wanted to use pliers instead of the dremel. I am still a bit bummed.

S !

[mgk65]

I like my dremel too:

See here:
http://archive.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=100458&highlight=tool%2A


:D

mgk

[mgk65]

I've also written an article about fragging zoanthids:

http://www.thesea.org/captivesystems/coralfarm/default.asp?page=zooprop.asp

mgk