Growing and fragging zoas

[Birdman3611]

I am getting my first shipment of high end zoas. As tempting as it is to just put it straight in my display, I think it would be smart to keep them in the sand to grow out and frag later so that I can sell or trade as well as have some for my display. I have never fragged anything before. I know to beware of Paly toxins, but how do I even go about growing out high end zoas to later frag? What tools do I need and how does this work? Thanks!

 

[Reefing_addiction]

What zoas are you getting?

some zoas melt more frequently than others after fragging and that’s why they cost more.

what you’ll need is frag plugs. Super glue. Razor blades. Gloves. Iodine dip.
I’ve also seen people use rock rubble places around a plug than you can just remove the piece of rock with the new growth.
And you need patience and time

 

[Birdman3611]

What zoas are you getting?

some zoas melt more frequently than others after fragging and that’s why they cost more.

what you’ll need is frag plugs. Super glue. Razor blades. Gloves. Iodine dip.
I’ve also seen people use rock rubble places around a plug than you can just remove the piece of rock with the new growth.
And you need patience and time

I am getting 3 polyps of grim reapers, 3 polyps of OG rastas, and 2 polyps of illumanatis

How do I go about getting zoas off of a frag plug?

 

[vanpire]

I did what you are thinking and it doesn't always work out as you think when growing zoas on the sandbed.

Once the zoas migrate from the plug to the sandbed, they will continue to grow and do so. This is especially true for fast growing zoas.

However, before the zoas are actually growing on the sand (feet attached to the sand), the zoas seem to be very hesitant to spreading on the sand. They will grow on and around the plug for as long as possible, to the point of having their feet UNDER the plug. I have fairly large colonies of over 50 heads and assume that some are one the sand, but all are actually still attached to the plug.

If you are interested in easily fragging, I suggest cutting thin wafers from dry rock, attaching the zoas on to that substrate and then, putting that on the sand bed if you prefer to have them there.

On a side note, my zoas seems to like growing off from the plug and attaching themselves onto the egg crates in my frag tank. This is opposite of what I want. They seem to love egg crates.

 

[Reefing_addiction]

I’m getting some of these and I asked the guy who is making them to create score marks for easy breaking.
I hope this makes life easier on my Zoa frags

 

[Reefing_addiction]

Bonus to those they can sit in my sand bed!

 

[littlebigreef]

I think it would be smart to keep them in the sand to grow out and frag later so that I can sell or trade as well as have some for my display. I have never fragged anything before.

As someone that's been doing this awhile I always tell people the same thing, 'it's not as easy as it sounds or as fun as it looks.' If you're brand new to fragging (and zoas generally) I'd watch JPS's video on zoa fragging that's pinned at the top of the Zoa group page. The rastas and grim reapers will grow quickly once happy, illumianti can be tricky for some people.

At the end of the day your goal should be to grow large healthy colonies first and worry about fragging second.

 

[Birdman3611]

As someone that's been doing this awhile I always tell people the same thing, 'it's not as easy as it sounds or as fun as it looks.' If you're brand new to fragging (and zoas generally) I'd watch JPS's video on zoa fragging that's pinned at the top of the Zoa group page. The rastas and grim reapers will grow quickly once happy, illumianti can be tricky for some people.

At the end of the day your goal should be to grow large healthy colonies first and worry about fragging second.

great info. I will do this. Thanks!

 

[ou12004]

Why do you want to take them of the frag plug? I usually wait for them to grow on to the edge of the frag plug then cut the edge off of the frag plug then it is easier to glue the Zoas on the chip where you want them.