Not sure what this colony is called

[Oldsalt]

Hello folks

I bought this ceramic frag 12 months ago with 5 polyps on it. I buy my coral from Oceanarium which is about 3 hour's drive north of Perth Western Australia.
Since placing it up higher, the colony has taken off and tripled in only the last 2 months. It is ravenous for reef roids which I provide around 2 to 3 times a week. The new polyps are now populating the rock off the ceramic plug. I'd love to learn how to frag so I could place some of these on another area of my 6 foot system. Where they are now, the flow is moderate at best. It didn't seem to like lots of turbulence. I placed a ball of "knead it" non ferrous epoxy into a hole below the plug so more polyps could spread - it's working.

Can anyone tell me what kind of coral this is? I'm only adding another photo here with my pair of clowns for size reference. You can ignore the green BTA. These pink and green polyps are quite large compared to other corals I've seen at my LFS.

 

[Osaurus]

Looks like Palythoa. They're pretty easy to frag with a razor blade. Cut off what you want to frag and just use some superglue (cyanoacrylate) to mount it to a frag plug or piece of rock rubble (be mindful not to get any superglue near the upper portions of the polyps) - and be sure to exercise caution when handling/cutting them so as to avoid any possible exposure to Palytoxin. Make sure to wear your PPE (safety glasses, respirator, gloves).

 

[Oldsalt]

Looks like Palythoa. They're pretty easy to frag with a razor blade. Cut off what you want to frag and just use some superglue (cyanoacrylate) to mount it to a frag plug or piece of rock rubble (be mindful not to get any superglue near the upper portions of the polyps) - and be sure to exercise caution when handling/cutting them so as to avoid any possible exposure to Palytoxin. Make sure to wear your PPE (safety glasses, respirator, gloves).

Thanks for that info. I'm thinking about just lifting the original ceramic plug and moving it to the other side of the tank (I attached another photo showing new polyp growth below the ceramic sprouting from the rock) while being careful not to disturb the new polyps. The only problem I forsee doing that is that I could risk tearing sensitive (young) polyps.
With cutting frags, I read that I'd need to keep the colony under water to minimise risk of paly aerosol. I'm fairly new to coral (just under 3 years) but had FOWLR over 30 years. I guess I need to start somewhere if I'm going to start fragging. My GP often asks me to show him photos of my aquarium, but always tells me "be careful" regarding palytoxin. He's treated people in South Africa for exposure. Probably a good time to go to YouTube to watch some fraggers in action!
Cheers

 

[Osaurus]

Thanks for that info. I'm thinking about just lifting the original ceramic plug and moving it to the other side of the tank

That's a nice looking colony you have - they certainly look happy. I've been keeping zoas and palys for years and personally, I would do just that. You may risk losing a few polyps, but I'm sure the ones left intact would have no problem recovering and multiplying. If you do decide to pull the frag plug and relocate, make sure to run a little activated carbon in the tank to help with any palytoxin release.

Happy Reefing!

 

[steallife904]

let me add my experience with these.
I have some very similar looking palys in my tank. They are invasive for me and I cannot get rid of them! Man I wish I had never put in the tank. Grow over everything. Found nothing to kill them. Broken the tank down once to cut them all off and somehow they came back. Have them on 2 rocks and on my overflow now. the palytoxin scares me though when I think about scraping them off . If you are keeping them I would try to move to an island rock.

 

[Oldsalt]

It's quite a diverse lot that come in all sorts of colours.

Zoabrary (Zoanthid ID) The Zoanthid Library

Zoabrary is a Zoanthid Library to help Identify Zoanthids and Palythoas

www.zoabrary.com

 

[Brad Waddell Wrath's Reef]

Those look like Mind Blown Palys. Yes they can be invasive but nice. Hope you have some bone cutters because you may have to cut rock to frag them if they hold on to the rock. Some Zoas/palys are easier then others to remove.