The elegance coral project - fragging Catalaphyllia jardinei
 

I bought this Australian elegance early last December with the intention of one day fragging it. It arrived much larger than I anticipated and since it has grown and done well for the past 8 months I've decided to cut it earlier than I originally planned.

Some relevant system info:
All lighting are 250W DE Phoenix 14K bulbs in Lumenmax 3 pendants.
There is a little over 200gal total system volume.
System has been running for 5 years.
Nitrate and phosphate have been undetectable for the past year.
I target Ca 420 Alk 9 and Mg 1400 but I'm generally higher.
The elegance:
Has been kept slightly behind one of the pendants in low to moderate flow for the 9 months I've had it. It was sold to me as an Australian by J&L Aquatics. I feed it bits of silverside, krill or squid several times each week. There are no fish or crabs in the frag tank with it. Its quite sticky, so sticky it actually killed and presumably ate one of my turbo snails...

December 4 The day after bringing it home.

http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/h...Picture349.jpg

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May 14 It completely inflated during the day and then closes up completely at night. You can see in the night time shot how much new skeleton has grown since the December pictures.

http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/h...icture1223.jpg

I've actually taken it to a wet tile saw already and cut 1" off of the base to make the skeleton shorter so that it wouldn't sit so high and would be more stable.

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June 13

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August 2 From the top down through my viewing box in the new frag trough sump.

http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/h...do/August2.jpg

After the lights went out with the aid of a little liquid courage from Sailor Jerry I carefully removed the coral to a bucket.

http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/h...o/August21.jpg

I ran it through the bandsaw twice to make three pieces, two with one cut and one with a cut on both ends.

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My bandsaw looking a little gooey.

http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/h...o/August24.jpg

I use a few short lengths of PVC plumbing to brace each of the sections upwards.

http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/h...o/August23.jpg


August 3 The next day the triplets are completely open and looking like nothing happened,

http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/h...do/August3.jpg

August 7 They're still alive but haven't shown much signs of healing.

http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/h...do/August7.jpg

August 9 During the day they continue to inflate as usual.

http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/h...do/August9.jpg

You can see that their internal organs are still showing.

http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/h...o/August92.jpg

August 13 By now an open brain would look almost completely healed but the elegance still show their organs and even some small amount of discharge... I have no idea what that was. It kind of freaked me out because it looked like something was feeding on it.

http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/h...o/August13.jpg

http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/h.../August131.jpg

August 15

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August 21

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Finally after nearly 20 days I see some clear signs that they are healing up. This cut still needs to pull the rest of its organs in.

http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/h...icture1599.jpg

August 29 Last night I took pictures of all of the cut ares to show how they've progressed so far. Two of them look completely healed over while the other two still need another week or more from the looks of it. I'm amazed at how long this has taken. The trachyphyllia that I cut back in May had pulled its guts in and grown a thin layer of tissue after only 10 days.

http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/h...icture1624.jpg

http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/h...icture1631.jpg

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I'll post some more pictures again next weekend. Maybe by then all of them will have completely healed over.

so you selling me a frag of it?

I wonder if you sealed the cutside with crazy glue or glue + sand might help

I don't want to sell any of these for a little while. I'd like to observe them longer until they at least start to grow new skeleton over their cut areas.

I've had great sucess with all of the healthy LPS I've fragged by simply leaving their cut areas exposed and allowing them to heal on their own. I think its the same as when we get a cut on our bodies. Smothering the area under a bandaid inceases the likelyhood of infection and slows the healing process.

Wow, thats brave! Nice work! :cool:

Nice job! and ballsy too!

Pretty cool. I would'nt mind being on the waiting list once they are for sale. I should bring my pagoda cup and tongue coral over and let you hack them up with that bandsaw. They're getting too big for my liking.

In exchange for letting me keep a small frag of the pagoda I could do that. :biggrin: I don't think I would need anymore than a single polyp as I'm just curious to try one as I've never owned a pagoda before. Some time on a weekend would be best. Just give me a shout and bring each in its own bucket with plenty of water.

Looks awesome man. Ill be watching your frag thread closely now to hopefully catch one.

How's about I keep a small peice as well. And you try to sell the other peices if you have room, and we can work something out. Someone always needs something in a pinch. Not much of a supply of stuff in this town as you know.

Great work, Russell. Are you dipping your LPS after a cut? Can you describe the care you take afterward to avoid infection?

I don't dip them but I do discard the water that I use to rinse them after fragging. So after I cut them and put them back in the bucket to transport them back to the tank I dumped the bucket down the drain. I also try to put them back in the same spot so that I'm not stressing them by changing their environment. As I mentioned earlier I also like to make sure that the damaged area gets good water flow around it so I brace newly cut coral up with PVC pipe or sit them on egg crate so that they're not being smothered in the sand or against a rock. Finally, I don't part with any LPS that has been cut until it has completely recovered. I think a lot of coral is heartier than we give it credit for but good risk management never hurts.

The only LPS I've ever lost after fragging was a wall hammer that I cut to try and save it from a brown jelly infection several years ago. I tried doing a lugol's dip on that one but I still lost it. Aside from that incident I only frag coral that is healthy and well established which is why I waited eight months before fragging the elegance.

Its been over a month now since the night I cut my elegance into three. I'll probably post pictures again next week as there are still two spots that have not completely healed to the point of looking normal yet.

September 3 daytime shot

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September 4

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These last two pictures show where this elegance was originally cut from a much larger colony perhaps about a year ago. You can see how the side is relatively flat and then projects outwards into a roundish shape about half way up. You can also see how the skeleton here is porous rather than ridged so clearly this is an old cut area. In time this is how my cuts should look once the coral deposits more calcium as it continues to grow in its usual formation.

http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/h...icture1641.jpg

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WOW nice job Russel, I have always wanted an elegance coral but to afraid to try one that i have seen at the LFS because of the price.

same here ive only ever had two both didnt even make it a month i wanted to get one a while ago since its benn several months since ive tried but the price was too high:):)

great job russell when i see you doing this it makes me want to just go in and start fgragging stuff lol:):)

I bought this one for $150 which wasn't too bad... or maybe I'm just desensitized because of the high price of everything in this hobby. If it had died right away like the Indonesian one I tried a few years ago that would have done me in. But considering how much it has grown and how well its recovering I think its safe to say that its here to stay.

Now if only I could get my hands on a super expensive scolymia and frag it....

Its the frag on the left and the one in the middle that I am still waiting for. I must have hit a mouth on those two cuts and that is why they are taking longer to heal. You can see in the second picture that there is some tasty looking discharge coming out. I'm not concerned as I'm pretty sure its just pooping from its disfigured mouth.

September 11

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pearl coral
 

I have a huge pearl coral that i would like to frag, do you think a band saw is better than a dremel tool?

Definitely. The bandsaw can cut deeper, is actively cooled, the mess is contained and its stationary. A rotary tool cant cut much deeper than 1", can get pretty hot, sprays everywhere and is awkward to use while holding a slimy coral at the same time.

Blade
 

What type of blade did you use (teeth per inch) fine or coarse?

Just the standard diamond blade that came with the saw. http://www.inlandcraft.com/singlepro...&partnum=90007

saws
 

Oh so a tile saw would work as well. I had no idea that you can get a diamond blade for a band saw.