How do I frag Zoanthids IN my tank?

S

Serk

Sorry if this is a really stupid question, but is there a safe and easy way to frag Zoanthids IN my tank? These reddish orange ones, which I think are quite pretty, are growing into plague proportions... They're starting to choke out one of my favorite SPS frags.

I'd much prefer to frag them out and give them to members than treat them as Aptasia, but inaction is no longer an option. I'm concerned that if I just mow 'em down with scissors, they'll release palytoxin into the reef and/or just grow back from where I've trimmed 'em. The rock is part of the main stack, and can't be removed without removing most of my rockwork...

Any ideas/comments?

Thanks!

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Brian,

I guess you could try laying smaller rocks against that one and get it to creep on to those. Then you can give those out to others. You could lay a clam shell over the area that is intruding on your SPS to keep them at bay.

If any of the mat is loose, just pull it off the rock.

Worse comes to worse, pull that baby out and sell it or trade for a rock without zoa'z on it. I know not what you want to do.
 
@737mech wrote:
Worse comes to worse said:
Unfortunately, the rock they're on also has several of my favorite SPS frags epoxy'ed to it... I'll see if I can get any of them to pry up and come loose...

Thanks!

..any other ideas?
Click to expand...
 
This is a crazy idea
If you have a dermal type tool ,hook it up to a flexible shaft

Then you could cut slots into the rock with a diamond wheel or bit
Then break/ fracture the under lining rock

Harbor freight has some cheap tools that are cheap
Ken
 
i dont know about the flexshaft idea.... having taken one apart i dont know about the lubricant and the metals used in the shaft and how they would affect the tank... just a thought
 
As far as reef safe ,a definitely not
It all comes down to $$
Flex shaft 25.00 Bit 5.00
The shaft would probably be trashed after it was in the tank
I think harbor freight has a cheap battery dermal also trashed after being in the tank
Find a way to chip the Zoo's out or rearrange you rock
Either way not fun thing to do

How about injecting them with lemon juice
Or using Joe?s juice
 
Borneman and Calfo demonstrated doing it with a very sharp wood workers chisel.

They set the edge a little way back from the zoa mat and rocked the chisel into the rock an eigth inch or so and then worked they way under the mat until they got to the point where they were able to pop off the section they wanted.

Left a bare rock section but it will fill soon enough.

They did suggest weariing the elbow length gloves "just in case".

Dibs on a frag if it works.
 
I understand your approach (that mowing them down in the tank will release palytoxins) but think that fraggin them has a high likelihood of doing the same.

If you can get the rock out, the SPS will be fine out of water for a few minutes. If not, get a very sharp razor blade and find some loose polyps - there should be a few somewhere on the colony - and start to peel them up. If you're lucky, the mat should just start to peel up. Sooner or later it will tear and if it doesn't, just cut the mat with the razor and you're golden.

I've fragged/mutilated/mowed/mangled many polyps in my tank and have yet to see any ill effects (or any that seemed to be a result of said process, at least). You'll be fine! :)

edit: During mass zoanthid fragging, I didn't worry about gloves but DID wear eye protection. Sometimes those buggers will spray you and you can cross your fingers that it's water and not palytoxin. No one wants to take palytoxin to the eye.
 
Well, the other day I finally attacked the colony. I used a pocket knife that's kinda "sacrificial" to the reef, and dug in around the edges of the colony, then just started pulling 'em out.

Didn't get a WHOLE lot out, but got at least an inch or three clearance between the colony and the SPS they were choking out.

I did hafta use the calc/vinegar method on a few loose polyps that were on the actual base of the SPS. And I had a few polyps kinda "pop" on me while doing this, kinda ooked me out (Sorry to gross out, but reminded me of a giant zit from my teenage days)...

The surviving polyps that I removed I've laid on a bed of seashells in the Anemone tank (Which has kinda become my unofficial frag tank too) to give 'em a chance to attach and recover from their trauma...

Thanks again for the ideas, and even more importantly, the encouragement to just DO it! :)
 
Oh yeah, and what else is interesting is how much their color has changed from being under multiple MH's to being under 2 55w PC's. Their color has gone from the orange/red in the pic above, to a deep, dark almost blood red, VERY different looking!

(Yeah, I'll try to get a pic of them in the anemone tank... No promises though!)
 
Okay, believe it or don't these Zoanthids are from the colony pictured above, only this is under 1 10k 55w PC and 1 Actinic 55w PC:

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Do you think if you lowered them in your tank they would continue to look like that? Since you now have a frag, you can test it. They look so good under the PC's!
-Chuck
 
Brian,
I think you should bring that frag over to my house & test it under my lights to see if they get the same color :mrgreen:

Seriously though if you are interested in selling a few polyps I would be interested in buying.
 
I have not yet tried it, but am going to on my new ones later. I was told buy someone else on the forum to get a piece of rock youi want them on out and cut off the ones you want, and use SUPER GLUE GEL to glue them to the rock and put them back in the tank. :mrgreen:
 
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