Well........you asked for it so here it goes........
When I frag my zoo's I pull the colony out of the tank that I want to frag, they are usually on a small rock that is easily taken out of the tank, if its not, I don't frag them. I put them in a bowl of saltwater from the tank, grab a beer, head to the garage and turn on "coast to coast am" lol. (For those of you who listen)
I usually have a plate ready that I will do the actual fragging on, and a few smaller bowls filled with saltwater (depending on how many diff types of zoo's I will be fragging, so I don't get them mixed up)
I will then pull the colony out of the main bowl, and put it on the plate or flat surface that I will be doing the actual fragging on.
I usually have a variety of tools handy, that have been cleaned of dirt and other gunk.
I have a small pair of sharp scissors (from a manicure set), a small pocket screw driver (flathead), needle nose plyers, and a pair of dykes (not those kind, its a tool).
Sometimes you get lucky and will find that once you pull a colony to frag, that there is a piece of the zoanthid mat that is partially attached to the rock (sort of flapping around), in this case you just take your small scissors and cut the "flapping part" off.
Depending on the size of this flap you can cut the whole thing off or you can cut it into small groups of polyps, I usually cut groups of 3 at the smallest, but you can cut 1 at a time, but the survial rate is poor if it is under 3 polyps. (from my experience)
When you cut your frags you want to make sure that you do not cut through the polyp, you should cut between them, on the actual mat, and not through the polyps, this is where the small scissors come in handy, you can actually use the thin blade of the scissors to spread the polyps and get down to the mat.
If you arn't lucky enough to find a flap to cut off, then you'll have to use the pocket screwdriver (flathead). What I usually do is find where the mat ends and the rock begins, I then take the small flathead and stick it into the rock about 2mm from where the zoanthid mat ends. Then in a twisting of the wrist motion, I slowly bore through the rock just under the zoanthid mat, trying not to harm the mat itself, but more to pulvarize the rock underneath it. This will lift the mat from the rock, leaving small bits of rock still attached to the mat. Once you grind away enough rock under the mat you can then take your scissor and cut off the "flap" you have just created. Then cut into appropriate sized frags.
Most rocks are easily pulverised using the "twist of the wrist" pocket screwdriver method, Some rocks are tougher.
For those rocks, instead of pulvurizing the rock into, bassically sand, you will end up with big chunks still attached to the zoanthid mat, the rock will still break at some fault line away from the main rock allowing you to use your small scissors to cut through the mat that is still attached to the main colony.
This still leaves you with a small chunk of rock under the zoanthids, you can leave it this way, if you want, and have a small colony attached to rock and let it grow from there. Most of the time there is not enough room on the remaining rock to allow the colony to multiply and spread so you will have to get rid of the remaining rock.
I use either needle nose plyers, or dykes, depending on the size of the rock still attached, for smaller chunks remaining I use the dykes, for bigger ones I use the needle nose plyers. Usually I go from the needle nose to the dykes as I break off chunks and the rock gets smaller.
Bassically you just take the needle nose, or the dykes and squeeze the rock until it breaks slowly getting closer and closer to the zoanthid mat until you have reached an acceptable amount of rock (for you) that remains attached to the mat (try not to disturb the matt as much as possible, this means less stress for the coral, and a higher survival rate)
Note: sometimes on zoanthids leaving a little amount of rock (about half the size of a marble) attached to the mat, makes for a better looking frag, especially when you glue it to a plug or piece of tile, it gives the frag a more rounded and natural look quicker, rather than leaving less rock and having the zoanthids grow against the flat plug (thus looker flatter and taking longer to "round out")
As far as the smaller bowls of water go, once I have my clippings cut to the right size I then place them in the smaller bowls of saltwater, directly after cutting them, where they will stay until I am ready to mount them (on rock, frag plug, disk, or tile).
When I mount the frags on rock, plug, disk or tile, I use locktite gel super glue, (the regular stuff is to thin and goes all over the place)
I pull the frags out of the small bowl and lightly dry them off with a clean paper towl, making sure to dry the part that the glue will be aplied too thoroughly.
I then take my rock, plug, disk, or tile and make sure that is dry, then apply a small amount of superglue to it (a little goes along way, not to mention that it heats up as it cures, and less heat means less stress on the coral).
Once you have the glue on the object you wish to mount it to, place the piece of coral on the spot of glue (right side up, of course). I usually dip the coral I just glued to the mounting surface, into another bowl of saltwater (a separate one, just for newly glued frags) This helps to cure the superglue and lessens the heat of the curing process (less stress)
I then place the newly glued frags on a dry plate, you could use a new bowl of saltwater to place them into, but thats alot of water, lol, and I let them sit until I am done fragging.
Depending on how many corals I will be fragging and how long it will take for me to finish all of them, I will ocassionally dip my hand into some saltwater and drip some saltwater onto the corals as they wait to go back into the tank, just to keep them hydrated.
I usually spend an hour or two fragging, and the newly fragged corals may be out of the water for about an hour at most, this has never been a problem for me, as long a I keep them hydrated, either by dipping or driping in or with saltwater.
My success rate has been at least 98% and have lost very few zoanthids by using this method, even if I am only fragging one polyp at a time.
Well thats what I do and I hope it helps, if this helps one person if will far outweigh the carpal tunnel I have just recieved, lol
Good Luck fragging.
