is there a good way to break apart a colony of polyp

[mattie]

I purchased a colony of polyps today and it turned out a little bigger than I wanted I noticed the rock is broken on the inside in several places. I was wondering if there was a best way to seperate the membrane that holds these pieces together

[surfy]

I use a chissel and hammer to break mine apart. You can just use a razor blade and cut through the mat if that is whats holding the rock together.

The polyps will be fine out of water for a little while, I have done it many times before.

You may kill a few where you cut through but there are plenty more to make up for that small loss.

[blk_g20]

thats nice looking even when closed, how much did you pay for it?

[NanoBound]

You have PM

[mattie]

thanks when I saw it. I had to have it.

the LFS had a sale to today becouse they were having a book sighning for these 2 authors of marine aquarium books so the rock was 32 instead of 45 i got some yellow polyps for 14 and a cup coral 17. but these polyps just don't fit any where so I going to break it into smaller pieces so that it will fit it looked smaller at the LFS

[Iphantom]

I ripped mine(green star polyps) apart with my hands from a rock at my LFS and then trasported it home out if water( long story)

 

and now they are doing really well they have spread and are like 4 or 5 times the size of the piece I got

 

they are hardy in that sense so I whould worry to much about it

use a razor or sharp knife

 

-Matt

[mattie]

thanks for the advice. I broke it up into seven pieces and after about half an hour most of the polyps have opened so think it went okay this was my first time breaking up a colony

[seabass]

Congratulations! I’ve had mixed luck separating zoos and lost a couple small colonies in the process. My advice is to leave zoo colonies alone whenever you can.

[HawaiianNano]

Hey Mattie I see you lived in Hawaii and moved to the states. While you were living here in hawaii did you have a reef tank and if you did where did you get your corals from, becuase there are not to many place in the states that want to ship them and there are no stores here that sell them. The only other place is our ocean but I dont think its right to go there and get coral and im not a great fan of the ocean too.

 

I wish I caould get some zoos like you just bought.

[mattie]

NO REEF I had 2 fish only tanks live corals are illegal in Hawai because if one person releases an alien spieces it would ruin alot of the native corals and it's supposed to be illegal to remove the corals. Hawaiian waters are federally protected so its a big deal. I had a 40g and a 10g I bought most of My fish at coral fish Hawaii in pearl city and I bought some calurpa and other stuff at this fish store near the Ala moana shopping center I only found them a year before I moved but they are great. I cant remeber the name but to find it go down kapiolani towards EWA and turn right on the block that has the BLUE CROSS animal hospital just past the cutter car dealership on the left make the next right. its rigth there next to the parking lot its been there like 15 years and i didn't know it was there becouse there was no good places in town to buy SW fish execpt pets disc in kahala. I'm total bummed I've been here almost 4 months the only good thing is Corals are legal and sold at every fish store. sorry to break the bad news to ya if ya want to see coral you better take up snorkling at hanauma bay. when did you move to Hawaii cause hawaii is the 50th state and i'm in the mainland

[mattie]

now I want to break this up a rugosa coral that I have becouse some of the base area has died and recieded so i'm assuming whack it with a hammer and chisel????

[HawaiianNano]

Mattie thanks for the info. I lived here in hawaii all my life and I know what store by ala moana that your talking about it called Modern Pet Center in fact I just went there today and they had some maroon anemones. You must be so lucky now to have all those selections of corals to fill your tank with. If you ever come back to Hawaii bring me back some frags. And trust me these days they are more worried about a terrorist and a bomb going on a plane and not coral and most security at the airports dont know the differnace between a rock and a coral and there Idea of corals are white and hard and dead they dont know that corals are also soft and colorful.

 

WOuld you like to mail me some zoos? Ill pay you for it.

[mattie]

if your smart you'll try to become friends with the guy that owns that place and his wife they also sponser a SW fish club that meets at, i believe the mcully library . he dives for stuff out on the leeward side some times he brings in stuff to sell that no one else would. there are 3 good thing outhere the corals the price of the fish stuff and I have a sweet big new apt for Less $$$ than my studio near iolani school. people have been asking me to sell/send them frags since I made this post. I'm sorry that I don't have the proper resources to mail a bag of zoo's. some idea Iwish I had a pic of 10g nano. but it 1 yellow strip marron clown he was so beautiful (i miss him can you tell ) some unknow aneame a big feather duster and some feather calurap ) an after a year he was big and the calurapa was growing like crazy and would pull some out to feed to a yellow tang that was in the 40 and the feather duster had tons of little babies. I know its not the same as what's available out here but it was sweet and people who saw it were amazed.

 

the only thing I didn't like about naturally pet was when I moved I didn't know any one who had sw excpet the fish store so I returned the fish and they gave me no money or credit:( i wish I had found nano-reef earlier