Can zoos be "spliced" or fragged?

[ajroahkni]

I've asked a few occasions on this. The general (half-hearted) reply here and elsewhere was that they could be, by just ripping them off and sticking them elsewhere.

 

This does not work for me. I've been smashing (exploding) zoos left and right in my attempts. It's been messy and a gosh darn killing spree. Either my zoos are really stubborn to come off the rock or I am just superhumanly powerful.

 

So, successful zoo splitters, how've YOU done it?

[Crakeur]

the only success I have had is to slide a rock into the colony and wait for them to either move onto the new rock or to expand the existing colony onto the new rock. I have thee thriving colonies that all started from a colony of no more than 15 polyps. One colony was just on polyp. There are tons of zoos in these three spots and they have spread across the rock so I can still take the original rock and move it around and try and spread the wealth so to speak.

 

I would have to say that the best advice on fragging zoos would come from Bryan @ logical reef as he has been doing this for some time now and with some decent success based on all the different zoo photos he has been selling and trading with members here.

 

And Bryan, if you read this I do hope you are holding a few ultra rare and special zoo or ricordia frags for me and my medical frags.

[Inpha]

Yah I was wondering about this as well. I have a yellow zoo colony, that has 3 button polyps (nice coloring... yellow center and yellow a yellow fringe with a pinkish ring) smack dab in the middle of the colony. I want to remove these as they're being overrun, however I don't think the rock method would work.

[Satchmo]

The best way to do it for the impatient is to splinter the rock they're on. I've tried to remove them too... not a good idea. I would definitely like to hear how Logical does it.

[ajroahkni]

I think you guys know why I'm asking...

 

FTD Zoo Bouquets

 

I'd like to have a whole bunch of 'em on one rock (like Logical? - or as close to it as I can imagine.) ONe HUGE, MASSIVE polyp rock. ANd if I could, I'd have only that one big, gigantic LR in the tank.

 

??? Dementia stops by for a visit

[Crakeur]

If you want one big rock with lots of different morphs, do what I did and place lots of different morph colonies in one rock, next to eachother. eventually, they will grow all over the place and you will have a garden of zoos like the tulip gardens in Amsterdam

[ajroahkni]

I am in state of being not understand regarding your post, Mr. Crakeur.Sorry, my homage to those of Asian heritage

 

How do you get the different colonies that you're placing on one rock? I'm visualizing having to extract the zoos from their current rock, which has always led to exploding zoos for me. But, the outcome you speak of - tulips of Amsterdam - that's what I'm looking for.

[Inpha]

Originally posted by ajroahkni

I am in state of being not understand regarding your post, Mr. Crakeur.Sorry, my homage to those of Asian heritage  

 

Whats that spose to mean?

[ajroahkni]

Geeps! Guess someone may get insulted by perceiving that as a racial slam? X)

 

Was talking to my sister's friend in JPN on the phone. My Japanese is horrible, her English is marginally better. However when I talk Japanese, it roughly translates into that and when she talks English, that's exactly the speech pattern. The message gets across on both ends even though grammar is lacking. Once I get into that mode, it takes some time to shake out.

 

And it goes to show that openmindedness can overcome language and cultural barriers and become the most powerful tool of comprehension and communication in the 21st century next to the internet.

 

Too bad our conversations revolved solely around: "How's the weather there?" "It's cold - How's the weather there?" "It's nice."

X)

 

I'm sorry Inpha. Hope I didn't offend you. I LOVE YOU.

 

John

[Inpha]

Are you talking about a cracker? A cracker isn't an asian person, it's a white person (aree you thinking caucasian?)....

[Foogoo]

This is how I fragged my zoos. Get a razor blade and gently scrape a couple off the rock and glue them where you want. Of four zoos I only lost one because I accidentally cut too high.

[ajroahkni]

Inpha - forget it. Not talking about a cracker. I AM ASIAN. I TALKED TO ANOTHER NON-AMERICAN ASIAN. I'LL NEVER DO IT AGAIN

[printerdown01]

I don't know about "splitting" the zoos, but I do remove mine from the rock and reattach them elsewhere... I use a dental pic to remove the polyps very carefully from the rock. You can simply superglue them to another home. P.S. they respond very well to superglue -much better than mushrooms and xenia! Here is a picture of the 3 greatest tools I own: a plastic card for scraping glass, 1ml pipette, and my dental pic (avalible at your local hardware store -usually in the lock and key secion :| - I have also heard you can buy them at art supply stores):

[ajroahkni]

So PD01, just scrape-scrape-scrape and superglue? Too easy!!!

