frag accident   1/10/11
Hi Crew,
I bought a frogspawn with 5 heads in a line and decided to cut off the last two branches. This coral looks different than what I usually see. The color is like celery and the tentacles short and very compact with lots of tips. It almost looks like broccoli.
<Are variable>
I usually use a small scissors to nip at the skeleton and then keep snipping till it breaks off.
<Mmm, better to use a beefier tool, like lawn/gardening hand snips, and snip/snap all at once>
This one was very strong and my scissors didn't make any progress so I took a tin snip and shattered one branch.
The cracks ran lengthwise from bottom to top. I didn't know what to do so I just squeezed it together and put it in the substrate. It is almost 2 days later and is still alive. Afterwards I though I should have put a rubber band around it to hold it together better. At this point I think it is best to leave it as is and hope for the best unless you have some suggestions.
Thanks,
Sam
<I'd add a bit more iodide/ate to the water and call it quits. Bob Fenner>

Developing An Attachment For His Corals? Ok.. so I seem to have all these problems ranging from the disintegration of my pulse corals to complications in what should seem to be simple coral fragging/propagation. So, the problem this time is I have a friend who has given me frags off of one of her colt corals and also off of her xenia elongata.  But for some reason (I tried using super glue to attach them) the stems began to rot on the corals and I had to cut them down almost to the point that they don't have trunks anymore.. but I figured this must be done as the necrotic tissue.. <Not a bad thought...but you need to address what caused the necrosis to begin with...> It seems to have been melted by the super glue.. has spread up the stems and I was afraid that it would proceed to the polyps and rot the entire piece of the corals.  I also have a leather coral (Sarcophyton sp.) that seems to be suffering from stem rot.. I received it from a friend and when I got it it was attached to a rock, but shortly after placing it in my tank the stem  begin to deteriorate. <Could be a result of the trauma of handling/superglue, or possibly in the acclimation process. Use more gentle procedure in the future> I guess I'm just curious as to what may possibly be causing this, and if I can stop this stem rot who would I go about reattaching it to a rock... I've tried superglue before on leathers and they just disintegrated within a week or so.. I'm kinda hoping you guys can give me some ideas on how to frag these as another friend of mine has this killer toadstool/possible Lobophytum finger leather that has a yellow/green color (I had a piece of this one before also.. but same disintegration story..)  I'm beginning to think that I was never meant to have leathers.. although the other 3 in my tank don't seem to have any such problems. So.. here's the question.. what is the best way to attach these corals? I even tried stitching the colt corals to rocks.. but the stems just disintegrated to the point that they would fall away from the rocks.. and then of course they end up free floating through my tank and for some messed up reason always end up behind the live rock at the bottom of the tank.. <Well, there are a number of methods to attach these corals. As far as the Xenia are concerned, I would not even think of super glue, myself. If it were me, I'd place the new xenia frags in a sump or other calmer place within the system (like a livebearer breeding trap, over a small layer of live rock rubble. The corals will attach naturally and quickly. For the leather corals, I would use a similar technique, or you could use cable twist ties to secure them to small pieces of rock. Stitching the corals does work, but after the animal has been damaged, and tissue begins to deteriorate, it's probably not a good idea. I like natural methods, myself, like the " passive rubble technique" outlined above.> Both of my tanks have calcium at 430 ppm and 1.023 SG along with 0 ammonia, nitrites, nitrates.. and pH of 8.3-8.5 depending on the time of day. <Sounds fine> My last question is this.. I keep receiving mushroom polyps from people and I need a recommendation for attaching these things to rocks ( I would allow the usual random attachment, but this is my anemone tank and the last thing I need is for my BTA's to randomly decide to sit on the mushrooms) I've tried pretty much everything I can think of and no matter what the mushrooms just pop right off or slime their way out of any situation I put them against. <Well, again, I'd use the "passive rubble technique" outlined above. This really works best, and then you can position the small rubble pieces exactly where you want them. Over time, you'll haunt the LFS looking for little bits of rubble to attach corals...It works, and it is essentially harmless to them> Thanks again. Jonathan <By the way, Jonathan- do yourself a huge favor and buy a copy of Anthony Calfo's "Book of Coral Propagation", which will give you a TON of great information on handling, fragging, and attaching all types of corals. It's really a "must have" text if you are going to propagate any types of corals. Have fun! Regards, Scott F>

