The art of fragging.....

[SueT]

I am speaking of sps corals when I ask this. Do those that keep sps coral and frag them try to take care of the shape of the colony when taking frags from one? I am trying to get together a trade and am trying to keep the nice shape of some of these acropora colonies by taking branches that either are starting to grow into another branch or a branch that is just not needed and with it cut may make the colony more attractive. Ya'll know what I mean?? I want to keep the attractive shape the coral has grown into yet still frag it to trade.

[Katspaw]

Sue,
I know exactly what you mean. I always try to take frags from areas that don't effect the look of the mother colony, or where it will make the colony look better. Right now I have an orange monti that has one branch shooting up way above the rest. I am hoping to frag this coral very soon ( when I have the time) and that branch will be the first to go.

Tracey

[Chuck S]

I agree on this too. When I frag I try and maintain the overall look of the coral I am fragging. The best analogy I can think of is fall when you prune your rose bushes. You prune them shaping them as you go.

[David Grigor]

I try to maintain the shape of the coral for both the colony and the frag.

I generally take tips vs. branches. Tips heal quickly and don't change rarely the shape of the coral. Usually will take 5-6 tips and create a frag in the general shape as the original.

[SueT]

Good stuff ya'll. Thats exactly what I mean. When I was getting the frags together for this trade I didn't want to mess with overall shape as things have grown out quite a bit. I wanted to maintain the shape most of these corals have grow into and not take branches that would alter the shape they have achieved. I usually try to take branches vs. tips but it is usually up to the shape that will help me make my final decision.

Chuck, I used to have rose bushes and I remember many a pruning time.

Hi Sue, I notice you still havent lost your reefing touch. Can you remember the year & month PFK did the article on your large SPS tank the one you had a freind help you set up because of your hip injury.I think you used the berlin method.You were listed as one of the worlds top brass reefers up there with the Calfos & Spungs.

In the PFK article the tank that Les looked at why is the Sg at 1.026? Was that because there were hardly any fish ?I agree with Leng Sy's approach it better than the Berlin method. Your comments were one reason why I got started in this demented hobby, the reefing side of it anyhow. the article is in the April 03 edition of PFK, you must be proud of those SPSs, they are huge. Some nice yellow ones there to looks like Acropora millepora.Keep following the forum so we can extract as much info from your brain as possible. I think PFK has put your tank up against some other heavey weights for comparison ill have to go check. Catch you later. Gregb.

[SueT]

Thank you for the very kind words. The Practical Fishkeeping article was done April 2003. I was quite honored to be asked to do that. My permanent problem is my back. I had the tank set up as an ecosystem but the pics are hosted by a guy that uses the nickname of berlinmethod. I keep my sG ~1.024, why Leng does different I don't know.

I Thank you again for the very kind words.