Torch coral takeover

I'm at work so I don't have a picture but my torch coral is ruling my tank. It's literally about 4 times the size as when I bought it 4 months ago and I need it either out or fragged severely.

My problem is on fragging, am I supposed to only cut through the skeleton and not the flashy parts? There's only one section to it but like 3 heads and each are HUGE.

I had no idea these things can have their tentacles over 6 inches!

 

A diamond dremel wheel will cut right through that skeleton. I also tend to think you could cut through a polyp as well so long as you didn't cut through it's center, but I'm not 100% on that thought.

 

Depending on the size you might be able to just "snap" it.

A larger skeletal structure that is more separated from the fleshy polyps is easier to frag.

I can recall my first candy cane coral that had about 7-8 heads on it.

In my careless inexperience I tried to force the frag into a LR crevice and ended up snapping it into several pieces. I did not realize how brittle the skeleton was.

If the skeleton part is 5"+ then you can likely just snap the branches apart.

if not ,then a high-quality bone cutter is the tool commonly used to cut the coral skeleton.

 

Another thing while fraggin or even taking a torch out of the water is to make sure it is retracted before u lift out of the water. If it isn't it could rip off of the skeleton. Found this out the hard way. Swoosh it around in the water first for a sec. I've always fragged them where the skelton makes a y shape and I've never had a prob. Post a pic!! I love torches!!

 

I still haven't this thing totally retracted because it's always out even under moonlights. But, it looks like there just a stalk of skeleton and the 'y' of heads are just flesh still, no skeleton between them yet. I'll post a picture when I get home and you can check it out.

 

Pics will be helpful!!!

 

when I was at the LFS Friday, the guy just got a shipment in and was cutting at them at Y on a ban saw. It was crazy. Then he glued each head on a plug and put it back in the tank. I had no clue you could do something like that. It was kinda cool to watch.

 

Its amazing how hardy certain stony corals are given their delicate construction!

 

It is. I have a galaxia frag that fell of the colony(?) at the LFS. This thing is about 1/16th inch wide and a little over 1/4th inch tall. I asked him if I could have it because it was so small. It looked bad at first but now it's sweeper tenticles are the same length as the frag and it has one sweeper tentacle that is about 3inches long! It is a very odd sight to see a 1/4th inch frag with a 3inch tentacle.