Help managing palys/zoas and fragging first time

[JoJosReef]

The day has arrived! Something has grown enough that I need to start fragging!

But, I've never fragged a coral...

In this case, it is two types of palythoas that are overgrowing the zoa island, stifling growth in some of my preferred zoas and even jumping off the island into the mainland, so to speak.

Here is the island:

Here are the palys (no idea what they're called) that are growing over zoas (the brown speckled ones) or through zoas (green ones).

I would like for the green dragon eyes and midas zoas (covered by brown palys) and the red rimmed zoas (crowded out by green palys) to be able to grow out.

There are also some brownish palys with green frillies that are being shaded by the pink hot toddies (which I like, and are fine at their current size but being infiltrated by the green palys) and the brown speckled palys.

And finally, both the brown speckled palys and the mandarin cloves have reached over to the main rock and attached--I'd like to keep them off the main rock.

So... How would you do this? Do I just take a razor in there and start cutting/scraping from the bases as much as I can?

Snip off the polyps first then scrape off the attached stems (this I thought since when I try scraping with something blunt, the poly spits out nasty stuff)?

Something else? Scrape with another tool? Just cut with aqua scissors (the curvy kind I use for pruning my macros)?

It would also be great to get some of them into a frag plug to give away to my local reefers--I got two of mine as local freebies, so time to give back.

As always, I appreciate your experienced advice!

 

[Nemosis]

First, be very careful and wear gloves, eye protection, and disposable mask before attempting to frag zoanthids/palythoa. Remove the rock and scrape gently around the base of the paly/zoa you wish to remove. You may need to cut through a small amount of tissue to separate individual polyps. Glue the polyps to a clean frag plug and place in an iodine dip for a few minutes before returning to tank. I normally use tweezers and a disposable scalpel type blade when fragging. Running fresh carbon in a reactor for a few days afterwards will help bind any palytoxin released into the water column during this process. Good luck, exercise serious caution, and I hope this helps.

 

[JoJosReef]

First, be very careful and wear gloves, eye protection, and disposable mask before attempting to frag zoanthids/palythoa. Remove the rock and scrape gently around the base of the paly/zoa you wish to remove. You may need to cut through a small amount of tissue to separate individual polyps. Glue the polyps to a clean frag plug and place in an iodine dip for a few minutes before returning to tank. I normally use tweezers and a disposable scalpel type blade when fragging. Running fresh carbon in a reactor for a few days afterwards will help bind any palytoxin released into the water column during this process. Good luck, exercise serious caution, and I hope this helps.

Thanks, great advice! The rock has an RFA firmly rooted to it, so was thinking of doing all of this in-tank. Is that even possible, or do I need to suck it up and take the RFA out woth the island?

 

[Nemosis]

Thanks, great advice! The rock has an RFA firmly rooted to it, so was thinking of doing all of this in-tank. Is that even possible, or do I need to suck it up and take the RFA out woth the island?

Rock flowers are fine out of water for short periods of time. However, you can purchase a small, shallow plastic container large enough for the piece you are working with. Fill the container with enough tank water to cover the rock you are fragging from. Remove a few polyps and place your rock back into your container as often as necessary. Once you’re all done, discard the water you used to frag with and top up your main display with freshly mixed saltwater.