afraid to frag

[pastina]

i have a nice looking branching candy cane coral that has grown pretty large. im dying to frag a peice for my 12g aquapod but im a little afraid..ok im very afraid to do this lol
my fear is ill kill the whole candy cane
how safe is fragging? how long can the candy cane be out of water safely while i cut? the tank is small only 10 gallons and stocked with corals so cutting underwater doesnt leave me any room, i have no choice but to remove it to make the cut
the branch is pretty hard im not sure how to cut it, do pliers work?

if its too risky i can just buy a new candy cane for the aquapod

[jenajet]

I was worried about fragging my hammer and got lucky. the way it devided I was able to just brake the coral in half. Did it in a bucket of water I removed during a water change so the hammer was never really even out of water. I have heard of people using large cutters too. Just dont have any big enough.

[epidemic]

dont worry about it.YOu can have it out of water long enought to be careful and not have anything to worry about. That candy cane should be ok out of water for a few min s with no problem, Just shake it around a bit underwater so the polys contract, put it on a cutting board or something and break;/cut it. Hey, I have actually succssfully fragged micromussa before with a hammer and crow bar on my basement floor. It is in their best interest to overcome damage and survive, and they do.

[pastina]

whoa dang a hammer and crow bar??!!! sounds brutal hehe
ill have to try i guess
is there a chance the candycane is "fused" to the live rock?
its been in there for over a year never moved or touched so im not sure if it has glued itself to anything (if thats possible)

[mdcorcoran]

the part you are breaking is the skeleton, and unlike humans, the skeleton of a stony coral is dead. I just pull it out of the water and pinch it with a stat where I want it to break. If you are just moving it to another place in the same tank, the coral won't even know anything happened. You might have a little acclimation perion in the other tank, but candy's are really hardy.