Fragging Info: Fine Grape, Anchor, Hammer Corals ...

[jdg]

I'd like some information ... something like a 'how-to' ... for fragging Fine Grape, Anchor, and or Hammer Corals. I'd imagine the methods are similar for all (3) as they are similar in appearance, though if I'm wrong, please correct me. Does anyone have a link to an article on this? A friend of mine has a *huge* multi-colored fine grape coral and he offered me a frag if we could figure out how to SAFELY to do (we don't want to risk the mother colony at all!).

Thanks so much in advance!

Joe.

[gooch]

I had a rock that had two real nice hammer corals on it. One of the corals had a rock fall on it and it started to jelly up. I wanted to break the rock in half so I wouldn't lose the other one. When I did this I unintentionally split the healthy hammer in half. It was split at the base and the tissue was still in place. Over a couple of weeks the tissue separated as well. This gave me two frags. One perished in a hasty move from a leaking tank. The other one is growing slowly and looking better every day. It has been about three months since this has happened. I still wouldn't recomend fragging them unless you feel you have to.

gooch

[Sid]

there is a way to frag these, if you go to www.garf.org someone there has done it, it involves using a grinding tool to grind a split across the base and then inserting wedges into the split, this crates tension on the polyp and forces it to become two.

[ThingsReef]

For branching types this is simple. Make them recede all the way (you'll barelysee the coral) and make sure there is about an inch below the head of each branch. Take the old hack saw (I do mean a hack saw blade), and cut the two heads apart. I do this on the kitchen counter in a glass bowl submerged in saltwater from the tank the coral came out of. DO NOT add the water back to a tank! The key is to not cut into the flesh of either head of coral. JAR and I have done this when we bought these corals.

[ThingsReef]

Forgot to mention that the same thing can be done to a hammer coral that has the convoluted shape (one long piece), but the one I did was like sawing through cement and did not break graciously.

[jdg]

Yah, but if you cut through the wye, then you'll eventually cut through flesh, wont you?

[ShagMan]

Uhh... we just fragged the heck out of a LARGE grape coral last weekend at our local reefing club meeting... we just snapped one of the branches off at the base, ahd whammo, a frag. The frag that I took home (has two branches and a small portion of the base) is doing great, I just wedged it between two rocks.

Here's the frag:

http://shagman.org/hobbies/pets/100g-reef/P0005324.JPG

[ThingsReef]

Yes you will and you do risk damage on the convoluted shaped ones. Branching are easier and safer.

Branching can be snapped but I saw just to make sure I get it exactly where I want it. Not sure how accurate snapping them would be.