What is the correct way to frag Duncans?

V

vushnick

Premium Member
I have a colony with about 30+ heads and I want to see if I can frag it. I have a 10" diamond blade wet saw in my garage but not dremel tool. Can I use the wet saw or is that just overkill? Can I frag off single heads using a large plier/clipper? I'm just afraid because althought they have separate heads the fleshy part seems to be interconnected. Any help from anyone with success in this area would be greatly appreciated. Also, should I buy so new frag plugs or just use live rock rubble?

Thanks,
Vu
 
Dont take my word for it, but I believe there are two kinds of duncans....branching and colonizing (?). The branching ones obviously branch out kind of like a hammer coral and it easier to frag. The colonizing (?) grow more together and to frag you it you may have to sacrifice healthy heads. I've got the same kind you have with over 60 heads on it now and I just can not bring my self to frag it.
 
I know. Looks painful to cut and really don't want to risk the whole colony dying just to gain some frags. If anyone else has any other views feel free to chime in.
 
Thanks acroholic. I will probably try the dremel and see what happens. Out of the 30 heads, how many single of doubles should I do at one time? Don't want to shock the colony if there is such a thing. Otherwise, I may try to do 10 or so frags and leave the mother colony with about 15 heads left.

Vu
 
I had to frag my duncans when the polyps underneath couldn't get light and difficult to get food to them. So I used a dremel for the branches I couldn't break with the coral cutters. I probably used the wrong blade for the dremel as I used one of the cutting wheels and it scorched on the coral branch. The branches I cut off had anywhere from 2 heads to 6 heads. I only cut on the long part of the branch and not close to the heads.
 
Hi Dep. So lets say the colony looks like a mushroom cap with fingers proturding from it. You only cut the fingers near the top of the mushroom cap and not the cap itself? I was thinking about cutting straight down through the mushroom cap as well. What do you think?
 
A picture is worth a thousand words, eh. So hope this helps.

Here's the mother colony. I've circled a previously cut area, and drew a line where I would cut for another frag.

[attachment=1]duncan cut.jpg[/attachment]




Here is a picture of one of the cut frags.

[attachment=0]duncan frag.jpg[/attachment]
 
Hi Acro. I wish that was me doing it. It was actually Dep trying to show me how he did his. It's been a busy two weeks for me so I haven't had time to even attempt it. I will definitely to to make time this weekend and see how it goes. Thanks for all the advice guys.

Vu
 
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