Unusual Stony Coral Propagation Techniques

[fishinchick]

Great Article! I can't wait to get home to cut up my turbinaria. Only thing I kept thinking over and over was "Wow that must smell like heck...."

As a side note I have often noticed when hacking up a plate coral you can often get it to produce 'buds'. I believe Anthony Calfo stated it was an emergency prop. effort by the coral. It seems to think it's life is in danger and it produces buds.

It's very cool to see. Do a search in member galleries for 'fungia' and you'll see a couple of examples there.

I would love to see more step by step photos of prop. techniques on corals. I think a lot of people new to the hobby would really benefit from that!!!

[Steven Pro]

Great Article!
Thank you very much!
I can't wait to get home to cut up my turbinaria.
Do be sure to take pictures and let us know how it turns out.
Only thing I kept thinking over and over was "Wow that must smell like heck...."
I take good care and have exceptional genes when it comes to my teeth, So I have never had a cavity. But tohers who are not so lucky said it was like a really bad experience at the dentist.
I would love to see more step by step photos of prop. techniques on corals. I think a lot of people new to the hobby would really benefit from that!!!
Adam and I are planning on doing a similar article, but this time on soft corals, so keep an eye out for it.

[Rao]

Hi, Steve nice article, well i`m thinking to cut off my realy large plerogyra sinuosa, but it have to dense polipes i can`t even determinate a save cut betwen the mounts, if i cut it probably will be two mounts cut away as well. I`m also concern abot the amoun of tisue thath will be exposed, this guy wen expands the bubles can have 10 cm of inflated tisue. I need to do semthing cuse the coral is about 30 cm x 20 cm and ìt`s too big for me. I will be save to cut it down? any advise?


Regards

Raul Silva
Caracas - Venezuela

[Steven Pro]

I would follow the techniques we demonstrated for the Catalaphyllia. Since these corals are in the same family, the procedure (and outcome) should be very similar. Please take pictures along the way and post them here to see.

[MiddletonMark]

Hi Steven -

I'd like to thank you for the inspiration, advice, and good ideas [some not practiced :eek:] like gloves, which I am obviously not wearing here [though I was wearing eye protection!].

Sure looks more dangerous than it was, trust me ... but here's my frogspawn last weekend, got it as a frag and have someone who wanted a frag of mine ...

http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/558/28196frogspawn-cutting.jpg

[MiddletonMark]

Doing well 48 hours later ... all 3 of them! :D

http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/558/28196frogspawn-48hours-post-cutt.jpg

[Steven Pro]

I am glad to see our article has inspired you! I was particularly pleased with the precision and control of the side cutting bit on the Dremel. Much better and easier to use than the standard cutting wheels.

And, as for gloves, you might have noticed none of us were wearing any either in our pictures. It is one of those instances where you should do as we say and not as we do. It was very foolish of us to forget about the gloves.

[MiddletonMark]

Agreed, and I would have never thought of that side-cutting bit!

The diamond cutter worked great getting some of the rock/skeleton square for the frag rack, but beyond that I was happily suprised with the side-cutting bit :)

[Steven Pro]

Glad to hear it!

[Adam]

Hi all,

I just wanted to say how glad I am to see the interest and inspiration generated by this article!

Also to make an update.... the fungia has started producing acanthocauli along the face of where it was cut. One of the halves has also started to form a mouth between two septa.

I will post pics in the next day or so.

Adam

[Steven Pro]

I was just curious, Adam and I are getting ready to begin work on part 2 of this article. Are there any particular corals or techniques that any of you think would be useful to see demonstrated?

[MiddletonMark]

Useful? I'd go for Euphylia or Caulastrea ... branching LPS. Certainly not that unusual - but yet corals that could be more commonly propagated IMO. Similarly other faster-growing LPS, somewhat easy to propagate stony corals would be great to get people to be less scared of.


Personally, I'd love to see Plerogyra/bubble as I keep an `old' colony that's gotten quite large + I have seriously considered cutting for quite a while now. Am tracking down another potential fragging tool [4" grinder w/ diamond blade] as it might be ideal for that situation. It's grown large enough to be `branched' a few inches - yet still intimidating.

Propagation of maze brains would also be of interest personally, any sort of brain to be honest - maybe for part 4? ;)
I've heard Eric, others talk about just sawing them up ... and would love to see it.

Looking forward to the next installment ...

[Steven Pro]

We are also considering doing an entire article on soft corals as well. Any input there?

[Rao]

Well to me the problem with softies is not cuting them, the probln is securing the after cutting. I`ve read about imposed tecnics propagating anemones, can you include this in the future article?. I`m gone to cut my plerogyra this week, and send you the pictures.

[Steven Pro]

Cutting an anemone is a great idea! And, as you mentioned, most of an article on propagation of soft corals is going to center on securing them properly.

[Rao]

Hi, i just cut my plerogyra this weekend, and i`m surprised how easy it was, not just the cuting procedure but the recovery of the frag and donor. An hour after the cut the bubbles were almost completly inflated, now the oparent colony loock bigger than before. Well i will post the pictures and the complete procedure soon, my digital cam is broken and i use an standar one. Thank`s steven for the inspiration (and the money i just sale the frang in almost 250 $ :D ) .

For the future article can you think in include an trachyphylia?

[Steven Pro]

Originally posted by Rao
Hi, i just cut my plerogyra this weekend, and i`m surprised how easy it was, not just the cuting procedure but the recovery of the frag and donor. An hour after the cut the bubbles were almost completly inflated, now the oparent colony loock bigger than before. Well i will post the pictures and the complete procedure soon, my digital cam is broken and i use an standar one. Thank`s steven for the inspiration (and the money i just sale the frang in almost 250 $ :D ) . Congratulations!

For the future article can you think in include an trachyphylia? We will see what we can do.