Dead acropora skeletons

[nkd5024]

I am looking for any dead acropora skeletons anyone may have lying around. I would like to use them to get some of my encrusting montipora to "branch", to make them easier to frag. I have a bunch that are encrusted to the rock that would be almost impossible to frag short of destroying the rock itself.

Am also curious how everyone else frags their encrusting corals once they have encrusted to the live rock?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Nick D.

 

[rickyfins]

Overflows, glass, and eggcrate. Start a second colony and then scrape away or bust the eggcrate for frags.

 

[Just Jim]

I find that after enough time all encrusting montis tend to bubble up in spots. I've always clipped those spots and glued it to the bigger sized frag disks. Once those encrust you have an endless supply.

 

[BowieReefer84]

Bone cutters will break the rock. Won't be a clean cut, but monti's heal pretty quick ime. Once you get a couple frags on disk it's like JustJim said... endless supply.

 

[insanefishguy]

I usually try to chip off bubble or raised piece like said earlier, but I was just at Tony's house and I like his method. He will put a small piece of epoxy putty on the rock next to it to encrust onto, then he can just break that off.

 

[rigleautomotive]

glue some frag plugs on edge on the colony and watch them encrust upwards then snap off in a couple months.just make sure the edge of the plug contacts a active growth area.

 

[nkd5024]

Thanks for the tips guys, I tried to use some bone cutters on a couple plating monti's and I can never get a decent size piece to break off, it is never bigger than 1/2 an inch, which is too small to even give away to someone, haha.

And using cutters on the rock wouldn't be good as I'd have to tear apart my aquascaping, but I do like the cutting off a small bump or raised section and letting that grow out on eggcrate, which is similar to my dead acro skeleton idea although I can just go buy egg crate at lowes or something.

I did happen to get a dremal for christmas which should make things a whole lot easier as well.

Thanks for all your advice guys!

Btw, has anyone every heard of a limeade Montipora Spongode?
Someone gave me a frag of it that he found behind his rocks, It does look like a spongode although its only a few inches tall so I can't truly tell. It is now a nice green base with purple polyps. Just wondering if anyone's heard of it.

I can post pictures if anyones interested.

Nick D.