fragging blasto?

[paininthewrasse]

My neighbor has blasto that I LOVE and he said he'd be willing to trade me a frag if I found out how to frag it..

I have heard of the diamond blade on the wet dry saw.. but the thing is there are only 7 polyps.. and it would impossible not to like damage some of them.. so my question is can you just cut it in half and if any polyps get cut will they be ok? Sorry I have never fragged any LPS before.. only zoas shrooms other softies and sps

 

[Snprhed]

You should get plenty of answers here, ( I have never fragged Blastos) but similar LPS you just make a cut, halving a polyp is acceptable they both grow back.

I might be taking this wrong, but it almost sounds like you are trying to use a full size saw to do your cut. I have only seen two types of saw work. The Dremel with the diamond blade, and Jendub uses like a Band saw (which I thought was brilliant)

 

[roverhere]

Is it B. wellsi or B. merletti - makes a difference.

Merletti - break it apart with clippers or use a dremel, polyps are individually on stalks, so it's clean/easy most of the time.

Wellsi - must use sharp blade/dremel or saw. While, yes, cut polyps usually does regrow in most mussids & favias, B. wellsi is much more touchy - it might, but quite possibly won't grow back.

Wellsi's a much slower grower, a fairly "wimpy" coral when it comes to fragging - so use a LOT of care in cutting, try to avoid as much tissue as possible... Do NOT cut fewer than 3-4 polyps, otherwise you've got a better than not chance of the frag dieing - little B. wellsi frags are notoriously poor suvivors. Just my experience, but bigger=better survival.

Have fun! Great corals, these Blastos, among my faves.

 

[firefishbrain]

like stated above, you should take an exacto knife to cut around the polyps, then dremel on the other side of the bare rock to make a clean cut, i've heard that if one was to make a messy cut, the affected coral will develop brown jell and possibly kill the entire colony, just need to be careful. this is for wellsi btw.