grow out - acans

[ahiggins]

Hey guys!
I have a few rainbow acans that Im growing out but I have a silly question...
I know they need to build their skeleton but when you have one head (or 3) on a plug-how big does it need to get before you frag them?
Also...would you just cut the plug between heads and glue to a new plug?
Ive been doing prop for zoas/palys and its so much easier but I have a few colonies of acans that need to be trimmed down but have very little skeletons.
Example- I have a 2x2 inch rock that has 12 heads on it...theyre all cramped. so how do I go about fragging those?

 

[FLAdaboy]

Still seem kinda smal to be cutting. I would put them on a 4x4 tile. On flat surfaces acans grow faster.

 

[ahiggins]

I have 3" tiles. So I could snip the stick part of the plug and glue it to a tile. Cut the tile when it's ready to be fragged?

 

[star fawkes]

Break the glue between the acan and the frag plug and glue straight to the tile. It won't have to grow over the plug that way. If acans can't grow out, they grow as a ball and it takes so much longer. Should wait to frag until you can cut to a few different frags of 3 nice sized heads. Good luck!

 

[ahiggins]

Thanks for your help! That's going to be this weekends adventure lol I'll post some pics later this week to get more advice. Some of my 1 head acans are 1" tall...they still have to grow around the existing skeleton.

 

[GarageReefer]

U could technically frag a Coral at any size. You could cut a 1/8 inch sps and call it a frag. (Which some people do with expensive sps). But for most corals it's worthless. I would wait till you can make a frag the same size as it was when you bought it

 

[spscrackhead]

I assume you have a saw? That IMO is the best way to frag acans, cut with a saw to separate the heads. You can frag 2 heads into 2 frags, it doesn't matter. They will be stunned for a bit and grow slow agter the frag. I like to let mine got for a bit then frag.

Something many don't do that I am a fan of is....
I only use flat discs for things like chalice and acans in my frag tank at least. When I frag them, get another disc and put it under the one with the coral. This will have you cutting the coral, disc it is on, and the second disc in the same shape. Then glue the 2 discs together. This way the coral can continue to grow straight onto the new section of disc. Corals take a lot of time and energy to grow down around stuff. Those acans in balls grow much slower than flat ones in my experience. I think I read an article somewhere a while back on this that had me start this.

 

[ahiggins]

Oh I agree about having to grow "down" then out. Ive always heard that growing on a rock/disk is better than in the sand because it already has something to attach to rather than building something to attach to