How do you frag zoo's off liverock?

[preculafreak06]

I have other corals on the rock and I want to get them off.Thanks in advance!!!!John

 

[chrisstie]

Is it a rock you can take out of your tank? If so a hammer and a chisel or even a flathead screwdriver can remove the zoo portion.

If it isn't so easy sometimes you can use the backside of a razor blade to sort of get under the polyp's matting and gently lift them off.. its a little tricky though

 

[preculafreak06]

OK.thanks.

 

[preculafreak06]

It is a rock I can take out of my tank.

 

[chrisstie]

Hmm if you can take it out of your tank what I do is put down a towel or something that can get gunk on it, put on some gloves and my glasses (be careful zoos can squirt nasty stuff at your eyes nose, mouth, and get in cuts and it isn't fun to be exposed)

Before taking the rock out I get everything i need - hammer, chisel, sometimes a container with some tank water to put the frags in if I am making a few

then to keep the rock as wet as long as possible i take it out last, break it up where i need to and try to get it back into the tank as soon as i can.

If i'm doing mushrooms or things that get slimey i try to give it a rinse of tank water while holding it over a container before it goes back in so the chemicals in the slime\what not don't go into the tank and bother my other corals


Hope this helps

 

[preculafreak06]

I'm a newbie at this but i'm gonna do mine with a flathead and do I hit it hard threw the rock or do I hit the bottom of the coral?

 

[chrisstie]

If the zoos are separate from the other corals and there's like, a little area of rock you could chisel off with the zoos still stuck to it? That's what I aim to do. I wont be hitting the coral or disturbing their mat

When you put a flathead down make sure the rock is stable and tap the top of it with the hammer.. it might take a wack or two but the rock can be surprisingly easy to break.

If its a very thick piece sometimes I will make a few holes that go through and through in a perimeter and eventually after making enough the rock breaks along those lines

 

[preculafreak06]

There seperate on the rock from the other's but there on the same rock.Should I be fine or will it disturb my other corals?

 

[preculafreak06]

Forgot to say will it affect the other corals on the rock?

 

[chrisstie]

Do you know what kind of corals are on the rock? In most cases being out of the water 5 or 10 minutes shouldn't hurt. Sometimes I use an eye dropper to run tank water over them if I hit a snag and need to keep it out for a few extra minutes

 

[preculafreak06]

There's one ricordia and pulsing xenia.

 

[Don Lino]

I would cut around the zoas I want to frag with a brand new razor blade, then scrape the frag up from the base of the zoas as close to the rock as I can get and glue that frag onto a rock rubble. That has been the best way for me. Good Luck..

 

[chrisstie]

Oh pfft they should be fine .. just chisel the colony of zoos off - depending on the angle you use on the screwdriver you can get a shallower frag of rock or a deeper one if its thicker.. Its surprisingly brittle compared to what you'd think a rock would be like.

The first time I did it I was freaking out like "omg i spent money on these corals and now im going to try to not kill them but I want to frag them AHHHHH"

if it helps RC has a great propagation forum and the zoo forum may have some info as well if you need any more tips or tricks or some more experienced fraggers locally can share their info here too

Also if for some reason you want to break the zoos up into more than 1 frag or if the rock splits down the middle on them you should be able to take some sharp scissors and just snip the mat where the polyps aren't.. they heal really fast and well.. Just avoid cutting into the polyp itself

 

[cschweitzer]

By the way, corals can be out of water easily up to and above an hour with very minimal issues...just don't leave them by a heavy air movement area, like in front of a fan. They will create a mucus that keeps them very moist and able to breate fine out of water. Some people(including Eric Borneman) feel it is better to leave a coral out of water for an hour rather than leave it in a bucket with a little water for an hour. It creates less chance of suffocation(using up all usable O2 from the water occurs quickly, where this will not occur out of water. This is also why Eric Borneman prefers, the damp towel method of shipping over putting it in a bag fully submerged with a limited quantity of air. I have attempted moist towel shipping before and it had very good success(opened during acclimation). If you're worried, do what Christie said and just run some water over it...zoos are very resilient.

 

[hexedagain]

Or, you little knucklehead, you could have me do it for you, and show you both ways. Hammer and chisel, and peeling the zoas off themselves.

 

[preculafreak06]

Well if I had a ride I would.hexed.