Fragging a Soft Coral

I never fragged a soft coral before. You can see something took off a little piece. Can I superglue this piece to a plug? I took the pic at night.
Adam

 

Nice chili you have there. Don't know how to frag, just wanted to compliment the nice specimen.

 

Hi Adam - with soft corals I have never used any glue

all I do is band them to the rock I want them attached to and leave them in an area of very low flow so they attach themselves to the rock

band needs to be tight enough to secure, but not over tight as it would cut the soft coral and then the 2 parts drift away from rock

when I fragged my toadstool into 4 sections I got 3 right and the 4th one was a little tight and I could see the flesh being bitten into - I loosened the band a little and it remained in place

some people use a cocktail stick - push this through the base of the frag and then secure the stick to the rock with bands - in about 2 weeks remove the bands and coral has attached itself to the rock

Steve

 

Steve nailed it on the head... Exactly what I would say. Only recommendtion I would give you is to use bridal netting to band the frag down. Rubberbands tend to degrade or put too much pressure on the frag causing it to split. Bridal netting on the otherhand puts the pressure over a wider area preventing you from accidentally fragging your frag.

Great green nepthea BTW!!

Happy fragging!

 

Thanks!! Everyones insight is always appreciated. What would happen though if I used superglue on the soft coral? Would it not stay?
Thanks,
ADam

 

Most soft corals don't work well with glue.... The part that gets glued, tends to "pull" away from the glue, making it very difficult to adhere. I would just use the band, it will attach in about 3 days or so.

Patience is key!

 

Should I completely rip the little piece that is hanging off or just let it come off naturally? I dont want to injure the coral

 

I used scissors, very sharp ones so you could make 1 clean cut and not make to much mess

Steve

 

Cut it with a sharp scissors. If you let it fall it will somehow get blown under the rocks, Murphy's Law

 

I have an X-acto knife I can use in the tank to slice it with. My scissors are kinda crappy.
Thanks