What's the best way to move/frag this coral?

InvertsBestVerts · Feb 27, 2020

This coral came as a hitchhiker on a piece of live rock that I planned on using as a zoa island. All the "stalks" seem to be branching off one large tube just under the rock, is there a way I can move it or is it too young?

reef lover · Feb 28, 2020

Looks like xenia can be invasive. I would scrape it off as close to the rock as possible and move it to its own island. Then kalk paste over whatevers left so it doesnt grow back.

tupes · Feb 28, 2020

Stalks are. Kinda thin to be xenia. Not a clear photo but I'm going with pipe organ. Assuming you are new so you wouldn't have access to a frag kit but you'd want to scrape it off the rock. If you don't get it all it will regrow.

Is there a reason you don't want it or want to move it? As it gets bigger the base should get thicker and make it easier to scrape.

reef lover · Feb 29, 2020

Its growing where his zoa garden is going to be...
I dont believe its pipe organ..
Can we get a whiter pic please.

Tahoe61 · Feb 29, 2020

Could be Anthelia.

InvertsBestVerts · Mar 1, 2020

reef lover said:
Its growing where his zoa garden is going to be...
I dont believe its pipe organ..
Can we get a whiter pic please.

My lights are currently off and the coral closed up so I'll have to wait a bit to take a picture, but as of last night I'm 99% sure this is a type of Xenia. A few stalks have a very subtle pulsing movement to them, maybe once every few minutes. I've been watching it a lot and it's definitely not the water flow doing it, and I don't think they're just reacting to their environment (like a zoa with food or something).

If if is Xenia I might just be better off leaving it there, I really want some but the island would make it easier to deal with.