Coral frag broke off how to save it? Hi,  We have a 75 gallon, 110 pound live rock, CPRs Bak-Pak, Rio 1100 with a Eheim canister filter( we have since learned we do not need but the UV sterilizer is plugged into it so we have to figure out how to use the UV sterilizer without the Eheim then plan to pull out the canister filter). <You probably don't need the UV either.  They aren't really very beneficial unless they are kept immaculately clean. We have our mandarin fish, a damsel, a short spine sea urchin, red footed moon snail( I have found out he is a temperate fellow and may transfer him to a smaller tank that I keep at 72-24 degrees.) bumble bee snails, red and blue footed hermits, 5 emerald crabs. We are now starting corals, we have 2 mushroom rocks at the bottom, one mushroom has already attached to a rock in the tank, we plan to harvest these like farming and start to a rock so they do not take over the tank, a thin tipped xenia which was a frag we started on our own, and just added a frogspawn and a leather green. We have been having to move the leather several times as it is not sitting well on the rock and tips. Now I think it is anchored where the stick cannot roll or be moved by the crabs. However, last night I noted that a tiny, only 2 finger like parts came off and was sitting in the opening of a live rock. I put that and a piece of live rock into a small container at the bottom of the tank hoping it would just attach, that is how we did the xenia. However, the frag is so tiny it rolls off the rock. I know that you can use an epoxy putty for aquariums but I am wondering if crazy glue or cyanoacrylic type glue will work to hold it to the rock. The Frag is not even 1/2 inch in length but this coral is so pretty that if this tiny piece would grow it would be a nice piece to give to someone who wants coral. What are your thoughts on this? <Kudos on wanting to take the effort to save the frag!  It will make a nice trade and mean one less coral from the wild.> And, can you use the glue to glue these down to the starter rock, would this work on those mushrooms as well? <Super glue gel works very well, but it may be difficult to not smother such a tiny frag.  Just try to work neatly.  Mushrooms probably won't do well with superglue.  They will do much better if allowed to grow onto a small rock or if you cut them, to place the cuttings in a container of rubble for them to attach to.> We are new to this hobby our tank is only 5-6 months old but I have purchased several copepod cultures to seed this tank well as well as we have 2 tanks that are 5 gallons each just growing copepods in case of emergency need for our mandarin who is a rescue fish. There are so many mandarin at our Pet World Pet Store, they will not listen to us when we tell then that these fish will die--they are not selling and in coppered fish only tanks. <Too many stores sell too many mandarins, either unaware of their special needs or not caring.  Buying difficult animals to "rescue" them only encourages the retailer to buy more.> Someday I plan to start up a farmed sea horse tank--and try to raise the little seahorses and I was wondering what size tank, how much live rock, do I need a filter like the Eheim or will this also work with live rock and aragonite sand, If the tank is small would I still be able to rescue another mandarin if I supplemented the tank with live copepods that I grow? <Keeping seahorses is truly a challenging specialty in this hobby, and should not be taken lightly.  Please see www.seahorse.org for a lot of discussion on keeping them.  There is certainly way more to tell than I can type here!> Thanks so very much for your input, I truly love this site and have to tell you that you are filling such an important roll providing the knowledge base to amateur hobbyists. This can only benefit the coral reefs in the long run. I would love to support this organization--so far I have just purchased the books recommended on the site and inform others that have the hobby that these books are very important as a part of research needed to have the correct tanks. I even see the LFS store in the area try to educate people in proper systems, compatibility, care for the animals, and try to encourage farm raised vs. wild caught animals. But, so very many people refuse to listen to the recommendations, thinking that they know better and the animals suffer. How can we reach the people who refuse to research this interesting hobby. It is very easy once the knowledge and understanding is obtained.  As with amateur astronomers assisting the professional astronomer I hope the amateur marine hobbyist can assist the marine biologists.  Sue <Thanks for the kind words and for living and spreading the message!  We all do this out of love and respect for the animals in our care and the environment they were taken from.  Best Regards.  Adam>

RTN in SPS frags I have experienced RTN in a few of my small SPS frags. Where does this come from? It seems to just begin upon the tips of the coral's branches. Should I break off the white parts or just see if it cures itself? Any advise you have would be great. Thanks!! <wow... this is a question that literally cannot be answered in less than pages. RTN is not clearly defined or explained. It is a term applied to several if not many conditions in coral (some pathogenic, some not... rather stress/heat related). Do peruse the WWM archives and beyond for current discussions on this topic. Most of the popular reef authors have written on this topic. Eric Borneman in Reef Corals book is most thorough and current. I discuss it as well in my book on coral propagation. I cannot say much without so much more information (what you call RTN: is it necrotic and rotting tissue or bleaching/expelling zooxanthellae... how old is the coral... did you quarantine it... so much more...?). You best bet is isolation in a QT tank, heavy aeration, ozone would be ideal... but use iodine if no ozone is available. You may also use an antibiotic in the hospital tank as well or in a strong extended bath. Best regards, Anthony>

Frag Rescue I got a fragment of A. formosa that was dying of slow necrosis from a friend. <Something about the syntax here> I put it in a temp. setup and stopped the necrosis (the frag was 1 inch long, and has been reduced to a few square centimeters of encrusting base). I was wondering what the habitat of this guy in the wild is. (I haven't gotten opp. to check WWM yet) I found all sorts of taxa info (this guy is either formosa, or a funny looking micropthalma, but I don't have the genetics training to find out), but I don't have any habitat books (yet)... bottom line is, I want to put this guy in my 2.5 gallon leeward Pac. reef flat...(been up about 6 months, run by a beast of an air pump for Eng-style circulation and an 18 watt PC) am aware of 'small tank perils' as described in your FAMA article) at the moment I have two species of Acroporids (valida and secale...I think), a Trachyphyllia geoffroyi, Millepora alcicornis, 2 Caulastrea furcata, Zoanthids, and an orange specimen of some unidentified pacific Porites, all thriving, all growing, tank is littered w/algaes, benthos, Stomatella, Haliotids, etc. I'm assuming that because of the spindly morphology typically seen in formosa, its a lagoonal, low flow adaptive species, so I hope it will be suitable for this semi-low flow tank (not much tissue left to lose, and the holding tank has to come down). please advise... Chris >> <Would go ahead with your plan... the systematics and i.d. of various Acroporids is a mess... to put it mildly. This frag will grow or go... not much more that can be done as far as I'm aware. Bob Fenner>