Advice on Fragging....Control.

Hello,
A friend of mine has a 55G reef tank and has asked me to "trim" some of his coral. I would love to, but am fairly novice on propogation. Can someone help me ID and give advice on how to propogate this beautiful coral? Thank you all in advance.

 

That is a particularly easy coral to learn to frag on. Commonly called a Colt Coral. You can use a razorblade or sharp knife to cut through the base of the stalks. The resulting frag can either be rubberbanded or tied onto your frag mount.... piece of rock, plug, whatever. It should attach itself in several days.
You pretty much can not kill this coral. You still want to do it cleanly. Remove the rock from the main tank if possible. The coral will slime a ton when you cut it. The cleaner the cut, the less irritated it will be and slime less. This slime can irritate other corals.

 

Thanks a bunch jonjonwells....;D Could I just cut of the whole stalk? The one rock has 3 separate stalks, will it kill it if I cut the whole thing off of the rock, at teh base of it?

 

Got to trimming and these are the results... I am excited and hope all turns well. This pic was from last night and today they are showing signs of happiness with their upright posture. Let me know what you think..Thanks to all of you for the advice and plethora of information that helped me build up courage to do it... ;D Oh, and not one floater this morning either. I gues the 2 gallons of glue on each plug kinda helped..LOL... But it's my first time.

When do you guys think I can place in my DT?

Lighting: Will this set up work (currently in use) I have 2 MH but only use one and it is sitting 14" above 29G tank. Is the distance OK?
1-150WMH
4-460NM actinics
3-1W blue LED moonlighting

 

Excellent job.

A couple of days and they will look great. Nice green coloration to the softie.

 

where are you located?

 

Gexx...PA...

Anyone, can you inform me if the distance to the tank and lighting options are good for growth andsustainability of the corals? Thanks.

Yesterday afternoon the corals all had their polyps out and were completely erect. A good sign I gather....;D

 

I was absolutely terrified my first fragging session... Especially since I was fragging zoas, and had just read about palytoxins... But all went great and the three polyps I attached a year ago now has about 7-8 heads, and is coming along great! Those are some nice frags there! Hope the do well!

 

Thanks Nubz. I too hope they do well. About the Palytoxins...:-/ I didn't wear any gloves... Was quite ignorant to it actually.. Now I know though...LOL..

 

I always wear gloves when fragging, no matter the coral, otherwise the smell sticks to your hands for HOURS! palytoxin is usually only a threat when fragging zoas, palys and protos even then incidents are pretty rare, but palytoxin is the second deadliest naturally occurring toxin, so the simple precautions ( latex gloves, eye protection, sharp cutting tools) can really save you ALOT of trouble