Can anyone help identify this hard coral?

[Bob LI]

I've had this coral for several years. It never seemed to do anything, and I thought it might have died and been covered by coralline algae. About 2 years ago, I got new lights and this coral started to grow. It is now about 5" in diameter and I was going to frag it so it wouldn't bother other nearby corals.

I needed to use "bone cutters" to cut out a triangular piece. The hard coral portion of the piece broke into tiny shards and the live coral just shed off. You can see in the first picture the main coral is fine. The frag disintegrated. The second shot is from the opposite side and you can see the coral growing around a gorgonian.

I would like to frag it, but can't figure out how (I am new to fragging, and don't have much experience). I would appreciate any help you can offer.

 

[Zer0]

I mean, the way it looks and how you describe it, I would say it is a chalice. That’s pretty wild that after all those years of not getting enough light, it didn’t just die off, and then even made a comeback lol.

And when it comes to fragging chalices, you need to break off pieces by its “eyes”, which are basically its mouths. So if you broke off a small piece that didn’t include a piece of an eye or mouth, it would just die off.

 

[Bob LI]

I mean, the way it looks and how you describe it, I would say it is a chalice. That’s pretty wild that after all those years of not getting enough light, it didn’t just die off, and then even made a comeback lol.

And when it comes to fragging chalices, you need to break off pieces by its “eyes”, which are basically its mouths. So if you broke off a small piece that didn’t include a piece of an eye or mouth, it would just die off.

Thanks. The eyes are hard to see. Should I wait until I they are beyond the base rock, or can I cut a section off with a blade rather than the cutter? Will I be able to cut through the skeleton? Thanks again for your input.

 

[Zer0]

Unfortunately I’ve never fragged an encrusting chalice, which looks like what you have. They are more difficult to frag than plating chalices, and I have no experience with them, sorry.