Slicing the red yuma

[gastone]

So, the history first:

Picked this coral up sometime in 06 from Atlantis Aquarium down in Richmond. I probably shouldn't have purchased a fairly expensive red yuma, especially knowing their track record in captivity, and the fact that I didn't have any experience with yumas anyway. But I had done a fair bit of research beforehand and I figured, what the hey, it's only money. So purchase I did. I got it home to find that there was a baby underneath the mother. After a few days in my tank the baby was no more. However the mother survived. Never grew any, never dropped any babies. The good news is that it's a survivor and therefore a good specimen for captive propagation. The bad new... never chopped one up before. After a bit of research i decided to go with a bi-lateral cutting as opposed to a pedal laceration. Which is to say, cut it down down the middle as opposed to cutting its foot off. I had to resort to having my gf take pictures. Mostly she took pics of my hands and not so much of the actual cutting, but we'll see what we can do:

Pre-slice:

With requisite tool(s):

Here I am a little weary of where to stick my knife in (btw I'm really not that pale... really):

Alright, enough contemplation - just do it already:

 

[gastone]

I inserted the knife into the mouth and down through the cutting board. I then pulled the knife towards me to complete the first cut. The yuma was spun around and the knife was then re-inserted to the mouth to finish the process: (nice pic of the hands... told ya so)

And viola:

So now they are in a tupperware container back in the tank with some mesh tied over them so they don't float away. I'll probably squirt water at the cut edges using a pippette or syringe a few times daily to prevent against bacterial infections.

Garrett.

 

[ficklefins]

Nice work Garrett and thank you for documenting it. Please keep us posted with progress pics. Does the tupperware have slits in the side to allow for flow?

 

[143gadgets]

SWEET!!! Which half is mine?

 

[gastone]

Here are pics from this morning.

This one is coming along nicely. It looks to be starting to close up:

This one the guts are clearly visible, but it doesn't look too bad:

It's only been 15 hours give or take, but I am quite hopeful.
More progression pics (good or bad) to follow.
G.

 

[gastone]

Luciano,

no slits in the cup. I'll probably drill a few out this morning.

Chris,

I promised the first frag to Rik (if they survive or course). After that...

G.

 

[FateX8]

wow i never knew atlantis got any red yumas in!
looking good though, ive tried cutting yumas before and the most ive gotten out of 1 yuma is 4 pieces and all survived and after about 4 months all are a little over a quarter size

 

[gastone]

Glad to hear that you've had success fragging fatex. Any suggestions?

I picked these up from Marvin when they were at the old location. There was a group of us WAMAS guys going down to check the place out and he mentioned that he had picked up various yumas. Another guy who made the trip picked up a nice rock with about 6-8 purple yumas. They all perished within a matter of weeks.

Coincidentally I went down to the new store in October(ish) with a newbie buddy of mine. He picked out a nice little mushroom rock for $35. Low and behold on the side of the rock was this incredibly bright red yuma. Wicked bright. Talk about a nice score. Even though I don't do 'shrooms I would have picked up the rock just for the $150-200 freebie. I haven't spoken to him to see if it has survived.

G.

 

[FateX8]

theres really nothing to say about fraggin yumas, all you have to do is cut and heal
thats all i did atleast
i didnt even put on any mesh over it to make sure they stay put, just plopped into tank
no special precautions or anything
what i did notice is that they do take a while to heal up all the way, well not really heal up more than close up but i think that was mainly because i cut too many
if you want them to look normal quickly i think 2 halves is the best way to go but if you want just a ton of them then i think quarters are ok but just have fun waiting for months

 

[gastone]

Day 2. Both halves have attached to the tupperware container and are doing quite well... or so it seem. Pics from the morning after I cleaned their "bowl".

this is the one that has reformed better IMO.

this is the other one. Not quite as completely reformed but attached none-the-less

 

[gastone]

The two halves healed up nicely. So nice that I decided to cut one of them in half again last weekend. I checked on them earlier this week and both of the new halves have attached to a piece of tile.

...and now there are three.

G.

 

[Azurel]

Sweet you a braver man then me.....I have one that looks just like that and I don't have the guts to cut it....

 

[Tankguy001]

Thanks for the demo , I was wondering how it was done

 

[reef-lover]

Great Pictorial...

 

[jeffsreef]

I did this with some of my rics and they did fine

 

[anomie]

Brave, brave man. Glad to hear they are doing well.

 

[drifterstudios]

can we get an updated pic... everything happy again???

 

[gastone]

Up to four now. I've since sliced the other first half in half. If you can't follow that don't worry, neither can I.

But there are 4. I will try to get pics soon.

G.

 

[revhtree]

I'll take one of them!

Nice tutorial and pics!

 

[hardcz]

I'll take one of them!

Nice tutorial and pics!

I'm with rev on this.... I want a frag! Updated pics are always appreciated.