Discussion of the Week ~Coral Propagation~

[mojoreef]

Ok all you choppers out thier lets here your methods, your tools. How about your sucesses and your failures. Lets here all the tips. Lets see some of your work. What corals are a no no to prop, which are easy.



Mike

[Rick O]

Now you're talking my language.

The techniques I use vary depending on the coral type but basically all softies are the same and all hard corals are the same.

IMO SPS are the easiest to propagate, especially the branching type. I simply use a pair of stainless steel needle nose pliers and break a branch off. Next I put a blob of super glue gel on a rock and put the branch on the blob of glue. I have found that it helps if the rock and coral are dry where they will be glued. I always propagate onto a small rock then later epoxy that rock in place in my reef.

Sometimes I will glue a branching frag laying down and sometimes I glue it standing up. If I'm keeping it for my tank I like to glue it horizontally. To me I get a more even growth pattern that way. The pic below was a single branch fragged just four weeks before this pic was taken.

For softies the technique will vary but usually I use the bridal veil method. I've never been able to get super glue to stick to a softie for more than a few days. I use scissors or a razor blade to cut a piece from the mother colony. I like to cut a pretty good size piece off. Small pieces are hard to handle and it seems to take forever for them to get to a decent size. I look for rocks that have a hole or depression in them to attach the coral. I lay the frag in the depression then I take a one inch strip of bridal veil and wrap it around the rock and frag. You don't want to wrap it too tight or the coral will attach itself to the bridal veil and the coral will be injured when you remove it. Wrap it just tight enough to keep the frag from floating away. I use rubber bands to hold the veil in place. It will only take about a week for a leather to attach. Xenia usually in three days. Take the veil off as soon as the coral starts to attach or it will start growing to the veil.

A lot of people want to start propagating with mushrooms and IMO these are the most difficult and frusterating. I use a sharp razor blade to cut the shroom off of the rock. By the time I've finished it looks like it has been through a meat grinder. Doesn't matter though cause shrooms can't be killed. Be sure to take a good sniff to see if they are ripe. The easiest method I have found for shrooms is to take a small tupperware container, line the bottom with course sand or gravel and throw the cuttings in it. Place the container in the tank in an area of little water flow. In about a week the cuttings will attach themselves to the gravel then use superglue to attach the gravel to a rock.

[SteveNichols]

When shipping them, I wait until the frag has encrusted the base. Typically a month after fragging. I have only done this once to a buddy in Ca. They all got there fine. It gives them a chance to recover from the stress of fragging.

Speaking of frags, Tom, whats up

[socal surfer]

To propogate my coral, mostly softies likle xenia, mushrooms and leathers i have one method. I first cut the frags off the mother colony put them in a holding cnatainer. Then i take a bottled water bottle and cut off the bottom of it. I punch holes in this to allow better water flow for the frags that will be in it. Then i fill tit with small rock so the bottom of the bottle is completely covered. Then finally i put it in the take and drop the frags in, that way they cant blow away and no need for super glue or worrying about the frags sliming off. I think another advantage to this method is that the frags can attach on their own and i doont have to put any pressure on them with rubber bands etc. .

For my blastmossa(sp?) i clip one if the polyps off and super glue it to a rock. Its dead skeleton neways so they dont get hurt or slime.

[Bingo]

Two weeks ago i started my first fragging session. I have green hairy mushrooms that open up to 3" across, i cut thehead off one, and cut it into pieces. I used cheesecloth to attatch it to the scraps of lr. some held, some didn't.

I have 4 rocks with two or three shrooms on them now. Once they get a litlle bigger, I will put a rubberband around the rock and directly over the shroom and wallah! a week later it will be 2 shrooms. Repeat, repeat, repeat untill the rocks are sellable.

Then I am going to hopefully sell them to the lfs.or convince them to trade me for the orange/green ricordia they have in ne of their show tanks.

Tomorrow I may try fragging a toadstool leather. (any tips?)

and whoever suggested that you smell a mushroom frag is just plain crazy.

Brett

[Rick O]

Originally posted by Bingo
Tomorrow I may try fragging a toadstool leather. (any tips?)

