First fragging!

[lcs]

I decided to be brave today and remove three of my blue ricordia that were on a rock and frag the six mouth one I have. I was reluctant to cut the six mouth one because it looks so cool, but I figured what the heck!

I think it went OK. I tried to cut the foot as close to the rock as I could. It wasn't easy because they, especially the large one, were in crevices. They sure slimed a lot. At least I hope it was slime and not guts!

I had purchased a plastic craft box from Walmart with seven sections. I wanted something shallow with just enough room for each ric. I only had a couple small pieces of rubble for them to attach to, so I bought some regular aquarium gravel to try as well.

I had seen a video on YouTube where they used a toothpick to get the ric off the rock after cutting so I used that to help gently pull the ric up while I made small cuts with an exacto knife. As I went along I would rinse it in fresh saltwater to hopefully remove some of the slime. The large, six mouth one was tough to remove so I had to do a combination of running the toothpick under/through the foot and using the knife. I hope I didn't beat it up too much. When I got the six-mouth off I cut it into three pieces - two mouths each. It wasn't easy to see them because it had retracted so much - it was easily a third of it's normal size.

I put them in my QT while they heal. Any ideas how long I can expect that to take?


Pictures of course!

Ric one:

Ric two:

Six mouth in the tank:

Six mouth ric:

Divided container:

Three frags -

Frags in the container:

 

[Jacwil]

Way to go!!!! I have a cpl Rics that are big enough to frag, I've just been hesitant on doing so...more like waiting for them to drop babies. Now after seeing this I may just go for it. Be sure to let us know how they do in the next few weeks!

 

[lcs]

Way to go!!!! I have a cpl Rics that are big enough to frag

Thanks!! I had an unfair advantage with the one with the multiple mouth though. I didn't try it with one with only one mouth. This was a really good introduction for me. Keep your fingers crossed!

 

[lcs]

It's now been a week. I moved one of the frags to a section of the tray with gravel as it wasn't attaching to the rock.

One of the rics that was removed from the LR attached to a piece of gravel a couple days ago. The frags haven't attached yet and they don't look great, but at least they're not dead yet!

For the last few days I've had them under PC lights for 10hr/day.

The salinity in the QT tank is low, around 1.022. I'm going to slowly bring that up and see if that helps the others attach.

 

[lcs]

It's been just over three weeks now and they are doing OK. The two that were removed from the rock and not fragged have attached and are expanding every day - not as big as before and they aren't as colorful as when they were in the DT, but I'm hoping that will change once they settle in a new tank. The frags are still alive, but not doing as well. Only one of the three has attached and it's really pale, but it looks a little better every day. The other two still haven't attached and spend most of the time curled up, but their color actually looks better than the other. I'm going to mess around with them later today and see if I can find a way to get the others to attach.

It was actually a pretty easy process. Probably the worst thing I did was to put them, unacclimated, into my quarentine tank and not back into the DT in water their used to. I would imagine that that stress would slow down the healing/settling process. I just didn't have room for the container in the display.

 

[5h3rW1N]

brilliant idea with the box. looks like a tackle box container lol

 

[lcs]

brilliant idea with the box. looks like a tackle box container

Heh, thanks! It's a craft storage box I picked up at Walmart.

Still doing OK. I think it's time to move the attached ones to their final homes. I haven't been real good about keeping a regular photocycle and I think they need room to spread out a bit.

 

[rck]

Thats a great idea to house them in that container... I always hated it when I frag and they wouldnt stick and find them floating or worse in the pump.