Mindset
It’s important to have the right mindset about fragging, you need to know that it doesn’t always work out, not all frags will take. The chance of mother corals being permanently damaged is very very small but it does exist so consider yourself warned. Healthy corals are generally able to recover from being fragged, after all in the wild such damage is common and many corals naturally propagate in this way, we’re just giving them a helping hand.
What you need
Clean sharp scissors, iodine dip, coral glue, small plastic or glass open top container, small piece of net, elastic band, a few bits of rock rubble, frag plug and finally mother corals to take your ‘fragment’ from.
Where to start
Let's consider fragging the easiest couple of corals in the whole wide world: Kenya Tree coral (Capnella sp.) and Green Star Polyps (Pachyclavularia sp. or Briareum sp.)
Kenya Tree instructions:
- Place your Kenya Tree in a container of water and mix in a few drips of iodine dip to slightly colour the water yellow.
- Snip a branch from your Kenya Tree, like you would a plant, take it from where the coral naturally splits / branches off.
- Place both the mother coral and fragged piece in the iodine dip for a few minutes.
- Return your Kenya Tree mother coral to your aquarium.
- Place your rock rubble into a small container, put your kenya tree on top of the rubble.
- Secure your net cover over the top of the container to keep the Kenya Tree frag contained but still able to get light and water flow.
- Put your container in the aquarium, the Kenya Tree will attach to the rubble within 7 - 14 days.
Green Star Polyp instructions:
- Star polyp grows on a ‘basal mat’, the mat grows over rocks and the polyps extend from the mat.
- Have a container to hand with some tank water and a small amount of iodine dip in.
- Take your Star Polyp mother coral out of the water, preferably when it is closed up.
- From the edge of the coral, you should be able to peel the purple mat away from the rock, just an inch or two will do for now. Sometimes the mat grows away from the rock on its own, even easier for us!
- Even when star polyps are closed you can usually see where the polyps are inside the mat. Use your clean sharp scissors to cut a frag off the mat, doing your best to avoid the polyps, don’t worry if you get one or two, it shouldn’t cause any problems.
- Place your frag and the mother coral coral into your iodine dip for a few minutes.
- Return the mother coral to the aquarium.
- Use a small amount of your coral glue to stick the fragged piece of star polyps to a rock or frag plug, let it dry for about 30 seconds and return your frag to the aquarium also. Coral glue will continue to set under water and won’t harm your livestock.
Food for thought
Reef keepers experiment with fragging techniques to develop the methods they prefer. Experienced hobbyists continue to push the boundaries to include corals less often fragged, so don’t be surprised when you see people doing things very differently - hopefully they all have similar successful results and hopefully you too will develop your own revolutionary methods in time.
Be smart
Wear rubber gloves and something to protect your eyes, this is science time big boy style, although neither of these corals are considered toxic we don’t take chances because we’re smart 😉
