Fox Coral (nemenzophyllia) Fragging 101

Methodology:

The method I use for fragging the majority of hard corals is primarily the same with the cutting tooling being an Gryphon band saw.

Cooling liquid used is fresh mixed saltwater with enough iodine to color it a light amber. This helps to disinfect cuts as they're made which has shown to greatly increase frag survival.

All corals are stored during cutting in a small bucket holding water taken directly from their home aquarium. This water is used both to keep them wet as well as for rinsing any flesh away from cuts while I'm working on them.

All finished, and rinsed, frags or trimmed colonies are soaked in Brightwell Aquatics Restor dip to insure that minimal flesh is lost.

Both soak buckets are rinsed and replenished between colonies to reduce the risk of interactions between loose flesh of different coral species.

Notes about Fox Coral:

Fox coral is usually found growing in a walling configuration which makes cutting them a little bit more interesting than most. Colonies can be cut along the length of the wall into frags of nearly any size as long as each one has a mouth included.

After dividing a fox coral wall, cut the skeleton wall height down parallel to the flesh surface for easier mounting.

If there's a specific species you would like to see fragged, please comment below.

 

Just curious about your success rates with species that grow in a wall formation such as this and hammers/frogspawns. Seems like every time you (general you) frag a 6" colony you always come away with two 2" pieces. Is fragging corals of this growth pattern even recommended?

A couple ideas for future cuts, plate coral (cycloserosis or heliofungia), scolymia, welsophyllia symphoni, and elegance coral.

 

In my opinion, walling fleshy LPS are hit and miss even without cutting. For quite awhile we had trouble keeping them and didn't even attempt cutting them, but our tanks have matured to the point over the last few years that it usually goes pretty well.

I cut a wellso a couple years back to save it and it did really well afterward. I don't think I would ever cut a solitary sand dweller for propagation however due to the slow heal and reshape speed.