Splitting my bubble coral - With pics - dial-up beware

[wharyat]

Hey everyone, Just got done splitting my green bubble coral. If anyone wondered how to do it, hopefully this helps you out.





I waited till the lights went out so the coral would shrink as small as possible to keep from damaging the polyp too much.



Got my tools ready, dremel or other rotary tool is needed to cut the skeleton quick and easily. I put the coral in a container of water so I could rinse it off and keep it from drying out too badly.



I cut a notch across the bottom of the skeleton being very careful not to touch the polyp. I switched to a diamond bit from an emory disk to more easily cut the notch deeper. Use some rubber gloves while doing this to minimize numbness, and the smell; helps keep the coral cleaner too. I went halfway through the skeleton to give a deep enough notch to break the skeleton but a shallow enough not tear the polyp when the skeleton broke.

I used a screwdriver to break the skeleton down the notch, make sure it only cracks a little, not enough to tear the polyp, but enough to make sure there are two seperate pieces.



All done, I stuck a bamboo skewer between the two halves to allow the polyp to seperate into two. I will increase the gap every day until the coral becomes two. Probably around 14 days.



Once I get two corals, I plan to split them yet again to have 4. Hopefully splitting them that small will give me a year before I need to do this again. I just split this 2 months ago and it has grown to 10" across; getting too close to some of my other corals.

I plan to upgrade to a larger tank but I want it SPS only, so this coral gets to stay in the 20H.

If anyone needs any further clarification, please ask, I prolly overlooked somthing.

[wanareef]

Great post - just a little Large for us dial-uppers

[tims]

and you can see one this way

[menelaus22]

Great post. Since your bubbles are obviously doing great, where do you have them placed in the tank?

[alaskaknucklehead]

Thanks for sharin Vince, great info love the pics, looks really easy to botch...

[wharyat]

Originally Posted by wanareef

Great post - just a little Large for us dial-uppers

Sorry bout that, wanted some good quality pics.

Originally Posted by menelaus22

Great post. Since your bubbles are obviously doing great, where do you have them placed in the tank?

At the bottom, in a lower flow area. Gets plenty of light, or I assume by how fast it grows.


Here's a shot of it today, stupid thing looks like it wasn't even touched! I might be able to make the polyp split in half the time.

[Donkey]

Will Bubble corals split on their own? My Bubble can get very big, and it looks like it could split.

[wharyat]

Yes they can, I'm just speeding up the process.

[Disco_Jr]

wharyat did the fish in your avatar just blink at me i must need more sleep

[wharyat]

now it does, good idea!

[rachyl756]

Awesome pictures!

And I think I just found a new use for my dremel. WooHoo! THats as good of a justification as any for getting some new bits for my dear dremel.

I think the dremel idea will work on the frogspawn instead of the tin snips or whatever is the normal recomendation. Plus it should give ALOT better control right? well actually of course it would...

[wharyat]

Still looking great.

[alaskaknucklehead]

BC's are sooo coool

when you look inside the mouth it is really wierd lookin... creepy almost

[wharyat]

Almost there...

[alaskaknucklehead]

wow, that is quite a process, whats the timeline so far? I think about how you said you were "speeding things up" and wonder how long it would take for one to split on its own?? yeeeeeears huh??