pagoda cup coral cutting

[Ron Reefman]

I just bought a 12" diameter pagoda cup and want to cut it down to smaller frags. It has a rather thick skeleton underneath and I was thinking I'd just take a 2.5" diamond bit hole saw and cut out circles from the underside. Will this work? I assume the edges will heal over and it will continue to grow. Does this sound reasonable? Does anybody have any better ideas or advise?

Thanks,
Ron

 

[Ron Reefman]

anybody?

 

[jeff@zina.com]

Interesting. Should work, though a Dremel with a tile bit might've a better option.

Jeff


Text mangled by iPhone spell check...

 

[Ron Reefman]

Hi Jeff,
I have a Dermel but since these are usually round colonies I figured I'd use the hole saw and then try mounting the little triangle frags and see how they grow out as well. Nice size round colonies for those that want to get a pretty colony at a reasonable price and smaller frags for those that want to start with cheap frags. Oh, and I end up with a 5-7" center section of the original colony for my DT.

 

[AquaticFins]

Interesting thought...it seems like it should work out just fine.

Watch out for infection as you've obviously got a cut edge all around the coral instead of just on a couple sides. I'm frankly not sure if the holesaw will cause more tissue damage than a sawblade. Let us know how it works out for you!

I always cut pie-shaped slices on a bandsaw. I agree that you'd create more attractive mini-colonies this way if the coral tolerates it well.

 

[sbabs]

Interesting thought...it seems like it should work out just fine.

Watch out for infection as you've obviously got a cut edge all around the coral instead of just on a couple sides. I'm frankly not sure if the holesaw will cause more tissue damage than a sawblade. Let us know how it works out for you!

I always cut pie-shaped slices on a bandsaw. I agree that you'd create more attractive mini-colonies this way if the coral tolerates it well.

I agree. You are not leaving any surface area, you are asking that coral to heal on all sides. I would not do that. Does not sound like a viable way to frag.

 

[kingfisher62]

I have two pagodas so I will be following this thread.

I have often thought of cutting a 3 inch circle out of my 6 inch pagoda so I would have a pagoda ring. That would be cool. Can't bring myself to trying it though!

 

[Ron Reefman]

I have two pagodas so I will be following this thread.

I have often thought of cutting a 3 inch circle out of my 6 inch pagoda so I would have a pagoda ring. That would be cool. Can't bring myself to trying it though!

Ha, that's a very intersting idea! A pagoda ring.

Well, I've cut 4 circles out of one side of my pagoda. The parent colony seems to be doing OK. The 2.25" frags are in my frag tank for now. The tissue damage was a little worse than I have had in other frag cuttings. There was a fair amount of slime and some tissue tearing along the edges on the frags. So now I'll sit back and see how they do. I'll try getting some pics to post up, that way I'll have something to compare to a month, 3 months, 6 months down the road.

 

[crailtap25]

Hey ron, how did the frags turn out? Glad you saved it from Chris's tank, lol

 

[Ron Reefman]

I've cut 4 circles (2"+ in daimeter) off one side of the colony. One of the disks is doing great and is already growing over the cut edge. The other 3 are doing OK. They are holding their own with live tissue at or very near the edge and a couple appear to have some growth starting to grow over the edge. The original colony is doing fine. The cut edges pulled back a little (1/4") from the edge of the cut and there is some growth back to the edge. I'm not cutting anymore until I'm sure all 4 circles recover. If I had to guess, I'd say they will all make it if given some time. Then I will cut up the rest. I should be able to get 5 or 6 more circles and still have a 5-6" diameter original colony.

 

[Tradewinds]

I know it's been several years, but how did the frags work out? Do you still frag them in this manner?