Coral Propagation: Brown Button

[Foogoo]

I want to try spreading my brown button colony by attaching some polyps to seperate rocks. After reading about it on the net, I have a couple questions. First, how long can the polyps survive out of water safetly? Also, how should the polyps be removed from the rock safetly? They don't look like they would be yanked too well....

[tinyreef]

some buttons can be out in low tide, so they can be out for hours as long as you spritz them occasionally. when i'm working on propagating i usually set up everything beforehand or work in a shallow plastic tub of tank water.

 

you want to work with 'opportune' pieces the most. don't try to dig or smash the base rock. if you think you may miss and hit something, chances are you will. :*( go for the pieces on the outside of the colony.

 

you can use a razor blade (i'm not recommending this btw for liability sakes ??? ) to slowly work under the polyps to separate it from the rock. try to touch the least amount of flesh (the polyps' and YOURS!).

 

or you can just place rock rubble next to the colony and let it slowly grow over to the next piece. (highly recommended)

[tinyreef]

this was bothering last night. i'm assuming you're talking about zoanthids and NOT palythoa polyps which can be DEADLY if messed around with! they form spreading rubbery mats. don't mess with them!

 

post a pic to be sure. good luck!

[Foogoo]

My camera really sucks so a picture probably won't be too much help. These polyps grow individually, not like sea mats. Their tentacles are also very small, barely noticeable. And they're brown... probably not much of a description but thats how they are!

[tinyreef]

ok, palythoa grows on a spreading mat. it occurred to me last night that you may have been talking about palythoa.

 

nevermind , carry on.