Scolymia Fragging Experiment

[Fragged_it]

I wanted to experiment with fragging a scolymia. A while back a guy had cut two in half and claimed to successfully fuse them together with one working mouth.

I cut a green scolymia in half then cut one half in half making 2 quarters. Here are some photos of one of the quarters. It seems to be doing very well, but it is healing and growing very strangely.

If you are familiar with scolymias, they have a large mouth in the center and they get a ring of feeding tentacles that are offset from the mouth by a good bit. Here is a picture (i found on the web) of a feeding scolymia

Here is a picture of a quarter of the scolymia I have in my frag tank.

There are at least 5 areas of feeder tentacles. In the picture below I've circled these areas of feeder tentacles.

What will be interesting to see as this piece heals and develops is how these feeder areas grow. Will they some how shift so that they create a single circle around a single mouth or will they develop into multiple circles containing a separate mouth.

Here is the same piece under actinic lights.

You can see the feeders pretty good in this picture under actinic lights.

 

[crewchef]

Is the scolymia still doing well? I'm interested to see what comes of this. I've heard of people doing it but I'm interested to actually SEE what happens.

 

[Fragged_it]

It's still doing well.
When there is a substantial change, I'll post more pictures.
It's nice to see someone took an interest.

Thanks,

 

[roscoe]

Did you use a band saw to cut it? I'm tempted to cut my bleeding apple into halves or even quarters just for kicks giggles since I got my Speedster XL last week. I'm thinking if I cut it into quarters it would form into a round shape quicker maybe?

 

[fenderguy1]

How do the others look?

 

[jaytizzle]

Don't these things take seemingly forever to grow?

 

[XCrunnr36]

this seems extremely interesting. cant wait to see the results

 

[Alpha Aquaculture]

Yes I have taken an interest in this as well :)

I have a question: How long did it take to heal from the original quartering to the photo above?

~Good luck~

 

[roscoe]

Aslo too. Did the scolly change from red to green after fragging?

 

[Fragged_it]

This was cut with a diamond bladed lapidary saw around Feb. 15th. It is the smallest of the 3 pieces. I'll get pictures after the weekend of the other two pieces. They are kept in 2 other systems.

This was always a green scoly. The picture of the red one was found on the net. I wanted to show anyone not familiar with them what they looked like when they were feeding.

 

[iani]

That actually looks like an Acanthophyllia deshayesiana. Name was changed not that long ago.

 

[roscoe]

This was cut with a diamond bladed lapidary saw around Feb. 15th. It is the smallest of the 3 pieces. I'll get pictures after the weekend of the other two pieces. They are kept in 2 other systems.

This was always a green scoly. The picture of the red one was found on the net. I wanted to show anyone not familiar with them what they looked like when they were feeding.

Oh OK it wasn't a a band saw with a diamond embeded saw then? I think I will cut my bleeding apple when I get off work. I know kinda pricey piece to experiment on.

 

[reefsandrotts]

Sonny at Mr Coral has cut and sold them,I always
Wondered how it would turn out in the end.
Now tagging along,and put me in line for one of the
frags if you sell them

 

[reefsandrotts]

Sonny at Mr Coral has cut and sold them,I always
Wondered how it would turn out in the end.
Now tagging along,and put me in line for one of the
frags if you sell them

 

[inactive]

I fragged a scolymia cubenesis in my LPS tile saw video... It fragged very well.... I lost one half due to my blenny flipping it over, the other half healed fine.... One part of the scolymia is "bleeding" a new scolymia onto the sandbed.... It's pretty crazy...

 

[Fragged_it]

one part of the scolymia is "bleeding" a new scolymia onto the sandbed.... It's pretty crazy...

Can you post a picture?

 

[inactive]

I'll do you one better... give me 20 minutes.

 

[Dave3112]

I haven't tried to frag a scoly but my warpaint scoly started dieing about 6 months ago and I thought I lost it but I kept it in my tank. Now it has started to grow back and has 2 babies growing with it like a plate does sometimes when it dies. All of them have feeder tentacles and will eat. I'm just waiting on the small ones to fall off in the sand bed!

 

[BuyTheReef]

That actually looks like an Acanthophyllia deshayesiana. Name was changed not that long ago.

Agreed. Very nice still though.

 

[inactive]

Here you go... quick vid, nothing special.

YouTube - Scolymia Cubanesis Frag - 1 month later.