Asexual Propogation of Aussie Elegance

laskopyre · Jul 5, 2009

I was wondering if anyone had tried the "crush" method to get a Elegance to clone itself. I was reading on a site that says that if you damage the coralite by the polyp, it will cause the coral to start making a clone with the broken coralite. It says that you can do this every few weeks. Has anyone done this? I guess you don't get a lot of clones, but 1 or 2 a month isn't bad. Here's a pic of my elegance:

Yellowtang · Jul 5, 2009

Have you seen this?

Sustainable Elegance coral

JR,

Azurel · Jul 5, 2009

Great article......I don;tthink I have the Bs to do that though....

seafansar · Jul 5, 2009

Geeze! He just chopped that thing right up! Good luck if you end up trying it yourself!

laskopyre · Jul 5, 2009

I did read that. That's where I got the crush technique thing from. There would be no way I would cut my elegance up. I'd be afraid that I'd kill it. Little break of the coralite is easy to do though. Sounded interesting, and less stressful I think. Wanted to see if anyone had any success doing that.

Yellowtang · Jul 6, 2009

Quite a while ago I read how they would just break the skeleton but not cut the meat and place the coral back in the water with the skeleton slightly apart. Then after a couple days spread the skelton a little farther apart and so on for a few weeks. then the meat would seperate on its own. This sounds a little safer to me but I've never tryed either,

JR,

laskopyre · Jul 7, 2009

I sent an e-mail to the writers of the article referenced above.

It comes from something we see often on corals that have been rolled in holding tanks on rough days or have been knocked during collection. basically all you need is a little bit of loose skeletal material along the out side edge of the coral. gravity will do the rest with a little time. The weight of the corallite slowly stretches down ward and finally gives way. you can glue the resulting small frag to a disc and it will encrust the disc really well, unlike other methods.

How you go about it depends on how confident you feel you can get in with some bone cutters and give a little snip at the edge of the corallite or give it a little bash with something more solid. You do want the breaks to be at the lip so the loose bits hang down. Strong water flow can carry away the bits but usually your elegance should be in a less dynamic area of the aquarium.

Regards
Peter Fullarton
Oceanarium

Sounds pretty easy, and good way to propogate an expensive coral without cutting into frags. You get to keep the show piece. Think I'll give it a shot.

subielover · Jul 7, 2009

Cool,be sure to take some pics so we can see how it goes for you.

sailfish · Jul 7, 2009

I have one that I have cut twice with no problems. It is alot easier then you think it is. I used a demel and a razor blade.

Joe

Sula · Jul 9, 2009

This is something I would very much like to see - when they are talking about damaging an edge, are they referring to the skeleton or the fleshy part of the coral, or both?

rdvab · Jul 9, 2009

Is it all that different from cutting acans?

rdvab · Jul 9, 2009

Or fleshy shrooms for that matter?

laskopyre · Jul 9, 2009

I believe they are talking about the skeleton close to the flesh.

Sula · Jul 9, 2009

Okay lasko - you go first

COReefer · Jul 9, 2009

I myself would like to see pics of this step by step. I have a large elegance that I wouldn't mind fragging but it's kinda intimidating

CTMarinelife · Jul 10, 2009

I will try this on my 12" Purple tip Aussie soon....

Yellowtang · Jul 10, 2009

Pics please when you do it,

JR,

laskopyre · Jul 10, 2009

I'm going to be doing some home repairs this weekend, but I will definately give it a shot next week. I'll take pics to document how it goes.

laskopyre · Aug 1, 2009

I did crack the coralite, but have not seen anything. It's a piece about an 1/2" X 1/2". If it grows a baby I'll take some pics. Just hit it with a small hammer I had. If I see it start to sprout, I'll take some pics.