 

I'm a gonna try it and get back to everyone, prolly Sunday.

 

 

---

 

Foog

 

Tried that, but my butterfingers always ends up deflating the balloon.

[Crakeur]

Ajroahkni-san,

 

What I was implying was to take a bunch of small frags, or a few polyps that might have left a rock on their own, and place them all in one place on your live rock. They should start to spread all around and give you that tulip garden look. The other way to get the to spread and be able to remove them is to take a rock that is polyp-free and place it right next to a colony that is growing well. In a short period, the zoos should begin to spread onto the clean rock. Once the rock if covered with the zoos, simply pull the rock out and either send it to me or place it elsewhere in the tank.

 

Personally, I don't think I could tear, yank, snip, razor or clip any of my livestock. I would be too afraid of killing it.

 

I am a white guy but the crakeur is an old nickname that's meaning has been lost and not a Cracker as in southern, white boy.

 

Please no offense meant in any of my posts ever and I tend to assume that when people post a joke here, it is meant as a joke and not meant to offend. If we can't laugh at ourselves and eachother, what can we do.

[Inpha]

This post still confuses me.... however... I removed the button polyps without killing any of them (at least during the procedure... we'll see what happens later) however I did manage to destroy a few of the surrounding yellow zoos... oh well... they'll come back. Oh I just chipped the rock out from underneath with a screwdriver... i'll let you know how it works out...

[SoS]

I Try and chip them off with a screwdriver and hammer. I drive the screw driver(about half an inch) in the middle of a patch of zoo's (trying not to damage any)I then torque the screwdriver side to side a some this cracks the brittle live rock and the zoo's fall off in clumps attached to small slivers of live rock. No damage is done to the zoo's. I've gotten some nice frags doing that

 

It does a little damage to the live rock, but its within reason. I've noticed that when i do this in the middle of the rock I see small zoo's trying to grow trapped underneath. So now I'm getting multiple generations without leaving the rock.

 

This is one frag i made. I glued it to a larger piece of rock you can see underneath it. that whole clump was on a very small sliver of rock

 

 

 

I removed that frag from the middle of this rock and you can see the new ones popping up already.

 

[logicalreef]

Hey Guys,

 

Pretty late getting on this one, but first glance into this forum was just now. My ears were ringing

 

SoS pretty much hit my method straight on. Difference being that I have recently been using a chisel and hammer as it gets a better break and ususally on one "pop" which is less stressful I feel on the zoos then multiple hits.

 

Most of the time the breakage causes some loose ones to fall off which get tossed into the zoo pile to be glued onto other rocks when I have time.

 

As far as placing other rocks next to them for spreading in a more natural way. I will take a 1 to 2 inch square colony and place 2 to 3 rubble pieces around it...but in doing so I press the rubble into the side of colony....kind of squishing a few as I go. This seems to really speed up attachment. Then the key is patience...try and remove the new pieces to soon and they lose grip and you''re back to square one.

 

Also, very important : don't risk a colony that is too small...you will occasionally run into a strain (morph) that doesn't react well to breakage or tearing...so you want at least 20+ polyps strong before you risk it..IMO.

 

Be gentle with them and try not to squeeze them..act like a surgeon and all is going to be fine. But patience is the key. I have found lately as more people request some morphs off me, that I have lost more than normal as I have sped up the fragging at times and not been careful enough. So, I'm back to one night a week of fragging and it's done slowly and with a nice cold beer:)

 

 

As for Crakeur's garden of Amsterdam goal, I'll try and post a pic of my latest creation tonight. I had a piece of live rock that, seriously, is shaped like a dog, Schnauzzer to be exact No matter where I put the rock it stood out in my mind as looking silly, so I gathered up about 10 diff morphs of loose zoos laying around and glued away....after a few months now it's starting to become my favorite piece.

 

Peace, Bryan

[Inpha]

Thanks for the info... do you do your fragging in a bucket of water, or do you just do it out of the water?

[logicalreef]

I use my fragging board A 2 foot piece of 1x12 on the floor with a towel over it.

 

The whole process takes less than 2 minutes out of water.

 

PEace, Bryan

[willember]

do you wear gloves?

[Isaka]

You should use gloves when handling zoo's.

 

Unless you are in a big rush just put your zoo frag right next to a small piece of LR, in a month or two it will grow onto it.

 

If you are in a big rush just use a razor to cut along the mat somewhere and superglue them in place.

 

Neither is difficult.