Zao fragging question

[cheesebagger]

I got a colony of green zao's a few months ago and now they've over grown the plug they came on, so I thought I'd try fragging them. This will be my frist attempt at fragging any coral, but the videos I watched seemed fairly simple and straight forward. My question is, is it necessary to glue the fragged heads to a plug or can they be placed in holes in my rock? I have a pretty neat piece of rock that's fairly bare, just has one shroom on it, we'd like to see it covered in zao's eventually so I was hoping that method would work out?

 

[Perched Urchin]

You can definitely attach them directly to your rock, but you will need to glue them. If they aren't glued, they will blow/float away in the current. Frag as large a mat of polyps as you can and make clean cuts between the fragged polyps and the mother colony, it will help with survival.
And, of course, make sure you take appropriate precautions to protect yourself when fragging zoas - at a minimum some gloves.

 

[Joshporksandwic]

Once you frag also dip them in an iodine bath to prevent infection.

 

[SurfCastinRI]

Make sure you read up on Palytoxins as well.

 

[A. Grandis]

I wouldn't frag the colony if it's not growing in a normal rate.
That would be more detrimental than would do some benefit to the colony's metabolism.

Few months would be normal for new arrivals to adapt to the system and begin to grow.
Could be that they are just adapting to your system. Take your time...

Wait until the polyps are out of the plug, so you are able to frag them at least 6 to 10 polyps at a time. That will increase the chances to have healthy colonies coming out of the frags.

You can place the plug on the rock and wait until they overgrow the rock, out of the plug. That way you just cut them and remove the plug.

Bottom line: most of the slow growing species are not growing any faster just because you fragged them out... Some times they could actually die because of bacterial infection, if they are already weak.

Grandis.