I finally got bored enough to snap photos of me fragging some stuff up so you can see my take on it. This week its Toadies. Next week will be SPS. The week after will be Zoanthids. The week after that LPS.

1st fill a bowl large enough to hold your cuttings with tank water.
Then cut off what ever amount it is you want to remove from your toadstool and place it in the bowl of tank water.
You'll want to take off at least 1/2" with a new razor blade from the coral by shaving off a section from the cap just like you were peeling an orange. Below is what it will look like when your done.
( I fragged two toadstools last night. A yellow and an ORA super long polyp )
ORA


Yellow


Now that you have one continuous section thats at least 1/2" wide use a razor or scissors to cut that in to as many peices as you can while trying to leave the peices as large as you can versus the number you would like to make out of it.

I always cut mine from around 1"x1" - 3/4" x 3/4".

ORA
( those little peices are what I shaved off to make them fit and so they would grow as symetrical as possible. I just tossed them into the fuge. They will form new leathers as well.)



Yellow

Now.... how to mount them?
I really like using super glue gel form. Any brand will do as long as its in gel form.
1st I lay the cutting on a towel:



Then I fold the towel over on it and apply a little pressure.
This will flatten out the cutting some what and remove most of the water and other liquids ( coral juice) from the cutting so you can easily glue it. Don't be afraid to apply pressure ! As long as you don't smash the crap out of it it will be just fine Removing the excess water and coral juice ( ) is a necessary step
in using super glue to mount them to your chosen media.
When they suddenly break away and become floaters 9 out of 10 times the person gluing didn't remove as much as they should have or they didn't hold the cutting down long enough for the glue to set ( will be discussed below )



Once you have dried your cutting off a bit and removed any slime or coral juice form the gluing surface ( which will be the UNDER SIDE OF THE CORAL ) apply 3-4 drops of super glue gel.
Then pick up your chosen media for the cutting to grow out on ( in my case I will be using a marble tile)
line up the cutting and center it on the media,



Then firmly yet evenly press down and hold for roughly 40 seconds out of the water.
As long as you don't squish the crap out of it all will be fine. I guess the best way to describe how much pressure to apply would be like this.. put your index finger and your thumb together like your pinching something. Now put them together and apply enough pressure until your skin stops depressing and you fell your bone stopping it. ( it doesn't take as much pressure as it sounds to feel it). Don't be afraid to press down on it while it drys, or to hold it out of the water for at least 40 seconds. Your not going to hurt it.



After you have finished holding it for 40 plus seconds return it to your bowl of tank water. Let it sit in the bowl for another 5 minutes or so. ( it really wont hurt to leave them in it for another 30 though cause these buggers are tuff ! )

Finished product:





Thats all there is to it !
Its so easy a cave man can do it !
( and he just has ! )

Makes me wanna go tear up my toadstool!

Great thread ... amazing how these things are soooooo hardy. I have been cutting the cap all the time ... I wonder if you can also cut the trunk too? like slice it in half? My toadstool has grown so much that it takes up1/3 of my tank =) I am either going to get rid of it or really cut the whole thing into pieces ...

You absolutely can.

Once upon a time that ORA toady was in a 29g and it was about 10 " in diameter. (It was grown from a frag the size of my thumb nail)
I hacked that sucker up in to 30 plus pieces right down to the stump because I knew it would grow back and I was tired of it taking up so much room.
I traded them all to a local LFS called Just About Fish here in Cincinnati.

Before doing that though make sure it is the picture of health, an make sure your tank is super healthy.
That much stress at one time will do them in if your aren't careful.


I take anywhere from 8 - 10 pieces of the ORA toady once every month and a half or so.

Thanks Propagator. I will try the stamp as well ... I really wanted to get rid of mine because it is huge.

I have one with two heads. I was going to frag one whole head off and sell it. Might frag it into pieces instead and make 20x as much!!!!!!!

My little Ora green polyp started looking sad when I headed towards the tank with razor in one hand and rag in the other....

Great writeup Prop. That's exactly how I've fragged mine in the past. I lose maybe one frag for every 20 or so I cut, not a bad ratio to me.

That's a really yellow Toady as well. Never seen one like that!

Edit: LFS buy or from a hobbyist? Wouldn't mind getting on like that. A LFS here had what they ordered in as a "Yellow Toadstool", it was just a little more yellow than tan like normal. *shrugs*.

Damn it man! I *LOVE* you! (in a completely heterosexual non-gay[1] no sexual over/undertones or innuendo implied or otherwise man expressing great respect for another man sort of way)

Question: Your yellow looks green to me. Is it a Yellow Fiji? If not how hard would it be/careful do I have to be to frag this puppy? You really can't tell by the photo but its about 6" x 4" and is getting rather big...

Photo:


TIA

UH

[1] Note: I am not judging here.

I use scissors and do it right in the tank. I make sure i touch the toadstool enough so that all the tentacles are retracted before i cut. The mother colony recovers with 24 hours.

Hey prop got a quick Q for you. One of the guys in the reef club back home used to frag the hella out of sacros. When a colony had reached about 4 inches of head diameter he would take a steak knife and cut through the center of the head and about 3/4 of the way down the stem. In a couple of weeks in would heal to two seperate heads on a single stem. Then he would cut one of the heads around the stem so as just to leave a nub on one side. He would then frag as you have done, leaving one full head attached to the stem at full times. He claimed he could frag twice as often compared to letting the sacro grow the conventional way.


Have you ever tried this method?

