Advanced Fragging Technique - The Scalpel!

[whodah]

heya!

ZoaID has released it's third article titled:
Advanced Fragging Technique - The Scalpel!

here's a glimpse:

Today, I'm going to talk about how I frag some of my Zoas. There are easy techniques and there are difficult techniques - this will focus on the latter. The main technique to frag a Zoa is über simple: Take a hammer and chisel to it! The problem with this is that your rock gets smaller and smaller each time, and it's not very precise. Sometimes, the rock won't break the way you want it to either. The upside: quick, easy, the zoa stays on the rock it is 'used' to.

Myself, I tend to do this advanced technique when the zoas are on a nice rock that I do not want to loose mass. As in, I don't want to chisel/cut/pry it down each time. But don't get me wrong, I do this advanced technique once every 10 or so 'fraggings' due to it's 'complexity', or at the very least, it's time consumption.

we hope you enjoy!

Who Dah?

 

[MinibowMatt]

Awesome! Great Write up!

 

[surfnvb7]

hahahahaha i love that animation. great article on fragging zoas. now we can just refer to it when everyone always asks how.

btw, that is almost the exact same way i have been fragging mine for over a year. same tools/frag plugs, everything.

my best advice to people is to go to your local university and they usually sell some sort of disection kit, not sure about medical supply stores. just gota be super careful with the scalpel, as they are very sharp, and thin blades that can easily break and cut you. only other thing about using scalpels on rock, is the blades wear out quick quickly. but at least individual blades are dirt cheap, bout $0.50 here.

 

[RevHtree]

That is an awesome write up! I cant wait to get my frag!

Thanks bro!

 

[MarvinsReef]

awesome read...

Marvin

 

[surfnvb7]

my girlfriend was just reading it, and she yells over to me "hey, this person has fish towels too!!!" :lol:

 

[Azurel]

Great how to, Whodah....

 

[ecotoxlady]

Amazing article WhoDah! It gave some pointers that I've never thought of when fragging

 

[whodah]

thx all - glad ya like it!

surfnvb7 -- my mom doesn't get it... she tells me the fish are just going to get wet again and don't need towels! :lol:

of course my wife... **enforces** the fish towel thing. ha!

 

[Creetin]

I use a chisel and pry up underneath the base just into the rock and peel them off. Never killed andy yet. Prettymuch just like your method, But with a razor sharp 3/4 inch chisel. Cheap one, I wouldent use a 80 dollar chisel on it and have it rust out.
Nice site jeramy! Growing very well!

 

[Reef Junkie]

Creetin, who's Andy?


:lmao:


Great tutorial imo.

 

[tekknoschtev]

I use this technique more often than the whack-a-rock method, simply because as you stated, it reduces the size of the original rock. I tried, so very hard, to put corals in positions that I could have them naturally grow off onto other easily removed rocks - and it worked, but the original colonies had to be placed just so, and well, the tang, foxface, and turbo snail have their own interior decorating techniques that dont jive with mine Most of the time they prefer the "on the floor" look. At any rate, it became necessary to place the corals on the main structure of the rock, and using the scalpel (or in my case, an x-acto or cheap knock off x-acto) has done the trick.

I have noticed, however, that certain rocks are difficult to use this method with. I have some rocks that appear to have been very dense SPS colonies in a past lifetime, and with the nooks and crannies I find that the blade causes more harm than good - in that case, I use it to turn the corner of the flesh up and then use the tweezers to work a piece free.

Great tutorial though - and that animation makes it look so easy (as it is)

 

[Creetin]

Typo, LOL
Tek i do the same proceedure just with a chisel. I dont crack the rock up. I dont like blades after getting one underneath my fingernail. A chisel wont snap and go into you.

 

[tekknoschtev]

I've used the chisel too - well, rather a flat-head screwdriver. I can imagine that there'd be some dislike towards the blades if they've gone after you.

 

[Shultz]

Nice article, I use scalpels as well, might try a chisel actually as snapping blades are a real PITA when you're in the middle of a fragging session!

Add another vote here for fish towels as well

Cheers Shelton.

 

[Reef Junkie]

This should be stickied.