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As reefers, we occasionally do things to our reef aquariums that have unintended consequences: You know, dropping a fragging tool in the tank and forgetting about it for months, not tying off the media bag and having carbon pill out into your sump, etc.
Been there, done that, right?
Seems like the most common unintended thing we do to our reefs is to make those “accidental frags†of our favorite corals, typically due to our own clumsy actions inside the tank. Be honest, you KNOW that you’ve done this before! Sometimes it’s just the tip of that Acropora humilis colony, or maybe the Pocillopora that just always seems to get in the way of the algae scraper, right? Or worse, that really crazy rare one you've been coveting and growing out for months!
I call the corals that end up getting distributed in the hobby in this fashion "unintended frags", and they are often some of the best corals that we get!
I know more than one reefer who ended up offering (unintended, of course) frags of that uber-rare Acropora that he never intended to frag, simply because the algae pad got out of his hand while cleaning in the tank, and, in his haste to grab it- SNAP! An “unintended†frag (or series of frags)- was “made available†to the community!
I vividly recall a local reefer who was incredibly generous with frags to begin with, yet always ended up giving out frags of a specific Acropora (A. microthalma) because the “tradition†of fragging this coral started with him trying to (unsuccessfully) chase down a tang and ending fragging coral instead of catching the fish. It then because a tradition for him to give frags of this coral away to everyone. Few but a very insiders knew what the original impetus for him offering this frag was!
My personal nemesis was a Pink Birdsnest, which just always seemed to be in the wrong place at the wrong time! I mean, it’s one of my favorite all-time corals, and I had a lovely colony that was grown from a small frag, but it must of just had a target painted on it…I literally broke this thing almost every time I had my hands in the tank! Good for local reefers, bad for my aesthetics!
You know that you can relate!
So, this begs the question: What’s the best “unintended frag†you’ve ever made, and if you have “made†such a frag, how did it happen. Of course, if you were the lucky recipient of a fellow reefer’s clumsy in-tank actions, what was the best/rarest/coolest “frag†you ever obtained, and what was the back story?
Pics of your corals obtained in this manner are, of course, always welcome (they like to say that if you don’t have a pic, it didn’t happen…I’d think that the opposite applies in this case. lol)
Thanks for sharing, and have a great Monday (yeah, you CAN have a great Monday!)
Stay Wet!
Scott Fellman
Unique Corals
Been there, done that, right?
Seems like the most common unintended thing we do to our reefs is to make those “accidental frags†of our favorite corals, typically due to our own clumsy actions inside the tank. Be honest, you KNOW that you’ve done this before! Sometimes it’s just the tip of that Acropora humilis colony, or maybe the Pocillopora that just always seems to get in the way of the algae scraper, right? Or worse, that really crazy rare one you've been coveting and growing out for months!
I call the corals that end up getting distributed in the hobby in this fashion "unintended frags", and they are often some of the best corals that we get!
I know more than one reefer who ended up offering (unintended, of course) frags of that uber-rare Acropora that he never intended to frag, simply because the algae pad got out of his hand while cleaning in the tank, and, in his haste to grab it- SNAP! An “unintended†frag (or series of frags)- was “made available†to the community!
I vividly recall a local reefer who was incredibly generous with frags to begin with, yet always ended up giving out frags of a specific Acropora (A. microthalma) because the “tradition†of fragging this coral started with him trying to (unsuccessfully) chase down a tang and ending fragging coral instead of catching the fish. It then because a tradition for him to give frags of this coral away to everyone. Few but a very insiders knew what the original impetus for him offering this frag was!
My personal nemesis was a Pink Birdsnest, which just always seemed to be in the wrong place at the wrong time! I mean, it’s one of my favorite all-time corals, and I had a lovely colony that was grown from a small frag, but it must of just had a target painted on it…I literally broke this thing almost every time I had my hands in the tank! Good for local reefers, bad for my aesthetics!
You know that you can relate!
So, this begs the question: What’s the best “unintended frag†you’ve ever made, and if you have “made†such a frag, how did it happen. Of course, if you were the lucky recipient of a fellow reefer’s clumsy in-tank actions, what was the best/rarest/coolest “frag†you ever obtained, and what was the back story?
Pics of your corals obtained in this manner are, of course, always welcome (they like to say that if you don’t have a pic, it didn’t happen…I’d think that the opposite applies in this case. lol)
Thanks for sharing, and have a great Monday (yeah, you CAN have a great Monday!)
Stay Wet!
Scott Fellman
Unique Corals
