What you will need

1. Coral snippers
2. A pair of anti-cut gloves
3. Bath of natural sea water
4. A clean sharp scalpel blade
5. Coral dip solution
6. Corallimorph or Ricordea hospital
7. Coral glue
8. New ceramic base tile/frag plug

Fragging Methods

We suggest you remove the individual polyps from the main coral base so you can easily focus on them for the fragging process.

Method 1. Longitudinal Fission - Cut it in half

With this method it is important to cut it right through the mouth, so the healing process begins very quickly.  Cut the coral in half cleanly with the scalpel.  Then use the coral snippers to cut the coral frag base in half.  Put the corals in the coral dip for about a minute.  For corallimorphs as they are soft sensitive tissue you don’t want to leave them in there too long.  This dipping will help to prevent infection.

Method 2. Pedal Laceration- Foot pup cuts

This method is useful when the coral extends past the initial stalk on the base, forming it’s own “foot pup”.  Simply cut the extended tissue off.  We suggest you separate it completely from the parent colony, so that it doesn’t join back in with the parent and take the parent’s energy.  It will then grow by photosynthesizing, followed by forming its own mouth, and then you can feed it.  Once again coral dipping the parent and foot pup is recommended.

Establishing the Frag

Now the pieces are cut up, dipped and are ready to mount.  Soak the tiles in sea water before use.  This will get the bubbles out of the porcelain, so it doesn’t disturb the gluing process. Put glue on the tiles, place the frag on top (preferably still on a bit of frag plug or coral rock).  Drop sea water on top of the coral and the glue.  Whilst helping the coral keep wet and stress free, it also helps set a skin on the glue before you place it in your aquarium.  We then suggest the use of the Corallimorph or Ricordea hospitals to keep your morphs in place after fragging and give them a good chance to grow.  The hospitals are available in the shop at these links.

Want to see this in action then watch our video on Gallery Aquatica TV, Coralimorphs and Ricordea, or Dallas, Tuburina or Gorgonian Frags.