fragging SPS mother colony result in colony death?

[evolutionZ]

Hey guys, im pretty new to SPS and there was a time i went to a reefer house as he offered to give me some small birdnest frag.

he proceed to take out his mother colony and use his cutter to cut the base of 2 small frag out. he then mentioned that by cutting the mother colony you risk killing the whole colony as they might just STN out of a sudden.

how true is this? its the first time i've heard this.. im planning to frag my turq milli colony to trade with a buddy.

Thanks.

 

[akma]

I personally have never had any issues using bone cutters to frag sps. Sometimes I hit it with a small piece of live rock and it flies off.
That said there's always a possibility of something going wrong, but if your colonies are healthy I wouldn't worry too much.

 

[MammothReefer]

Never heard of that unless something else was already going on. I frag pieces all the time, on purpose and on accident. Actually sometimes I frag my main pieces to open them back up if they grow to dense you can get die off in the middle or underside.

 

[jeffberg]

Just don't get greedy; I have had problems if I tried to frag too many at one time; everything in moderation. JMO Jeff

 

[biggles]

I've chopped up and fragged a great many SPS over time and never seen an adverse reaction from the original colony as described in the original post.

 

[mushroom head]

I have never had an issue and lost a colony..I've even chopped the whole piece up..every frag lived and grew.

 

[franklypre]

There is always a risk, IMO birdsnest is more likely to die when it is not kept trimmed due to flow issues. I'd say he was trying to make you or himself feel more important about fragging it.

 

[evolutionZ]

Thanks for all your replies! really appreciated it. Another question, when i frag a single stalk from a mother colony, the stalk will regrow over time?

 

[franklypre]

It may grow a new stalk, it may grow several new stalks where it was cut depending on the coral. When I frag my stag it usually responds with multiple new stalks rather than a single branch, my prostrata will regrow almost exactly like it was, I've had some that never grow back the growth around them just takes over the space. If you grow SPS long enough you'll be hard pressed not to cut them, sometimes it improves the flow between the branches, thus saving RTN.

 

[evolutionZ]

thanks! just did my first fragging, hopefully i did it right!

 

[Psionicdragon]

The incident usually happens if the mother colony is already super stressed. I had it happen several times.