Fragging a Duncanopsammia axifuga updated with pics Jan 3-09
 

My Duncanopsammia Axifugia (Whisker Coral) fell onto an Acropora colony in my tank today and the acro seems to have won the battle with the Whisker Coral losing 30 some heads. :sad: I think I'm going to have to do some fragging of the Whisker Coral to clean it up. Does anyone have instructions, pictures or links on how to do this?

it isn't particularly hard to do. get a dremel with a carbide cut-off wheel or multi purpose bit (anything that will cut through skeleton cleanly); a fine hacksaw will do too i think. if you can just cut off a branch that would be best, but if yours grows like the typical mound like most read on.

1)make the colony close up completely
2) remove from tank (it will slime a lot) and think about where you're going to cut
3)have at it and try to get as clean a cut as possible. this is obviously the most important part
4) super glue the skeleton to a plug or something. finito

try to keep each frag to at least a full polyp; i suspect half polyps might actually be fine though.

Acros aren't warriors and duncans can be drama queens, but they are very hardy corals. no guarantee, but if it's just closed up, it might actually recover without fragging. I would give it a day or to to see if it gets worse; if it does, then chop out the bad bits. is the tissue actually receded and dead?

here's some fragging pics (not mine). scroll down about three quarters. title: "Duncan frag time...":
http://blogs.frags.org/member.php?uid=4043

I just use coral clippers on a dead skeleton, or a diamond blade on a live skeleton

Make sure you get the Super Glue GEL...not regular super glue. I used the regular stuff for a long time and then finally tried the gel and was like what the-- have I been missing...

Now I just want to superglue all kinds of stuff, not just frags. I superglue GEL'd a button back onto a chair today. I fragged a digi last night just to get to superglue GEL it to different rocks. Superglue GELing monti's is especially fun I find. You get to use a lot ;)

I love the GEL. I don't even look at regular superglue anymore when I go to Home Depot.

I would frag your duncan don't take any chances even if you come out with 1 head it will be a colony in a year. I lost mine after growing it from 1 head to five it fell got stung and within 3 days it was bare boned unfortunately the heads were all connected. I aquired a half decent head and fed the shi% out of it for 6 months it's easily 15+ heads now.

Here's some pictures of the 2 corals that had a battle earlier this week.

This is one of the Acro that inflicted the damage and suffered no damage:

http://i417.photobucket.com/albums/p...y/IMG_0203.jpg

And here's the one who suffered the damage. It's not extended right now, as the lights just came on. All of the empty heads are the ones that died. I've been feeding it daily with Mysis to try and keep it healthy. I think I'll leave it a few weeks before trying to clean it up.

http://i417.photobucket.com/albums/p...y/IMG_0204.jpg

Your Duncan coral looks like it will survive just fine. i would do as you already are, just feed it well for a couple weeks, and reassess damage then. If it recedes a lot more though, then I would move in and remove all the dead tissues.

Just for the record that isn't an acro it's a hydnophora and I'd be careful what you put next to it, they can be very aggressive

Thank you Marie.

It was my first SPS coral purchase and sold to me as a Staghorn Acro. I always thought something wasn't quite right about it. Never posted any pictures of it before as I thought I must be doing something wrong for it to be extended so long all the time.

In the new tank, I've placed it all by itself. Should be able to keep it out of trouble for awhile. At night with only the Actinics on it does turn a beautiful flourescant green.

Did you end up fragging the duncan? I often wondered how difficult that would be. If you happen to frag it and feel like fragging even a single head as an extra ::hint, hint:: I'd buy one from you :biggrin:

Would that fragging method also work for an elegance?

I'm going to give it a few weeks to recover and then take a look at it. If it grows as much in the next 8 months as it has in the last 8 months, I will definately be fragging. In Feb of this year I had 10 heads and before this incident it had grown to over 60.

Wow, that's amazing growth:surprise: I bought a very nice & very large elegance that I'm sure I'll have to learn how to frag at some point so that it doesn't completely take over my tank.
I've been wanting some Duncans for a bit now so keep me in mind if you do frag. They're so beautiful and my tank is going to be LPS dominated.

as I stated before because most duncans have heads together in a clump or bundle if 1 gets stung then every head sprouting in the bunch will soon follow suit..... Hydronorpha have deadly sting and can send sweepers about 4in long at night from the pics there are a few branches that are seperate although on a few of those branches in the back row the heads look unhappy. Take it for what it's worth but mine wiped completely out in less than a week.

yes the hydropora coral is the coral killer. and i have been looking for duncan for so long ....... i need some of yours

just curious, about how long was it in contact with the bad guy to inflict that much damage?

Noir, fragging elegance is very difficult as it is already a sensitive coral. A Jewellers rock saw with a diamond wheel is usually whats recommended for elegance to ensure a nice clean cut, also make sure both pieces being cut have mouths.

Yikes, sounds tricky. I might be affraid of killing the whole thing. I'm hoping I'll be fine for a few years yet.......I hope. Thanks.

I really don't think it was that long. The Hydronorpha can get upset very quickly when something touches it. It send out white stringy things that are very sticky. I'm sure that when the Whisker coral retracted it pulled the white strings with it and they eventually covered the openings.

I agree...if you frag it...I would buy a couple of heads off of you.....

I would wait a week or two though......I think they may be ok....

And here's the one who suffered the damage.
http://i417.photobucket.com/albums/p...y/IMG_0204.jpg[/quote]

Here's a picture of it today. Amazing comeback. I spent 4 days after the accident pulling gobs of brown goo out of the skeleton, then feeding it everyday. The heads are still small but it is growing.
http://i417.photobucket.com/albums/p...IMG_0231-1.jpg

nice recovery I hope you moved the hydronorpha far away so another disaster wont happen ever again!!