Pruning corals

[JMM744]

So this coral is pretty leggy. Not sure what it is but wondered if I can trim the branches back? If so will it hurt the coral and will the pieces I cut off be salvageable? Also, can I just clip the branches off in place?
Not done any of this before .
Thanks for advice.
Jim

 

[PicassoClown04]

Just get a pair of bone cutters (or something similar, they’re basically giant heavy duty wire cutters) and chop off the parts you don’t like cleanly in one go if you can. Just stick the cutters in the tank, hold the coral/ rock with your other hand and clip it right off, easier than you probably think it is. I’ve even just snapped branches off with my bare hands and no cutters, but cutters have better control over the cut. If you cut off a good sized piece it’s probably worth glueing to a frag plug and selling/ trading it with reefers nearby. The coral should heal completely fairly quickly (depends on tank stuff) but watch for any kind of infection (sliming, bleaching, etc). Plain old super glue (preferably the gel kind) will stick that frag onto a plug nicely and you can do it out of the water. I try to limit my air time for frags to about 10 minutes to minimize stress but since this is an acro it should be fine as long as you try to be quick about it. Happy fragging!