How do you frag your palys?

revhtree · Jul 5, 2008

Hey I just heard from someone that they have been fragging palys by just using scissors and snipping the head off about at mid stalk. I did this before without real luck and was wondering how many of you did it.

So how bout it?

aquaman3680 · Jul 5, 2008

I use a scalpel and cut off the algae below the mat of the palys. I have tried just cutting them off, it seems like they just slime out of the super glue.

detguy123 · Jul 5, 2008

i do scrape of the full polyps or if it is a lrager rock i will cut the rock to the mat or polyps and use a razor blade and cut through the mat...the other day i di cut one polyp in half to try that out and glued it to a small plug..it seem to be dong fine so far..but only time will tell...i will try to get a pic of it today and then in a few weeks get another to see how things are going with it

Eklikewhoa · Jul 5, 2008

When I do frag I just cut under the mat so full polyps is what I cut off. IMO they are way to slimy as is so I would imagine them getting a lot worse if you snipped them in half.

ServantSoldier · Jul 5, 2008

I cut whole polyps. I did cut a paly in half on accident that grew just fine after being superglued to a frag plug.

Lytehouse · Jul 6, 2008

fragging

cut the rock with a band saw

SINNERMF · Jul 6, 2008

I cut a wedge out of the rock under the polyps.

reefboy · Jul 6, 2008

On most I usaly score flesh on rock with a razor to separate from main colony then I to shave rock underneath section im taking to leave just enough rock to glue to plug.Found scoring keeps from tearing ployps when rock breaks loose and heals better.

reefboy · Jul 6, 2008

revhtree said:
Hey I just heard from someone that they have been fragging palys by just using scissors and snipping the head off about at mid stalk. I did this before without real luck and was wondering how many of you did it.

So how bout it?

Only thing I would do that on is toad stool leathers

Eklikewhoa · Jul 6, 2008

I have an ORA toadstool I have been meaning to put a razor to.....I read that you could just slit it down the middle and end up with two stalked toadstools and once healed it's as simple as splitting the rock.

salt newbie01 · Jul 7, 2008

Eklikewhoa said:
I have an ORA toadstool I have been meaning to put a razor to.....I read that you could just slit it down the middle and end up with two stalked toadstools and once healed it's as simple as splitting the rock.

I believe you can cut pieces off the top of the toad stool and they will grow. That way you don't have to cut the whole thing in half!

salt newbie01 · Jul 7, 2008

A friend of mine always cuts his paly's like that. Basically cuts the heads off and mounts them to a frag plug. He frags alot and keeps a lot. It sounds like a great way to frag if you can get the heads mounted securely. Since the stalk regrows a head you don't really lose any when fragging.

I tried it myself tonight. I made 2 3 ployp frags of some devils armor palys. I am late starting but I gotta figure it out quick. Gotta frag swap in august!!! I will try to get some pics of the new frags tomorrow and will track the stalks on the main mini-colony.

MarvinsReef · Jul 7, 2008

I do option 2 and 3...

salt newbie01 · Jul 8, 2008

Well the polyps were opening up within 2 hours of fragging and mounting. Last night they looked great! Polyps completely open and great color. It looks like the glue is hanging onto the polyp "stalk" just fine. I guess only time will tell. But I would think the first couple days are key. My buddy that frags this way got the idea from GARF. So far there isn't any excessive stress on the cut polyp or on the stalk that was cut. The colony looks less stressed than it would if I had it out of the water peeling tissue off the rock. It sure was an easier process to preform and much less messy.

killingseed2000 · Jul 8, 2008

dremel can when can. not listed.

ct_vol · Jul 9, 2008

I guess I would be the friend that often cuts mid stalk...

You can only do it with certain palys... And I only do it when time is on my side... Otherwise its scrape scrape...

I guess I do a mixture of 1,2, and 4...

revhtree · Jul 12, 2008

CT Vol which type of palys do you do this on? Man this would making fragging so much easier.

CoralGeeks · Jul 13, 2008

Ive set up a tank before with crush coral and rubble, cut the disk off the stalk and left them in the tank and survived fine. The key is to have very little flow and a dedicated system for doing this.

ct_vol · Jul 13, 2008

Any palys that stalk out a bit... I've done it on Lunar Eclipses, Armor of Gods, Chromis palys, some PE's, Nuc Greens, etc etc... I use a set of surgical scissors and cut about mid stalk... If you have enough light you can see a dark area below the head of the polyp... You want to make sure that you don't cut the darker area... The rest of the stalk is somewhat translucent and you're fine cutting anywhere through that area...

I used to do this all the time when I only had 4xx110w VHO's over my 75g as many of my palys would stalk out... After you cut the head, dab it on a paper towel or towel just to dry it off a little... Then use just a spot of super glue gel in order to fix it to a frag plug... You don't want to drown it in superglue as you can superglue the head closed.... Be sure to keep track of which end of the cut paly goes up... If the head retracts into the stalk, it is often difficult to determine which end goes up... The head will grow and surprisingly the stalk will generate a new head...

I have since switched to 8x54w T5's over the 75g, so not as many of the palys stalk out as much... But its still a nice way to frag...

Heres a pic from a year and a half ago of some of the palys I fragged with this technique... This is before I discovered that less is more with the superglue... You can see I partially glued one of the Chromis palys to the left shut...