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View Full Version : How long until I can frag hammer coral...

TIGER SHARK
02/22/2003, 07:45 PM
I just picked up a hammer coral that has tons of small branches all over the exsisting branches. I know it will take a while before they can be fragged but any idea of how long given good conditions?
Carlos
02/22/2003, 10:18 PM
Hard to tell without a picture. Do you have a picture of the coral?

Carlos
TIGER SHARK
02/25/2003, 02:36 PM
No, I dont have a picture of the coral. But I do have several heads that are of a decent size, about 3 - 4 inches when fully expanded. I know when you frag them, you need to cut off enough skeleton for the polyps to retract, how many inches will a head of the above size generally need to retract?
griss
02/26/2003, 12:12 PM
Tigershark,

I agree with Carlos that it is kind of hard to tell without a pic. But, if you have a branching Hammer you can use snips or pliers to cut off a branch from the main colony. I would say you want about 2" of skeleton between the cut and the living tissue.

Clear as mud?;)

Griss
TIGER SHARK
04/01/2003, 12:41 AM
Ok so heres what I really want to frag. There are a couple of branches like this one with babies all over it. Can I frag this branch into several new pieces, each with only a single new head attached? Not the top one with 4 heads but the ones all alone.
TIGER SHARK
04/03/2003, 01:27 PM
Did I stump the mods or what??? I got that pic you guys wanted. I think I'll just try and cut the shown branch into 5 or 6 pieces each with 1 or 2 heads on it. Or maybe just try to remove 5 pieces and leave the rest intact. How long do you think I would have after I removed the hammer from the water to cut it? 1 or 2 mins?
Carlos
04/03/2003, 11:29 PM
Those seem kind of small and you might cut into the flesh if you were to brake off the little buds. I would let them get bigger and then remove them.

Carlos
TIGER SHARK
04/04/2003, 12:43 AM
I know they are small but they are really starting to get shaded by the bigger heads so Im trying to figure something out. Theres actually not much live looking flesh around the new heads, just a very small piece near each. So if I can get a fine blade of some sort and cut very carefully, I think it could be done.