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-   -   The elegance coral project - fragging Catalaphyllia jardinei (http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=67623)

whatcaneyedo 08-29-2010 05:38 PM

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

http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/h...Picture346.jpg

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.

http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/h...icture1200.jpg

June 13

http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/h...icture1278.jpg

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.

http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/h...o/August22.jpg

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

http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/h...icture1502.jpg


August 21


http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/h...icture1572.jpg

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

http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/h...icture1629.jpg

http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/h...icture1628.jpg

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

Milad 08-29-2010 05:42 PM

so you selling me a frag of it?

fencer 08-29-2010 05:44 PM

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

whatcaneyedo 08-29-2010 05:59 PM

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.

christyf5 08-29-2010 06:14 PM

Wow, thats brave! Nice work! :cool:

Lance 08-29-2010 08:36 PM

Nice job! and ballsy too!

Madreefer 08-29-2010 09:38 PM

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.

whatcaneyedo 08-29-2010 10:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Madreefer (Post 544833)
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.

zum14 08-29-2010 11:39 PM

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

Madreefer 08-30-2010 02:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by whatcaneyedo (Post 544850)
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.

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.


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