Acan Placement and propagation

aviationreef · Sep 11, 2015

I recently got an acan, about 2 weeks ago. after attempting to keep it on the sand bed, well... profile pic related. I Put him up on a rock and he is doing amazing. Now i want to be able to frag him in the future. It has around 12 heads now and i want it to grow out and frag it in the future without getting a band saw or cutting up my rocks. Anyone have any idea how to keep this coral off the sand bed and frag it easily.

Here is an attached picture of it on the sand, before i finally moved it up to a rock, it did well in the new location but the goby still constantly covered it in a light amount of sand and my first was to keep the coral safe.

steve&mari · Sep 11, 2015

Place tiles under it to grow onto.

aviationreef · Sep 11, 2015

What types of tiles? And if they are a special coral type where do i get them?

steve&mari · Sep 11, 2015

Do a Google search coral frag tiles but alternative reef here has them and is a sponsor of R2R.

aviationreef · Sep 11, 2015

The size seems pretty small for my acan, how would you mount that on there? or do you mean to use multiple frag tiles so i can split them later?

jasonandsarah · Sep 11, 2015

Put it on a nice sized rock that's not attached to your rock work. Then when it's time to frag it you can just pull the whole rock out.
Fragging lps can be tricky without a saw but many people do it. I've been fragging for some time and normally try to sell my Lps as colonies because I just hate most fragging Lps. There's a lot of people that use a Dremel W/diamond coated cutting wheel. But you'll have to get advice from them [emoji4]

Shep · Sep 11, 2015

Yea I would be cautious of trying to frag an acan with out a saw. While it can be done, it is going to take a lot longer and cause a much higher level of stress in the coral.

cmanning317 · Sep 11, 2015

I take 2 cups of water from tank add iodide to it ...cut with my dremel...let the cut pieces rest in water for 10 min..then put back in tank....you can glue new frags to tile b4 returning to tank so they grow out on flat surface...makes it easier next time

aviationreef · Sep 13, 2015

Cmanning do you cut it off a rock or do u have it on tiles?

Hawain_Rob · Sep 13, 2015

When I bought my first acan it had one head,now I see several small heads growing around what seems to be skeleton from the colony it was fraged from. Do acan not grow more skeleton/bone or what ever it's called to where more heads grow or do I need to provide a surface to where the the soft head grows in to then produces it's own skeletal/bone structure it grows on to..? I ask cause my acan is on the sand and seems as it has so many heads that it doesn't fit anymore.

cmanning317 · Sep 13, 2015

I use both rocks and tiles ...h rob...they do produce new skeleton...but if they dont have room.to spread out on new rock ir tile they colonize there old dead skeleton and turn into.a round colony with nowhere to grow antmore but underneath itself