Flighty
Premium Member
I looked at it this way: Yes, there is risk to cutting any anemone, but there is also risk just keeping any anemone alive. I have seen too many excellent reefkeepers over the years have unexpected disasters. Things from long term power outages, cracked tanks, accidental contaminants in a tank system... it goes on and on. We all know it happens to the best of us even high profile reefers and leaders in the field.
I believe that cutting a healthy, established magnifica carries a yet unknown amount of risk, but the potential benefit is huge.
Imagine having that tank disaster and losing your prize anemone, but then being able to ask that friend that you gave a clone to to return the favor. Even just knowing that there are clones out there would be peace of mind to me.
I have been there done that with losing a prized showpiece magnifica. I had a purple based one that I had grown from 6" to over 2' over a couple of years. I also had fragged an orange based one (that was a clone from a friend) three times, but lost the purple and every one of the oranges with a rapidly spreading infection from a new magnifica that I didn't QT.
That hurt. I almost left the hobby over that. I didn't even clean my tank glass for 3 months. I just couldn't look at the empty spots in the tank.
I would LOVE to have a clone of that beautiful purple one and if I had fragged and shared I might have one right now. I just hadn't wanted to risk losing it and wanted to see how several generations of the orange clones did first.
If fragging these guys is (as I suspect) almost as risk free as fragging BTAs then it will be safer in my mind to frag than it is to not frag. Only by people like us who have good understanding of anemone health and care trying it out will we know if fragging is the answer.
I see this fuscia magnifica as nearly irreplaceable, so I'm working to make it replaceable.
( off the soapbox
mighty high falutin' words when all I did was chop an anemone in half 
)
I believe that cutting a healthy, established magnifica carries a yet unknown amount of risk, but the potential benefit is huge.
Imagine having that tank disaster and losing your prize anemone, but then being able to ask that friend that you gave a clone to to return the favor. Even just knowing that there are clones out there would be peace of mind to me.
I have been there done that with losing a prized showpiece magnifica. I had a purple based one that I had grown from 6" to over 2' over a couple of years. I also had fragged an orange based one (that was a clone from a friend) three times, but lost the purple and every one of the oranges with a rapidly spreading infection from a new magnifica that I didn't QT.
That hurt. I almost left the hobby over that. I didn't even clean my tank glass for 3 months. I just couldn't look at the empty spots in the tank.
I would LOVE to have a clone of that beautiful purple one and if I had fragged and shared I might have one right now. I just hadn't wanted to risk losing it and wanted to see how several generations of the orange clones did first.
If fragging these guys is (as I suspect) almost as risk free as fragging BTAs then it will be safer in my mind to frag than it is to not frag. Only by people like us who have good understanding of anemone health and care trying it out will we know if fragging is the answer.
I see this fuscia magnifica as nearly irreplaceable, so I'm working to make it replaceable.
( off the soapbox
mighty high falutin' words when all I did was chop an anemone in half )
climb down the glass and hang sideways. They also have a very wide area with no tentacles around the mouth. These things could be caused by the high amount of feedings they get, but not climbing towards the light happens even when I'm slacking on feeding.
:wavehand: I'd love to participate in your experiment. Anyway... super guts'y move, I applaud you. We would never get anywhere in the hobby if people were to scared to take risks.
