Fragging chalice in tank??

[ReeferMaddness843]

Soooooo, I procrastinated and procrastinated on trimming back my Hollywood stunner chalice. It's a beast. It has now encrusted my back wall and the overflow, as well as a colony of zoas beginning to grow into its rock from another rock. I'd prefer cutting with diamond bit dremel, however I can't remove the rock without destroying the colony. I know it's a hardy coral, but, would I risk total destruction of I were to just reach in and snap off the lower portion I want to trim? I know it probably won't snap clean, however I could get multiple frags off the portion I want to remove to trade in.
Here's a pic of my predicament. The lower lip portion is what I'd like to remove. Safe to do in tank?

 

[stevo01]

There is a guy at a LFS that does exactly that. Reaches in and break customers off a chunk. It's not stunner but it's very thin.

 

[ReeferMaddness843]

Awesome to hear. Would it be a greater or lesser risk of infection, or does it not make a difference?

 

[ReeferMaddness843]

Thank you for your input!!!

 

[truffle22]

Yes reach in a brake that baby off. If the wild that's how the multiply. A big wave comes or a fish or turtle knocks into a coral and snaps the piece off and the piece floats away and grows somewhere else. If nature does it then I'd say u can do it to. That's how I frag all my stuff is I stick my have in there for thing and accidentally break a piece of coral off then just super glue it on a plug and call it a frag.

 

[truffle22]

The only benefit I can see of taking it out and freaking outside of the water is cleaner cut means quicker recovery

 

[ReeferMaddness843]

Here's when I hacked it up on first getting it. That was a couple months ago. Got infected so had to cut some off. Grows like a weed so slower recovery wouldn't be a top priority for me. A blessing in disguise actually. Lol

 

[truffle22]

Beautiful piece. Maybe I've just gotten lucky and never had an infection or any coral disease. I keep my stunner as low as I can so it won't grow to fast. Have u ever noticed it having a harsh sting. Everyone says stoners are aggressive but mine seem pretty layed back. One of my gorgonians has been swaying back and forth and it ever so slightly tickles the top of my stunner and it does that probably five times a minute. To me id be annoyed and sting the hell out of the gorgonian. But all still is happy. Let us know how u end up fraging ur stunner. Happy Reefing.

 

[truffle22]

Maybe try Fragging it one day after a water change cleaner water should mean less chance of infection. I think

 

[ReeferMaddness843]

The deed is done. . . 8 frags out of it.
Thanks for all words of encouragement and advice! Immediate water change done after. (7 in pic, 8th is on rockwork to start another mini colony)

 

[ReeferMaddness843]

Stingers started out crazy long when introduced, but seem to have died back a bit over time. Was in bottom and low flow hit started getting a monti so I moved up. Love the piece, just grows like a weed. Lol

 

[ReeferMaddness843]

Beautiful piece. Maybe I've just gotten lucky and never had an infection or any coral disease. I keep my stunner as low as I can so it won't grow to fast. Have u ever noticed it having a harsh sting. Everyone says stoners are aggressive but mine seem pretty layed back. One of my gorgonians has been swaying back and forth and it ever so slightly tickles the top of my stunner and it does that probably five times a minute. To me id be annoyed and sting the hell out of the gorgonian. But all still is happy. Let us know how u end up fraging ur stunner. Happy Reefing.

So far so good on infections in my tank as well. Only had brown jelly once from a newly introduced frag that I believe took some damage on my transit home. Also had this original colony start to show signs and deteriorate a bit when brought home. It was handled pretty roughly when it was removed from sellers tank and not secured in a 5 gal bucket for ride home. So again, transit damage. But as a whole, really happy with my Reefing experience this far.

In long term, I'd really like to see this piece encrust the full back wall. Little ways away from that though. Ha.
One of my favorite pieces, just gonna have to keep it in check. Almost moved all frags and colonies to right and just let it go crazy, but, that's a lot of real estate for other stuff. Lol

 

[ReeferMaddness843]

That original pic after some healing was early-mid May I believe.

 

[truffle22]

Awesome looks good id glue them to a frag but that's just so they don't blow away in the current.

 

[ReeferMaddness843]

It snotted everywhere. I mean everywhere. Gonna let it settle a bit and glue as I can. See the empty plug? I tried. Lol. The other 2 plugs are just kinda props as well at this point. Haha.

 

[Thor2j]

Just got a piece of Hollywood stunner from wwc. What's the best place to put this, flow, and lighting.

Would like for it somehow to grow on bottom.

 

[ReeferMaddness843]

It grows on bottom, it grows on top, it probably would grow outside the tank. Lol!! But for real, I have mine in too 1/3 tank pretty decent flow (maxspect gyre 150 @60-70%) in decent light (dual kessil 160w with 4xhot5). Ive had it in Sandbed on same rock and moved it up to slow growth, not the case. Ha.

 

[ReeferMaddness843]

Just make sure to place a good distance from anything else. It has long sweepers (mine calmed down a bit). But when I placed in tank first it was a furious beast out to destroy. Never got to anything as I was aware of how it would do.

 

[Reef Bed]

You can throw a hollywood stunner on the floor, stomp on it, and throw it back into the tank and have 100 frags with that colony. Stunners are very thin so you can get bonecutters or your hand and snap a piece off.