Our club recently put on a frag workshop at our Reef Fest event and fragged a very large table acropora, which we usually do not do acropora because of cost and availability. We bagged all of our frags as participants completed mounting and they did fine - including the frags that I personally brought home. However, any frag that was placed in the same 10 gallon tank with the Acropora - that was slimming during the event perished withing about an hour. The Acropora itself, what was left after fragging, bleached. We are pushing hard in Arkansas to get up to speed on the propagation of sps and reefers here look to Razorback Reef for the knowledge to do it, so I was a little embarrassed at the outcome of the mother colony and at the same time glade that all of the frags did well. What should we have done to prevent this from happening?
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Razorback Reef - Frag Workshop Problem
- Thread starter Schiller Street Reef
- Start date
Without knowing the size and which pieces were cut (geometry of the cuts, and how many) and what you used for cutting and how long it was exposed an handled, it is a bit hard to say.
That the frags of other corals have died, indicate that the mother colony and its frags were so stressed that they slimmed so much, that the water became toxic to any other species. Is it possible that you have handled the mother colony during the cuts for too long or several people taking turns? If the mother colony was fully hardened and encrusted tabletop, so that you needed powertools, it could have been be handled too roughly. If it was really heavy, or inconvenient to handle so that a lot of pressure has been applied, its delicate coralites could have been damaged and the surrounding tissue as well.
Another possibility is that, with so many frags taken, there was an increased opportunity and probability of bacterial or viral infection of the tissue at each of the cuts made. Have you dipped the frags and mother colony in the Iodine afterwards?
Hopefully, you frags will survive, so that loss will not be in vain.
That the frags of other corals have died, indicate that the mother colony and its frags were so stressed that they slimmed so much, that the water became toxic to any other species. Is it possible that you have handled the mother colony during the cuts for too long or several people taking turns? If the mother colony was fully hardened and encrusted tabletop, so that you needed powertools, it could have been be handled too roughly. If it was really heavy, or inconvenient to handle so that a lot of pressure has been applied, its delicate coralites could have been damaged and the surrounding tissue as well.
Another possibility is that, with so many frags taken, there was an increased opportunity and probability of bacterial or viral infection of the tissue at each of the cuts made. Have you dipped the frags and mother colony in the Iodine afterwards?
Hopefully, you frags will survive, so that loss will not be in vain.
i think maybe the 10g setup suffocated the acros and its frags.. but without seeing it, would be tough.. i think all the slime and toxins giving off would be another issue... whenever we do our fragging, we always throw out the water the corals came in and fragged in and send them home in fresh water from their homes...
Putting fresh cut frags in a small container of water without filtration usually is fatal to the frags. I got a piece of plate coral from one of Calfo's demonstrations and by the time I got home it was dead, so don't feel bad.
When Hillier did his fragging demos at my house the fresh cut frags went into my tank for the rest of the meeting and were then pulled out and bagged for transport at the end.
Fragging is not an exact science and a lot of people lose entire colonies after trying to take a frag. Even when they have successfully fragged the colony many times before.
When Hillier did his fragging demos at my house the fresh cut frags went into my tank for the rest of the meeting and were then pulled out and bagged for transport at the end.
Fragging is not an exact science and a lot of people lose entire colonies after trying to take a frag. Even when they have successfully fragged the colony many times before.