Fraggin some zoas tomorrow

so i'm gonna be gutsy and frag up a few of my zoa colonies. the things are growing like wildfire and i figure it's about high time that this tank starts pulling its weight around here and bring in some money.

i understand the general concept of what i'm about to do so i think i'm good. i've got razorblades, a clippers, chisel, the gloves and maybe some eye protection. does anyone have any handy tips?

 

I haven't fragged any but read that have cyanoacrylate handy after you cut will seal them off so the don't leak toxin into your tank.

 

lemmie know how you do this I've been wondering about this myself

 

you frag them out of water. zoas are out of water for a while each day in the wild due to tides os they can take the fragging out of water.

 

Alright, after a champion’s breakfast of cold left over pizza and about a pot of coffee (you know, um, to steady my hands) I was ready for my first fragging session. Remember, well begun is half done. While zoas are fairly forgiving and can handle being out of the water for quite some time, there is no sense floundering around looking for a chisel or razor when you could have done that before you even got wet. Plan ahead.

You can see below everything I’ve gathered together. Having never done this, I have a lot here that I didn’t end up needing but was glad it was here. Paper towels and a cutting board for a working surface. I had a couple of bowls of water so the zoas weren’t just sitting out in the air, waiting for their turn to get hacked up. You will need a razor to cut the mat between the polyps, I had an x-acto knife, it’s smaller than using a normal razor and has a handle so I could control what I was doing (do yourself a favor and get one, their like $2 at walmart). Not pictured are cyanoacrylate super glue, latex gloves and eye protection (I just had my normal glasses on). Finally and most importantly, you need a cup of coffee, a carved wooden turtle, and a playlist of 311, Lucky Boys Confusion and Pepper running.



Today I was working with (clockwise from top left) Armor of God, Majestics, some weird cold water zoas and wobbly eagle melons (eagle eyes or whammin’ watermelons).



I started off with the misc zoas. They were by far the biggest polyps and were super cheap to start with so I wasn’t too worried about mashing a few up. Pro tip: if you are a fraggin newbie, start with the cheapest coral until you get your legs. No sense in killing a bunch of purple deaths when you can kill something cheap! Before you cut, study the piece. Look all around the rock for a group of polyps that seem to be off by themselves or are on an edge of the rock that can be easily removed. Don’t just go hacking away, be deliberate. I started on the bottom of the rock and ran my fingers around the heads to see how they moved and if any were loose. After the first cut, I actually found that I could start on the edge and pull a group off without even using my knife (see picture 2).



You can see here that, due to the fact that an old acro skeleton was used as the frag plug, I could just clip a branch off with a pair of wire clippers (you would probably want to use clean and/or not rusty clippers).



Now you’re ready to glue. As for plugs, I had a few old ones laying around from buying other corals, but I hate how those things look anyway. The first thing I do when I get a frag is pry them off, so I figured why not glue the frags to something that wouldn’t have to be removed. I took my hammer and beat the everloving snot out of a crappy piece of texas holey rock from my fuge (see, you were wondering why I would need a hammer to frag zoas, shame on you). For glue, it is important that you use a reef safe super glue, I used CorAffix from 2 Little Fishies. Pro tip: A good thing to try in a pinch is Loctite Control Gel. It is thick and cures underwater in seconds. You can get it at any HD or other hardware store. Just make sure it says cyanoacrylate.



Now you’re done. As a precautionary measure, I’m going to leave my lights off for 24 hours and play some Jack Johnson to keep the stress levels down and let them heal up. Pro tip: for a frag tray, I just zip tied a little piece of eggcrate to an extra magfloat I had around.
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Looks like you done a very good job with the planning and execution. Keep us posted on how they do.

 

thank you very much. i tend to be a very calculated individual and don't normally do anything without researching and planning it out.

the AoG's were the ones i was most worried about, because those expensive ones are the ones that like to melt away, but both the frag and the mother are open already within 30min of placing back in the tank. good sign. about how long do you guys think is adequate for them to heal up and start advertising for sale? i don't want to give it to someone and have them die off.

 

on a side note. what would one charge for a frag. i was thinking $1 a polyp for the Majestics and the misc zoas, $2-3 a polyp for the eagle eyes and $5-6 for the AoG. is that outrageous?

 

i LOVE pepper! esp Stormtrooper

 

Cool , nice fraggin job. Good luck with with all that you have fraged and your sales. Lets see some pic's of what you have.