Can a coral frag be moved to a rock?

[BigHildy53]

If I purchase multiple acan frags, can I cut the coral off the plug and glue them to a rock? Or is it best to cut the plug and glue the plug to the rock? I do not have fragging experience. The eventual goal is to make an acan island. I just wanted to jump start it my purchasing multiple frags.

 

[Hitman]

Absolutely you can. Many of us remove all corals from the plugs. I do it because I don't like the look of the plugs.

 

[BigHildy53]

Any tricks to cutting the coral? Or just be careful.

 

[Hitman]

I cut the glue off the plug personally as it's easy. Lol I'm sure there are other ways.

 

[VSVP bet]

Obviously acans have a dense skeleton so all you need to do is gently pry the skeleton from the frag plug. You can do this with a razor or small pliers. You really want to just avoid crushing the skeleton. If you weaken the skeleton underneath the coral, it cause cause the flesh of the acan to recede. Essentially, just be gentle, take your time, and look before you cut.

 

[rkpetersen]

If I purchase multiple acan frags, can I cut the coral off the plug and glue them to a rock? Or is it best to cut the plug and glue the plug to the rock?

I've done both. If a particular frag is heavily grown over part of the frag plug, I might cut away the plug stem, as well as any still-bare areas, so that the plug is less symmetric, before gluing it to rockwork. However I prefer to remove the frag from the plug entirely when it's possible to do so without too much coral damage or loss. I've found that, using this tool, a bit of pressure on the glue line will often cause the frag to just pop off the plug cleanly.