justjoshinya Posted April 23, 2012 Share Posted April 23, 2012 so i just finished my frag rack from egg crate and it came out better than i was hoping!!! and i just tried my hand at fragging some zoanthid polyps i fragged two eagle eye single polyps on plugs and a radioactive green zoa polyp that has two smaller baby polyps on it. all are open and enjoying the new plugs these are not rare zoas and the frags will do me no good other than just using them for practice. next i will try and frag my millipora acropora chalice and sunset monti. i did have a quick question about fragging the sunset monti its a LE Tyree Sunset monti, and i just want to know in theory if i just snip off a little piece that only has a single tiny polyp on it will it survive and grow?? or do i need to frag a larger piece containing several polyps?? thanks for the advice im new to all this. -Josh Link to comment
altolamprologus Posted April 23, 2012 Share Posted April 23, 2012 There are people who frag single polyps but the bigger the frag the better. Tiny frags have a poor survival rate and are likely to RTN on you. They will also most likely die if transported before being allowed to grow out. Corals grow in proportion to their current size so if you make tiny frags, you will have to wait a very long time before selling or trading them. It's always more efficient to make the biggest frags possible. An inch is the smallest I would do for sps Link to comment
justjoshinya Posted April 23, 2012 Author Share Posted April 23, 2012 awe the frag itself is only about 1.5"x1.5" but its growing well and there is a tiny outcropping that is reaching for the base rock that i was gonna cut off it has a single polyp on it, but the frag itself has like a TON of polyps on it probably 60 or so it looks completely green because of the polyps. i guess i will wait for it to grow more... but i may get impatient and just try it anyway. im not trying to sell frags or even trade them just trying to practice fragging and kinda fill out my tank more without spending heaps more money. thanks for the advice!!! Link to comment
altolamprologus Posted April 23, 2012 Share Posted April 23, 2012 awe the frag itself is only about 1.5"x1.5" but its growing well and there is a tiny outcropping that is reaching for the base rock that i was gonna cut off it has a single polyp on it, but the frag itself has like a TON of polyps on it probably 60 or so it looks completely green because of the polyps. i guess i will wait for it to grow more... but i may get impatient and just try it anyway. im not trying to sell frags or even trade them just trying to practice fragging and kinda fill out my tank more without spending heaps more money. thanks for the advice!!! If it's that small, don't frag it. Honestly tanks full of tiny frags look like absolute crap. Let the corals grow and only frag them when they are about to touch each other. Link to comment
justjoshinya Posted April 23, 2012 Author Share Posted April 23, 2012 yea i guess your right, plus i was thinking about what you said they reproduce asexually exponentially so one polyp would take forever to get to 10 whereas 10 polyps wouldnt take too long to get to 20 so i should just wait a while and frag it when i can get bigger pieces. thanks for the quick responses i had my snips out and everything. Link to comment
Builder Anthony Posted April 24, 2012 Share Posted April 24, 2012 i do single polyps all the time the key is just finding one that you can just pluck off a plug without causeing any damage to it.you have to be careful when glueing them as they are real small.these are mounted on filter ceramic peices that are used in filters but it allows you to glue the bottom of the little plug onto something else.its a temporary plug till it grows out more but its real easy to handle and takes up minamal space. i mount 4 of the ceramic plags onto a argonite square but it could be anything i just like to move them around easily heres a few i have done.each ceramic has a differnt species on it so 4 per square.i basicly want as many species as i could get and i figure this is a good way to keep track of them.i think they are just easier to handle like this.i could also pull the raqck out anytime i want to off the plumbing hooks i cut and ziptied together.keeps things from crawling on the rack.regular plugs are to big for single polyps for me.i think this method allows me to frag them easy as the matt tends to grow off the sides or i could just cut the top one off and let the matt grow back that way.this has been my own little experiment and i think its working out really well.its cost efficient a reg plug will cost about a quater and about 100 plugs like this will be 2 or 3 bucks.the arrgonite squares were like 50 cents each but i like the style i want to have the entire system like this in a seperate tank with nothing but the squares set up like that Link to comment
CarrillXXP Posted April 24, 2012 Share Posted April 24, 2012 Single polyps are fine but Alto is somewhat right. Depending on the health of your tank etc, smaller frags may struggle. Link to comment
altolamprologus Posted April 24, 2012 Share Posted April 24, 2012 Single polyps of zoas are fine. However, OP is talking about single polyps of sps, which is an entirely different topic. Link to comment
franklypre Posted April 24, 2012 Share Posted April 24, 2012 IF you are going to frags SPS at all you need a healthy coral, if you are only fragging a few polyps you are not giving the frag a fighting chance. Cut a 1/4" at very least. Link to comment
fraxinius Posted April 25, 2012 Share Posted April 25, 2012 i have seen some nice shelves made by attaching egg crate to magnetic algae scraper.. Link to comment
fraxinius Posted April 25, 2012 Share Posted April 25, 2012 some of the branchy corals and leathers can be pinched between 2 pcs of rubble then rubber banded or stuck in sand or gravel ill the coral attaches to it..looks like shells can be ok to for substrate Link to comment
justjoshinya Posted April 25, 2012 Author Share Posted April 25, 2012 builder anthony that is a superb idea i love the thought of using the ceramic circles as frag plugs!!!! im going to start using them for zoa plugs!!! i never even thought of that. but yes i was refering to my sunset monti, it has an outcropping with a single green polyp that i want to snip off and glue to a plug, i will wait though, BUT i couldnt wait and fragged my green SPS some sort of acro i think and i also had to cut off a branch of some acro that had hair algae all over it (when the guy fragged it he dropped it on the floor of the shop and said...you still want it?? ill give you a discount..) so i kept it and from hitting the cement it got tissue damage to one branch and that got infested with hair algae i keep taking the algae off but it comes back within a day and is only on this single part of the acro no other corals in my tank, so i snipped the branch off below the algae infestation and then snipped off the top part from the cut and was left with a 1/8" thick ring with a few polyps so instead of throw it away i glued it to a plug and we will see how this fairs, i dont really have high hopes for this frag though lol all others seem to be doing well. im gonna use your method builderanthony when i frag a polyp off my wild orange and green zoa. its currently my favorite in the tank. thanks for the input you guys. -Josh Link to comment
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.