Fragging Rastas / "deepwater" zoos

[clockwurk]

Anyone here have experience fragging these guys?

I'm assuming its like any other zoa, but I have heard some zoos, like this one in particular, have a high rate of melting when fragged. I believe they are the "deepwater" variety.

In the past, my zoa fragging process has been
1: cut as cleanly as possible using an exacto knife
2: super glue to a rock
3: dip in coral rx
4: rinse and out back in the tank

Any advice would be helpful, before I put this one under the knife. Thx.

 

[terrypercula]

I've never lost a zoa yet but that's the process. I usually wait until there's a decent sized colony first that way there's a nice mat to cut from. I feel a lot of times people lose zoa/palys because they frag them too quickly.

 

[DerekFF]

Rastas are not melters. They'll be fine. And +1 to cutting colonies to soon. It's traumatic to small colonies and can stunt/ stop their growth for months

 

[clockwurk]

I was fortunate to run into a colony, atleast 150 polyps. So it's definately big enough. I'm just a little hesitant because of the posts I've read in the past. I also noticed that the polyps are much more tightly packed together than other zoas. But I'll give it shot and see how it goes.

 

[A. Grandis]

Try to frag minimum 10 polyps for a less percentage of melting/infections.

Don't forget to use protection while fragging (gloves, goggles, glasses) against any palytoxin.

Good luck!

Grandis.

 

[clockwurk]

Will do. Thank you all. I'll report back in a couple of days...

 

[aandfsoccr04]

I grew my 5 polyp colony to over 50 polyps in 6-8 months. I then fragged it 5-10 polyps at a time and made like four frags. It did fine.

I just pulled it out and put it in some saltwater. Made the cuts with a sharp exacto knife and then glued the frag to a plug and put the colony back into the tank. Been a month and a half since I fragged it and no ill effects. Hope that helps

 

[ToddBell]

That's a lot of growth in a short amount of time. I have never lost a polyp that has been fragged before either.