Fragging large LPS colonies... Need ideas.

[mccorry]

Hi everyone.

I've got two fairly large LPS colonies in my 125 reef tank. They're both getting to the point where they're almost too big. I've been thinking about starting to frag them. 1 is a multicolored frog spawn and the other is a neon green trumpet coral. I guess they both have over 70 heads, if not more. I put my hand in the photos for reference.

My question is, what would be the best way to frag these? They are too big to take out of the water without risk of them breaking under their own weight. Just looking for some guidance before I do something that go seriously wrong.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Mark9]

I cut my trumpet into 3 using bone cutters.
Had the wife hold it upside down with just the heads underwater.
Needed that 3rd hand.

 

[organism]

If they're going to frag themselves under their own weight if you take them out of the water wouldn't that kind of kill two birds with one stone? I use manicure shears from the drugstore on my branching hammers and it works pretty well.

 

[Marcoss]

I agree. Bone cutters are the way to go. The only reason you'd need wet saw would be to frag small pieces with flat bottoms. So you can glue them to plugs. I do that with my colonies since I sell the frags. I haven't had any issues with loss when I cut as far away from the head as I could.

 

[Portercowboy]

Definitely bone cutters. Easy to frag them in tank.