mounting frags on their side?

[bored4long]

Was I the only one going through major withdrawals yesterday while RC was down?

To quench my thirst for all things fishy I started reading some back issues of Advanced Aquarists.

March '06 issue has an article on the 'Fragging phenomenom'. The author, Mike Paletta, says he mounts his frags on their side for optimal recovery and growth.

I conducted an experiment where I mounted three fragments from the same mother colony differently. One was mounted in the traditional manner, one was mounted lying on its side as I had observed to occur naturally, and one was mounted with the growth tip down, as the growth tip is where the most rapid growth is occurring in the colony. After one month and two months the differences in growth was significantly different. The colony that had been mounted in the traditional way had encrusted around its base as was normally the case. However the fragment mounted on its side encrusted along the entire fragment, producing a much larger area from which to grow. The fragment ant mounted growth tip down had encrusted very little. As a result of this experiment, I now mount all fragments so that most of the fragment is touching the substrate with only the portion of the fragment that was broken off not touching the substrate.

I didn't hear this mentioned at the fragging demo during the last meeting so I was surprised by this method. Anyone else do this? Anyone disagree with this?

Here is a link to the article.

 

[dots]

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1189398

Follow the link to the thread and watch the video, you question is answered at the end.

I didn't read you article yet, but yes it is true, what happens is when SPS grow they establish a base and then shoot out axial coralites.

Because there is more surface area, more tissue in contact, the base spreads faster. The once radial coralites, now become main axial branches and you get multiple stalks growing instead of just one. In case of RTN or fragging, the multiple stalks increase your harvest potential.

Downside, they puddle a base first and you have "melted" corals forever.

I got a half inch piece of Pink Lemonade about 8 or so months ago......I mounted it on the side and it has puddled out to a 2 inch square aprox and is beginning to shoot up 10+ axial corralites which will form 10 different stalks. Up until know, it hasn't been anything to look at though....

I broke off a couple pieces of my 20K Lokani frag yesterday and did the same thing to increase my odds of success.

SPS rarely produce sexually, rather by storm damage....this is elaborated in the video.

 

[bored4long]

Thanks, I'll check out the vid.

 

[juaninsac]

I definitely support doing this. Another upside is that the frag is typically more stable in a horizontal position. This means you don't have to handle it as much to get it to sit properly before the glue/epoxy sets. The less touching and handling you can do the better.

 

[Fragmented]

I always mount SPS on the side. You can even split them and lay the cut sides of the split down to increase surface area further.

 

[funman1]

Justin clued me into this, it's a great way to do frags, and I always like the frags from him like this