Getting the courage to frag my zoa's

I have a branching rock with zoas and palys on it. The palys are growing taller and shading the zoa's so I need to cut them off. I am nervous about doing this but I think I found the courage to do it. A few things I have been thinking about is the toxicity of these animals, so I am ready with gloves and I had my husband bring a face shield from work. Next there is a brittle star fish living in this zoa rock since I have had it. I am not sure what to do about him. There are also some brisltworms that hang out in the zoa rock(ew they are so ugly). I am going to feed the tank before I remove the rock and hopefully coax the worms out of the rock.
Wish me luck

 

Best of wishes, Let us know how it goes!
+K

 

Sounds like you are well prepared. Make sure you wash the gloves afterward. Keep pets away from the bucket.

Are you going to cut or break the rock or simply cut palys? How are you planning on sticking them to a new rock?

 

thanks . I will ,I'll even post pics

 

Both,I am going to cut the palys off with a razor or exacto knife. I am going to break part of the rock with the zoas and put those in my 75.
I am going to use superglue to attach polyps to new rock.

I will keep the cat and dog in another room while I work. Thanks for all the tips.

 

I did it.And I never want to do it again, atleast not if they are attached to branching rock,it was difficult to remove with a razor knife without leaving some of the mat behind. I ended up breaking branches off to get polyps off. It was hard to distinquish some of the palys from the zoas,I felt like I was destroying everything. My lighting needed to be much brighter where I was working. I had to get out a led flash light to see what I was doing. Eww and there was a few decent size bristleworms in the rock branches I had a hard time getting those out,there so nasty looking.I did break the rock into two and put them back in.They started opening up so it looks good for them but I think I missed some of the polpys that I wanted gone. I had a small bunch of zoas about 10 that I glued to coral skeleton. I think I got glue on some polyps.I hope it will be ok. . I will post pics once I get them upload to the cp.

 

Where are the pics?

 

oh come on!

that's how everyone's first frag goes... it's always awkward the first time, but it gets better. !!! HA!

no seriously, it gets easier, don't be discouraged, fragging is an important part of the hobby, not just for hobbyists but the ecosystem!

it's an inexact science to say the least, you will butcher the first few frags, but you'll also probably be surprised when they completely recover and begin growing new polyps as if no harm had ever been done.

just remember two things: be careful not to cut yourself, particularly if you are using a scalpel, this is the only real thing to be afraid of (aside from palytoxin of course), and don't superglue your fingers together (happens to me just about every time, i'm clumsy with superglue)

the creepy crawlies can be a bit disturbing, but you'll get over that too, and as far as getting all the mat, don't stress, corals are incredibly regenerative you really only need a small tissue sample to get them going for the hardier corals, but the bigger the piece the faster it heals and more growth you get off the bat...

one trick to getting the whole mat off, cut a small layer of rock with it, that LR usually is encrusted with coralline which can be "shaved off" with a sawing motion of your razor blade, actually coral rock is so brittle you can usually shave a millimeter layer off the top with a single edge blade, if you have tough fingernails you can actually scrape the top layer off with your fingernails!!!

i think you went in nervous and this is the whole problem, just go in not giving a crap about how it turns out and it'll come out fine.


and where are those pics you promised! show us your handiwork.

 

And finally the frag pics

ok sorry it too so long but here are the pics
Description of photos
1. Me ready to frag
2.Tools
3. Zoa rock thats getting fragged
4.One half of the zoa rock that I broke into two and placed in tank
5.Same zoa rock with polyps open
6.The polys that I scaped off
7.zoa frag immediatly after fragging and gluing put into new tank
8.new zoa frag next day
9.new zoa frag under atenics
There are still unwanted polyps on the zoa rock,next time I buy zoas it will not be on a branching rock.

 

Nice job! Don't be afraid. It took me a while to get up the courage to do mine. I was so paranoid about hurting the corals! Now that I've done it, and see the results, its so worth it!
Execpt for the smell in my apartment, need a few fans to get out the fishy smell for the day. Should have done it in the summer rather than winter time! haha!