Fragging Duncan's Coral

[jeasko]

Know this is not in the right place but this seems to be where people look

Just want a few pointers on fragging a Duncan's coral? Is it as easy as breaking the branch off that you want or is there something I need to be aware of before I plunge head n in and do it?

 

[-Nemo-]

Just be sure to cut where there is no flesh, just the bare calcium structure. Take some coral/bone cutters of suitable size, and it should break fairly easily. If fragged where there is no flesh they do wonderfully.

 

[jeasko]

Thanks nemo thought that was the case but wanted to check before I just went ahead, seems like this might be one of the easier ones to frag!

 

[-Nemo-]

They are totally simple to frag if you have good cutters!

 

[jeasko]

Hmmm cutters now that could be an issue! Is there anything else that will do it!?

 

[-Nemo-]

it's like cutting through rock... So if you dont have coral cutters made for lps, i'd invest in some bone cutters that you should be able to geet from a drugstore, they work well too.

 

[signalman]

I use a Dremmel with good results.As Nemo says only cut through the hard calcium structure and you'll be fine.

 

[jeasko]

Drexel seems a bit drastic lol think I'll be investing in some cutters as by time I cut ththrough it with a Drexel I could have sorted it with cutters, my intention when I do it is to take a branch off cutting at the join where there s no flesh

 

[Donya]

Not to hijack, but approximately how big do duncans have to be before they start showing bare skeleton, and is it actually the case that they all show it eventually regardless of growth pattern?

The reason I ask is I've got one that is flesh all the way down to the frag plug, but it's also growing in a very dense way with 8 heads going on 10 even though the skeleton itself is no more than 2" in any given direction. When I got it, it was flesh all the way down to the frag plug too, so I presume it had been fragged by cutting flesh in addition to skeleton. At the time I thought that was standard, but by now I have also seen many duncan frags done exactly as described here, with visible, bare skeleton attached to the frag plug and flesh only starting a ways up from that. I've read that there are bushy vs. elongate duncan growth patterns, but was never sure whether the bushy form is harder to frag because of not showing skeleton or if they both do eventually.

 

[-Nemo-]

The problem with cutting the flesh, is that they are really prone to infections (such as brown jelly disease) so IMO you are just asking for trouble by cutting any flesh. As per if the flesh will recede, i'm not sure. On mine, which has 30-40 heads, there are sections have distinctly less flesh, but for the most part they are covered up quite well. Mine is of the "bushy" variety.

 

[jeasko]

I'm having to frag mine as my clown has decided to host it and a few heads have decided they want to stay retracted, mine only has about 10-15 heads but there is a branch with 3 heads that is easily fragable (once my cutters get here) the flesh seems to be growing down towards the base but is not there yet hence me taking a frag

 

[jeasko]

Ok took the plunge today and fragged my Duncan's now just hoping it pulls through! Took it out in a tub of tank water ( as in put tub in the tank filled with water and placed Duncan's in it while it was submerged) to minimise stress then gently handled it and man is that one hard mother to break even with cutters! It was returned by taking tub to tank and lifting it out with minimal time out in the open but didn't think it was a good dea to put water back into tank!

Just sitting back with fingers crossed! Seriously thinking on something to create surge in tank to minimise detritus build up in low flow areas and to help stop things getting infected!

 

[-Nemo-]

Would use a coral dip if you're worried about it

 

[jeasko]

Been worried about the main colony for a while as a few heads seem to have perished but the frag I took off fingers crossed seems ok the main colony was getting the tips all ballooned out and some were only open on one side etc, under full lights you can't see anything like the dreaded brown jelly but under actinics or just in daylight while
Lights off you can see a light brown film in places so hopefully my 4 heads will survive if nothing else does!

The brown film is not on the frag just to clarify