Fragging & Transplanting SPS

[williammuk]

Hi, I'm an SPS newbie and would greatly appreciate your advise on this.

I'm thinking of fragging both my Pink and Purplish Montipora Digitatas (red arrows in below pix) and transplanting the frags onto the liverock outlined in blue. The red circles (about 1"+ apart) approximate the locations of where I might be super-glueing the frags. I'm thinking of short frags of about 1" in length.

The Pink Montipora Digitata was purchased from a senior reefer four months ago.

The Purplish one was purchased from an LFS about two months ago.

Both are growing OK.

My objective of doing this is to maximise space and pack the Digitatas closer. I'll be grouping them in their respective colours so that when it grows, I hope to see a "wall" of pinks and a "wall" of purples.

I don't know if this will work.

Would appreciate your advise and comments, please.

Thanks.

[scarab]

Don't see why it shouldn't work. It will look lovely when they grow out from there.

Just ensure a few things before you frag:-

Mother colony should be healthy with good polyp extension. A stressed mother colony could spell disaster after fragging coz you are stressing it further.

When fragging use a clean tool/cutter/plier and get a clean cut. Scraping around the tissue to cut thru might cause the coral to stress up.

Stand by small pails of your tank water so that once you frag, you can place the frags in water. They will tend to slime a lot, so keep both frags and mother colony out of water for the shortest time possible.

Stand by your epoxy/super glue for the fixing of your frags and it's important to clean the LR location you intend to fix your frags from detritus/algae. This will ensure quick fixing and minimise the contact time between the frag and your fingers coz your fingers, while fixing your frags, will tend to rub off the slime coating on the tissue of the frag causing the frag to stress.

Good luck and happy fragging.

Oh yes.......one other thing remember to wash your fragging tools with clean, frsh water after the process. I have lost a considerable quantity of pliers coz I forgot to wash and the rust just takes over.

[Jimng]

Good tips bro.... ....i do find that digi survivability is a lot higher than other sps when fragged......hope to see the walls soon...

[riot]

The frag will also grow better if you max the surface area facing the MH. For instance, propping the frag on its side, so buds can sprout all along the main body, instead of usual at the tips. Works ok with stags, not sure if as good with montis

[williammuk]

Hi scarab, thank you for your valuable tips. Really appreciate it.

About the cutting, since Digitatas are quite "soft", I was thinking of just snapping it off using my fingers. Any concerns?

Hi riot, I was thinking of sticking it vertical but if your observation works for stags, it probably should work for Digitatas too. But I don't know.

Anyone else can shed some light on this? Heehee ... "shed some light" ... that would be the 250W MH ...

Hi Jimng, you wanna see the wall?

OK, here it is ... this is the "artist's impression" of what it ideally should look like.

Haha ... there I go day dreaming again ... how I wish it could really look like this ...

[roidan]

bro...the pic looks like those pasar malam games whereby you throw a ring into the board of nails and then walk home with prize.

in this case...maybe u can ask reefers to throw wedding rings into the tank and walk home with the frag that their rings catches

[williammuk]

Hi roidan, you know ... you're absolutely right ... hahahah

It does look like one of those pasar malam games.

Seriously, I think it's gonna be very tough to glue the frags so close together.

My butter fingers will probably knock over other frags while doing it.

Anyway, I also don't have so many frags ...

[Jimng]

Wow, nice....i have not seen digi that blue before ....those at the bottom, r those photo edited or it's the original blue color.....

[ervine]

i feel the orderly planting of the frags will look a bit artificial leh.. make it more random?

[wa_lanz]

jim. look closely and u will see that its actually the pink digi edited...

and william. i agree with ervine that it will look artificial..

[Jimng]

jim. look closely and u will see that its actually the pink digi edited...

and william. i agree with ervine that it will look artificial..

Oh ya...now i noticed......u have very sharp eyes for details......

[williammuk]

Yup! All of you are right. The blue ones were edited from the pink ones.

The blue colour looks too fake. I should have toned it down a bit.

As ervine has rightfully pointed out, planting it in an orderly fashion will

probably make it look "artificial". OK, I'll see what I can do.

Thanks everyone for your comments.

[planetg]

hi william.

i dun why u cannot do it but be careful with your incision. use a dremmel or get a good pair of shears for precise and less-stressful cuts.

personally, i suggest u to forget abt those lugols or whatever dip u might be planning. once it's glued and grown out, u might get tips fusing to a larger colony. that'll suit your purpose.

have fun and keep us posted on your result.

cheers

[williammuk]

Hi planetg, thanks for your comments.

[scarab]

About the cutting, since Digitatas are quite "soft", I was thinking of just snapping it off using my fingers. Any concerns?

Snapping off the digitatas with your fingers is one way, but you might not be able to control where it breaks. Suggest you usr those sharp nose pliers, clamp at the location you want to frag and then snap with the pliers. This will ensure it breaks at where you want it to break.

[williammuk]

Hi scarab, thanks for the advise.

[scarab]

Hey william, no problem lah. Just sharing what I've tried.

[williammuk]

Starting with one frag to see how it goes ...

Broke off a small piece of about an inch that wasn't getting enough light as it was

at the botton of the mother colony. Superglued it to the liverock. Had to do this a

few times as it was quite difficult to get the superglue skin to break.

Hope it survives. Will post updates in a week or so.

[ervine]

Starting with one frag to see how it goes ...

Broke off a small piece of about an inch that wasn't getting enough light as it was

at the botton of the mother colony.  Superglued it to the liverock.  Had to do this a

few times as it was quite difficult to get the superglue skin to break. 

Hope it survives.  Will post updates in a week or so.

eh... i think u supposed to superglue it while the frag and rock are out of the tank right?.. pls correct me if I'm wrong coz I did that to frag mine and it was pretty easy to get right

[DeepBlue]

you can glue it under water ...but will waste a lot of glue coz you will need to apply a thick helping of it to the frag outside water...then when it touches water...only the outer layer hardens..... when you find it place you want it to stay, just twist it to break the outer shell, you'll be able to glue down the frag.

I generally super glue my frags to rocks/ rock chips outside water...then epoxy the rock to the rock scape....

[williammuk]

Thanks all.

In this case, no choice as I cannot take the rock out.

[williammuk]

Hi all, here's an update after 10 days.

Coraline algae has encrusted over the superglue.

Got a question - I'm wondering whether is it easier for the frag to encrust over coraline algae or over plain superglue?

Thanks.

[ZeRoCoOl]

Hi all, here's an update after 10 days.

Coraline algae has encrusted over the superglue.

Got a question - I'm wondering whether is it easier for the frag to encrust over coraline algae or over plain superglue?

Thanks.

For frags I use superglue gel / locite gel

small bottle ~$2 * typically use 1 -2 time before tip hardens

big bottle (reseallable) ~$4 ** I find this more worth it as can re-use a few time w/o hardening and spoilting the noozle

IMO: liquid type of superglue / elephant glue too messy

And for rocks use epoxy as DB.

[scarab]

Hi all, here's an update after 10 days.

Coraline algae has encrusted over the superglue.

Got a question - I'm wondering whether is it easier for the frag to encrust over coraline algae or over plain superglue?

Thanks.

Errr don't think it's coraline. Think its just algae. Superglue tend to do that but the algae usually very thin layer and the SPS can encrust over.

[williammuk]

Errr don't think it's coraline. Think its just algae.

Oops ... I'm a little confused.

I had always thought that the calcified pinkish-purplish stuff growing everywhere is called Coraline Algae.

You mean the portion outlined in blue below is not Coraline Algae?

Thanks.