Those are easy. You can cut off the entire head if you want to and the base will grow back into another coral. Otherwise just cut out a "V" shaped piece. Use the bridal veil method I described above. GARF demonstrates this method in a video on their website. That's where I picked it up.

[Alice]

ahhh.....the smell of mushrooms in the morning Just don't smell the Xenia. Bleccccchhhhhhhh.

[Spanky]

Personally at one time I was very proficient at the Tunze Magnet rapid fire fragging method. However, since upgrading to the Hammerhead Float I believe I've lost my competitive edge.

Does anyone remember when we used to use Marine Epoxy instead of Supper Glue gel?

Anywho, for any stony coral now I just snip, dry, glob, and stick. I'm careful to orient them and place them approximately where they were before. Then you just wait.

Spanks

[Alice]

Personally at one time I was very proficient at the Tunze Magnet rapid fire fragging method. However, since upgrading to the Hammerhead Float I believe I've lost my competitive edge.

Wow; that may have given Mojo's flopping fish fragging method a run for the money, LOL.

I still use the two-part epoxy for some things, but usually stick with the glue. So much faster and easier.

[Mrs Smith]

Superglue all the way. For bigger things, I like to wrap the rock with long, thin strips of tulle abutting the frag, and tie it snuggly away from the frag. Works very well for leathers and xenia. It seems to help a great deal with stability when superglue just won't do it all. I will admit to using those honkin' rubber bands that come around broccoli to hold certain tall gorgs in place. Sometimes the epoxy needs a helping hand.

I have also used monofilament line and even thread in the past.

Anthelia and other polyps just get gently pulled off from the base with tweezers and superglued to their new home.

Most frustrating: colt. It took 4 attempts before the darn thing finally took!

When I get around to it, I'll get some pics up. I have a piece of Devil's hand that fragged itself off - I just mounted it with tulle.

Danielle

[AZ kid]

I would like to know how to propagate some of my green star polyps. Sounds easy enough just cut off a small chunk of mat and then glue it onto a small rock. I was told not to let the GSP be in the open air But one propagation article I read had them out of the water to cut and glue. Anyone know the best way to propagate these things? I'm also interested in the yellow polyps.

Any information would be great, THANKS.


sean

[socal surfer]

I propgated star polyps a while back and all i did was use a razor balde to cut off a piece of the colony then gued that to a rock. There are different species of star polyps and i have heard that some are easier to pull off the rock than others. As for being out of the water, i dont think that is a problem many times they shipe star polyps dry with some wet news paper and they do fine.

[paulF]

okay i just fragged my colt last night. i cut two smaller ones off the main body and did the tooth pick rubberband deal. the mother colt is doing fine, like nothing ever happened, however the two smaller ones are still that dark color they change into when theyre aggitated and most of the polyps are retracted. is that normal? i guess if somebody just cut me into 3 sections, stuck me with a toothpick i guess id be purple too! i just want to be sure i didnt just kill the poor things

[Big Dave]

For shrooms, I have a dull stiff paring knife and start on one side of the polyp. I keep 'prying' up the shroom until it is off. I do this out of the water and have not had any problems. Sometimes the little scraps left on the rock will grow into new, sometimes not. My hairy shrooms and ricordia are the ones that will grow from scraps left on the original rock. I have not tried the slicing method or rubber band method for spliting on the same rock yet but hope to soon. I would like to hear from somebody who has tried this method with ricordia. I have some nice big sky blue ones I would like to split. What size? How many pieces was it cut into? Place in high/low flow area?

For zoos, I place them touching an empty rock and let nature take over. When the polyps have spread to the new rock, I just tear or cut them apart. Just make sure you leave 5-10 complete polyps and they should make it fine!

-Big Dave

[Jeremy1973]

For the green star polyps, yeah, just use a razor blade to cut off a section, or lightly pull it off the rock. They can be out of the water long enough for you to glue them. No warm will come to them. Just make sure they are retracted when you take them out. They seem to fair better that way. As for the yellow star polyps. In my tank, I just place a small rock next to them, and they migrate on their own. If you are in hurry though, just gently pull a few off, and those two can be glued to another piece of rock. This is just my two small cents.