Ever lose a frag?

[crabbejoe]

I had this nice litte frag of tiny zoas with orange centers and I lost them! I had glued them to a rock, but the glue broke off and the zoas are now somewhere down in the inner depths of my rock pile, alone and cold with the bristle worms and god knows what other creatures!
I'm not going to tear everything apart to get them. But I just had to vent. Here's the only picture I ever took of them.

 

[Fishcrazy06]

It may not be a lost cause yet. I had a couple of frags do the same thing only to reappear towards the front of the tank via water movement or fish not sure which one. Also had a mushroom do the same thing except it would stretch way out to get to the light. I know how it feels though thats for sure.

Eric

 

[crabbejoe]

That would be cool. I'll have to keep my eyes peeled. Or teach my hermit crab to fetch!

 

[BryanJ]

Epoxy is your friend! Especially after the third time one falls into the middle of a large pile of rock. $7 saves alot of headaches.:sad1:

 

[PrisonCityReef]

Hope they turn up!

 

[Limpit]

I have read similar posts by others about Zoa breaking free from glue that's why I try and shave off a small amount of rock along with the Zoa when I frag. Its kind of a pain and if you do it several times you start to lose rock size but its better than loosing the frag.

I also have had good luck with the migration method of propagating Zoa. Takes longer but has also worked well for me.

 

[MrSquid]

One of the zoas I picked up at the MARS swap had a tiny little lose frag in the bag with 2 polyps on it. I epoxied them on their own, but about 2 weeks ago noticed they'd come out of the epoxy. About a week ago I saw them blowing around in the tank but couldn't catch them.

You're not alone!

 

[Limpit]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11939036#post11939036 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by MrSquid
One of the zoas I picked up at the MARS swap had a tiny little lose frag in the bag with 2 polyps on it. I epoxied them on their own, but about 2 weeks ago noticed they'd come out of the epoxy. About a week ago I saw them blowing around in the tank but couldn't catch them.

You're not alone!

Happens a lot with stuff from swaps, no chance for the frag to attach on its own to the mount.
The old "cut, glue and sell" routine.
I try to keep newly attached (by glue or epoxy) in a lower flow area. I feel it gives you a better chance of attaching on its own. I don't do that with SPS though, more flow without blasting a new frag is better for SPS IMO.

 

[crabbejoe]

I used super glue gel. Seems to work really good at first, but I've had a few other ones fall off. Are you guys talking about epoxy putty, or epoxy glue?

 

[MrSquid]

putty for me

 

[FEEDERFISH]

I use the fishing line trick, its take a little time to tie the frag on but there is no way its coming off and nothing gets burned by the epoxy or glue

 

[siropa]

I lost some zoas when I moved my corals over to my 275. it was a small frag I got at the last DFS swap that hadn't grown much. I wonder if i'll see them some day or if they just got buried in the sand.

 

[lostdragon]

i like the method of keeping a little rock with the frag.i also tryed the creep method with some ceramic dounuts,worked good just don't like cutting the dounuts after words (to hard).but i did get a few free floaters from spike when he worked in appleton.he told me just push them in a crack or hole in the rock. well they stuck after the second time putting them in the hole.now i have three colonies (50 + polps) from those four or five polps.

 

[BryanJ]

I use the putty as well

 

[bwoody62]

I use super glue, another method that seems to work well is fine mesh and a rubber band. Just wrap the mesh around the Zoo's to a rock for about a week and the Zoo's will have started to grow onto the rock! Works pretty slick.

 

[crabbejoe]

For putty, do you use the stuff from Home Depot or a store like that, or do you buy stuff specifically for frags. LIke the stuff from Fosters and Smith?

 

[BryanJ]

I buy from F&S

 

[siropa]

i've had great luck with putty from home depot. aquamend is the brand. but it is hit and miss for some people, though I swear that is user error