Transferring Zoa Colony?

[tanked_kiwi]

A couple of weeks ago I bought a zoa covered rock. It looks nice but I don't have a lot of room in my 16in cube.

 

Ideally I'd like to 'transfer' a good chunk of the colony to my rock and maybe frag or sell the rest. Is this possible without killing it off? I had also thought about removing the top left rock and putting the new rock there, my rock is all epoxied together though so I'm not sure that's possible either.

 

What to do?

 

 

 

[Jellyingabout]

Yeah easy, just cut the mat and peel it off

[Sunstar]

But wear gloves and I would say a face shield because of palytoxin.

[Jellyingabout]

typical zoas like that don't contain enough play toxin to be dangerous, its the palythoa that you have to look out for. http://www.coralbiome.com/2011/11/palytoxine-danger/ I'd wear gloves anyway cos the smell is horrendous and doesn't was out well.

[tanked_kiwi]

Yeah easy, just cut the mat and peel it off

 

You mean pull the mat off like what's in the picture? I guess I need to do this without cutting the polyps? And then super glue it onto my rock?

 

Sorry for the newb questions I've never fragged anything before! Can just picture myself killing the lot...

 

 

But wear gloves and I would say a face shield because of palytoxin.

I had heard of this, I will wear glasses and gloves regardless, just in case.

[patback]

Your mat is sort of lacking....GOOD!. It will make it easier to get small sections fragged off. Ime, I like to cut sections of mat around a number of polyps and then scrape a small layer of rock underneath the new frag. It is less detrimental to them and it also makes it a ton easier to glue elsewhere.

[tanked_kiwi]

Your mat is sort of lacking....GOOD!. It will make it easier to get small sections fragged off. Ime, I like to cut sections of mat around a number of polyps and then scrape a small layer of rock underneath the new frag. It is less detrimental to them and it also makes it a ton easier to glue elsewhere.

OK, good for fragging, but I'd like to transfer say 75% of this to my own rock and frag the rest. Will this work?

[Jellyingabout]

Yeah, that'l be fine. Just cut the the mat separating your 75% and 25% if possible remove your 25% and then transfer the 75% with the rock. If not then peel the whole lot up. Again if possible remove the rock before you do your cutting and peeling and rinse it all before putting it back in the tank. This is because as you frag the zoas will release mucus, often with toxins and nasties in for, self defense, that you don't want in your tank. If you have to peel up the 75% that's ok it'll just take longer to recover, Glue it down with superglue gel (make sure its cyanoacrelate).

 

With the 25% you want to frag put it in small tub with some tank water. Gather some small pieces of live rock, a towel, a very sharp knife, and a some super glue.

On a clean surface, rinsed with RO or tank water, cut the coenosarc (the mat) around groups of 2-3 polyps and seperate, return to the tub of tank water while you do the other steps.

Then dab dry the pieces of LR and superglue the frags down, place them in the tub of water to get the superglue to set hard.

Job done

[tanked_kiwi]

Yeah, that'l be fine. Just cut the the mat separating your 75% and 25% if possible remove your 25% and then transfer the 75% with the rock. If not then peel the whole lot up. Again if possible remove the rock before you do your cutting and peeling and rinse it all before putting it back in the tank. This is because as you frag the zoas will release mucus, often with toxins and nasties in for, self defense, that you don't want in your tank. If you have to peel up the 75% that's ok it'll just take longer to recover, Glue it down with superglue gel (make sure its cyanoacrelate).

 

With the 25% you want to frag put it in small tub with some tank water. Gather some small pieces of live rock, a towel, a very sharp knife, and a some super glue.

On a clean surface, rinsed with RO or tank water, cut the coenosarc (the mat) around groups of 2-3 polyps and seperate, return to the tub of tank water while you do the other steps.

Then dab dry the pieces of LR and superglue the frags down, place them in the tub of water to get the superglue to set hard.

Job done

Thanks very much for the detailed instructions! I will be removing the whole lot from that rock, there's no space in my little tank for it. Hopefully it all goes well.