I'm not a virgin anymore I have been fraggin'

[digital_dragon]

The local Petstore I have nicknamed Death of Pets (to play on its realy name which I will leave anonymous for right now) gave me a purple colt coral that was dying due to poor water quality, poor lighting, and in a tank with too much current. Anyway I called TDWyatt for some instructions on what to do and with a pair of razor sharp scissors I cut me some frags. Out of the whole coral I only could salvage six cuttings. The smell when I opened the bag was foul and it would have only been a day or two and nothing would be worth keeping. We will see if these frags survive. If so it would be worth the smell. I tell you these colt corals sure are slimy.

I set up two big bowls with freshly made saltwater with 4 drops of Iodine per quart of water I pulled the whole coral out of the bag and put it into the first bowl of saltwater with Iodine and then started making my cuts putting the cuttings into the second bowl. I then disposed of the first bowl of the rotting carcass and nasty water and went to attaching the frags gently to rubble rock with rubber bands. (I didn't have any super glue gel) and put them into my sump to monitor. We will see what surives I will keep everyone updated.

Fragging isn't too bad you have to have a strong stomach and not be queazy to textures because the slime on these guys was just nasty feeling on your hands and hell to wash off.

Well I ready to find something else to mangle... I mean propagate.

Earl

[Doug1]

" How ya gonna keep em down on the farm, after the frag their first coral"

[digital_dragon]

Then they get hooked on the additives and get into non reef safe practices.

Earl

[Doug1]

Idont know what da reefin utes of tuday are comin too

[Alice]

LOL Earl; healthy colt corals don't smell like a bed of roses, either. And Xenia? P-U!

Glad you were able to save some of the coral. Oh, and super glue doesn't work well on the really slimy ones; nothing for it to stick to!

Alice

[Phantom Phish]

On the note of attaching soft corals..

I recently got a small frag of Xenia, and soon after getting it, an even smaller branch of Xenia fell off the main stalk. I tried attaching this small branch to another piece of rock by jamming a wooden tooth pick through its base, and sticking the toothpick into a hole in the rock. It seem to be doing OK for a few days, but now is "melting away". Did I do something wrong? Should I have used a plastic tooth pick, or some other attachment technique? The "mother" colony seems to be doing fine although its only been about a week.

[Big Dave]

Phish-
Xenia is funny like that... some people can NOT grow it no matter what they do, and some people can't get rid of it. If you get a loose polyp again, I would just let it float around and find a nice spot to settle in. It will probably attach there and viola! a new xenia colony. (or it could just wilt and die) I used to try to get a single polyp to attach but gave up and let them float - they seem to attach and grow better without me involved! HTH

-Big Dave

[digital_dragon]

What is a good way to attach slimy coral frags. Super Glue gel doesn't work and I have heard that rubberbanding is hit or miss. I hope my rubberband job was a hit, time will tell. Also what are some other fragging methods and what are some good tools to have on hand along with good old Iodine which costs like $8.00 for 3 oz. What happened to the days when you could take a bath in Iodine for .50 cents?

Earl

[cath]

Hey Earl-

I've buried the base of some small frags in coral rubble in a small cup and put bridal veil as a cover for the cup.

I think there is a thread/topic of the week concerning how to mount frags.

[cyberchef]

Originally posted by Big Dave
Phish-
Xenia is funny like that... some people can NOT grow it no matter what they do, and some people can't get rid of it. If you get a loose polyp again, I would just let it float around and find a nice spot to settle in. It will probably attach there and viola! a new xenia colony.
-Big Dave

LOL... This is very true...

I have a SPS frag mounted on a plug and now there is this tiny single stalk of xenia attached to the base of the plug. It just happened. Funny part is, the only Xenia I have is in the main tank and the sps frag is in the frag tank... Guess the xenia made it through the "Mag Pump Express"... Whhheeeeeeeeeeeee