Nope. Sure haven't. but this is a weird hobby.
What works in one tank may or may not work in another.
The way I do it works very well for me but it may not work for him or any one or work for every one.
Personally I think just about any method of cutting a leather will work.
Most are SUPER hardy and super forgiving as well as fast healers. It doesn't surprise me your friend has such good luck with doing it that way.

Great thread! I've heard other more confusing ways to frag toadstool, but never had any pics to go off of. Now when these frags begin to grow, do they form a new stem underneath where the glue is? Or does the cap turn into a stem?

The tissue under the cap starts rising up towards the light like a pilsbury biscuit baking up.
In less than a week you will see a new stem forming. In two weeks there will be a fully formed little stalk.
In 3-4 weeks it will be around 1.5 -2" tall.

Actually your in luck !
I have some in 3 different stages of development. Fresh, 2.5 week mark, and 4-5 week mark.
I will snap some pics off and post them a little later this week.
I also have acropora in all stages of grow out I can snap pics of, and Kenya trees ( regular as well as the rare extinct in the wild Palau Kenya tree) .


Oh yeah and that yellow toad stool..... Is definitely not an easy find. It was bleached really bad when I saw it but I knew what it was instantly. ( and how hard it is to find) It was growing under natural sunlight in a green house when I bought it. I got that as a 3/4" frag from a local shop called Marine Solutions inc. out in Waynesville Ohio. It doesn't grow near as fast as the ORA super long polyp though. (thats stuff is mutant like !) Under PC's it will turn more drab but still bright...yellow. Halides make it freaking insanely bright chartreuse yellow base with bright yellow and white polyps.
I like going to green houses around here because they ALWAYS let the coral turn brown from lack of light or too much of thew wrong kind of light bleaches it. I know what to look for so I generally find the nice stuf in need of a little TLC for cheap that way.

I am really tired so I am not sure all of the above reads coherently or not
If not piece it together the best you can and ill fix it when I wake up !

Thanks for the info Prop. I'll be down in the area a few times over the summer so I might have to swing by a few shops! I take it Marine Solutions inc is the greenhouse you got that Toadstool from?

Awesome stuff Prop, Even though I try to stick to SPS fragging only I may go out and buy a toadstool.

Look me up when your ready if you want to grow your own.
I got a crap load of them.

You recon your heat packs would last shipment to the UK

Sure. Just use a 40 hour one and ship it priority next day or the like.

Sorry to ask again but I got 1/2 of my answer from your sleep deprived posting so let me ask you the second part again. How hard would it be/careful do I have to be to frag this puppy? You really can't tell by the photo but its about 6" x 4" and is getting rather big...

Photo:


Also any more word on that chalice coral you and I talked about for my tank that I wanted to buy from you?

TIA

UH

I could but I think Customs would catch it and fine me.
Plus shipping would be very expensive. Like around $80.00 on the cheap side I bet.

I was kidding. We have strict import and quarantine laws here - I'd probably go to jail without passing go...

Good luck with them, they look great!

You would definitely be fined as would I.
THANK YOU 911 ! *angry*

I used to be able to ship to Europe all the time under the radar but not anymore.
Used to ship dwarf seahorses, and all kinds of coral. But then customs sinched up the gap.
Yup the bobbies will be ringing if I ship to you I think !

Here are the comparison pics.
The yellow grows about 1/4 the rate on the ORA super long polyp.

I have fragged mine now! Thanks Prop!

Here is the before. It was getting too convoluted and looked squashed.



I sold the left hand piece on ebay for £10 (woooo) and decided to frag a bit off the other too.

I used a scalpel blade stolen from work for a nice clean cut and superglue gel. I attached the frags to small pieces of branching live rock.



And back in the tank (excuse the darkness - camera playing up)



Damn clown - if its not her its the neon goby! Camera hog!

Good job Leann !

Awesome thread Prop!

I've been fragging Zoa's, SPS, and LPS for some time but haven't ventured into leathers ... YET.

I'm curious if you would do the same thing with a yellow Fiji leather.

Anyone?

Yup.

Great thread! The one I got from you is doing well. I had to move it to my prop tank cuz my emerald crab was trying to frag it! I am letting it grow out big enough to try this. Another job well done! Thanks.

Did you get the long polyp or the yellow ?
Is that it near bottom and dead center of the pic in your sig?

Thanks Prop! This thread is awesome!

I'm going to try this tomorrow with my ORA green polyp, its getting big...

Thanks for the how to guide, gives me confidence to try on my own, all I've done so far is Zoas. Look forward to the coming week's guides

Can't wait to get my first corals then later frag them.
I like growing plants(carnivorous) and propagating them, corals should be much more interesting

Great writeup, i'll have to find myself a nice softie to growout and try this.

hey, nice to see a local guy from cincy, havent been here in a while....

girlfriend started a ap29 started back..

nice leathers.....

want to frag my tyree but to scared... started as a thumbnail size now its 4" by 3"

what type ora do you have? i heard yellows were hard to frag, never heard of someone doing it succesfully...

Hey prop, i was just reading thru all this, what if my toadie is attached to a rock? i cant cut these guys int he tank can i? i asume the slime would not be good

I don't know if Prop is even around anymore to answer your questions, but DO NOT cut them in the tank.

so ill have to remove it from the rock first eh?

i miss prop i actually found this on google search.

toadies are super slimey i guess huh

SORRY, sorry sorry for bringing back on old thread, I was hoping to find more Fragging with Prop threads that were promised but can't find them (only the sps one) Any others out there?