Basic Fragging 101 with a bang

watchguy123 · Oct 23, 2018

I placed a pretty little JF Flame frag high up on my rockwork a good while ago and it blossomed into a beautiful colony. So much so that it started to shade corals beneath it. I have fragged it previously but unfortunately I left it untrimmed for too long. My issue with it is that not only is shading other corals, but it has gotten so thick that is pretty much impossible to frag with conventional bone cutters. I guesstimate it is around five to six inches in diameter. Hence a technique I’ve seen others use and I have also utilized the technique previously.

A little precaution in advance, I’m new at video taping my tank so be patient with the length of the video. This was taken on October 4, 2018 and the follow up pictures are from today, October 22 or 18 days follow up. Some of the follow up photos are with blue lights and some with white lights, you should be able to figure it out. Enjoy

I got about 20 plus frags out of this fragging effort. Mostly between one to two inches in height

Here is the colony recovering and repairing 18 days post fragging. I think it looks pretty darn good

And here are some of the frags, different photo lighting from blue to white but should be obvious. The frags look gorgeous

mannyhernz · Oct 23, 2018

I would like one of those[emoji121]️[emoji51]

Wrasse-cal · Oct 23, 2018

Pretty cool! What’s the Acro in your avatar?

DivingTheWorld · Oct 23, 2018

This video gives me anxiety, lol! It would freak me out to try something like this on a colony that size knowing how hard it was to grow them that big. But you did a great job. Those are some excellent chunky frags and the colony still looks good too!

Mattrg02 · Oct 23, 2018

I was expecting explosives :-(

This fox flame is the one I just can’t keep.

jda · Oct 23, 2018

I have dropped thick, stout colonies on the floor before... works pretty well for nice clean breaks. This would probably make most people at least gasp, but probably not more than seeing a chisel.

watchguy123 · Oct 23, 2018

mannyhernz said:
I would like one of those[emoji121]️[emoji51]

They really are pretty

Wrasse-cal said:
Pretty cool! What’s the Acro in your avatar?

thank you. The acro in my avatar is an urban legend

DivingTheWorld said:
This video gives me anxiety, lol! It would freak me out to try something like this on a colony that size knowing how hard it was to grow them that big. But you did a great job. Those are some excellent chunky frags and the colony still looks good too!

Trimming frags even with bone cutters is always nerve wracking. Not only am I worried about breaking the colony from its perch, I am also worried about damaging neighboring colonies. I didn't really see an option to trimming this colony because it was shading others and the bone chisel seemed like the only viable option

Mattrg02 said:
I was expecting explosives :-(

This fox flame is the one I just can’t keep.

Everybody has some darn coral that just won't prosper in their tank. The delight of challenges. I am on my fourth frag of RR USA Firecracker and I think this one is finally going to make it. It is just so strange how some corals just won't get happy.

jda said:
I have dropped thick, stout colonies on the floor before... works pretty well for nice clean breaks. This would probably make most people at least gasp, but probably not more than seeing a chisel.

Unfortunately I have also had the surprise of a colony unexpectedly hit the floor. Usually, my wife will know that by the number of expletives I shout out.