How to decide when to frag a colony

[Hijinks_78]

I have a fairly decent sized anacroporo colony that I lost about half of a few months ago. I was reaquascaping my reef and it did not like the disruption. The base of it died, as well as the individual branches about half way up. I assumed I was going to lose the entire thing and it had no color, but has started to bounce back nicely. I’m thinking that the best way to proceed is to cut off the live tips and branches, glue them to a tile, and let it start again but am curious what others use to help them to decide when to frag out a colony that is suffering. This colony has stabilized and started to grow again, so I’m not overly concerned about it, but in the past I’ve had colonies start to die from the center, like this one did, and have had a hard time deciding when to frag it in an effort to salvage something and have it not die completely...any info on what criteria you guys use to make these decisions is appreciated. Thanks!

 

[Surfzone]

Have you considered adding more flow to hit the center of the colony? Sometimes this is the issue. As far as when to frag a colony I would frag when one colony is over shadowing another, growing out of the water, or in a salvage attempt like you statied in your post. Perhaps others will chime in with their methods.

 

[jomatty]

Have you considered adding more flow to hit the center of the colony? Sometimes this is the issue. As far as when to frag a colony I would frag when one colony is over shadowing another, growing out of the water, or in a salvage attempt like you statied in your post. Perhaps others will chime in with their methods.

I’m used to dragging when things get overgrown but am less confident when it comes to a situation like this where it’s a salvage job...thanks for advice

 

[Braves Fan]

This really doesn't answer your question ,, but something I do ,, when ever I am growing a coral ,, one that would hurt if I lost ,, when it gets to where I can frag it ,, I do and give to a friend that doesn't have it ,, I can get a piece back if I ever were to lose it ,,, for free

 

[jomatty]

This really doesn't answer your question ,, but something I do ,, when ever I am growing a coral ,, one that would hurt if I lost ,, when it gets to where I can frag it ,, I do and give to a friend that doesn't have it ,, I can get a piece back if I ever were to lose it ,,, for free

I need more local reef friends As I very much think this is good advice

 

[Ericba]

Always a good idea to make a local friend and give each other coral frags. You become each others insurance policy.
back to your question, I've cut branches off of corals that were in trouble in order to try and save them. It has worked a number of times where the rest of the colony kept receding, but the piece that i cut off survived.