How-to frag Palys (with pictures)

[GoFish]

Not the standard way of fragging, also not the easiest, but in my opinion, the most viable if you have the time tools, and patience... quicker easier methods can be found using this and other sites, google, youtube, etc...

This idea came to mind a while ago noticing some random paly heads amongst a nice colony that weren't as nice looking as the the others. So i reached in there and pinched the not so nice heads off with a thumbnail and finger. Days later, problem solved....but, weeks later the not so nice heads came back... seemed weird because i knew i had severed the heads off and discarded them.
After thinking about it several times over a couple months and not wanting to try this on something fancy, it really did seem possible to use this as a method of fragging, as long as the heads i severed would open back up and become healthy enough to re-attach to a new plug.
These Palys had longer stalks which i wasn't a fan of, so thought I'd give it a go

Tools i used.
- new, clean razor blade
- cheapo dollar store krazy glue gel
- a container for holding the heads, and also for placing the plugs into after they have been glued (i used a custom made coral viewer with suction cups on the side) also sand or rubble for bottom of container
- another container to do the fragging in so that water can be discarded
- paper towel
- frag plugs
- safety goggles
- nitrile gloves, or latex, or whatever
- beer (optional) mmmbeer

The image below is sequenced except for the paper towel and gluing part. The colony was removed from the tank and placed in tank water in a separate container. I used an "Easy Blade" stainless razor that was new and clean, and sliced the stalks in the middle on a 90 degree angle as smoothly and cleanly as possible. That water was discarded and new tank water was added to the container holding just the heads with sand on the bottom and placed in the upper corner of the tank, away from direct light, and the rim was only slightly under the water line so not to create too much flow and prevent the heads from floating away. The colony these were taken from was just placed on a frag rack in the corner, also out of intense lighting to allow it to heal. Within hours or a day after slicing the stalks in half, the heads had opened up in the container! I got impatient and didn't give the heads a chance to attach on their own, partly because after i placed them in there realized that i should've used rubble instead. On day 2 i got some paper towel, krazy glue, and plugs. The heads were taken out 1 at a time and dried off at the base, trying not to squish or irritate them too much. after being dried i put a dab of glue on the base and put them onto a plug, after that the frag plugs went back into the container in the tank in a low flow are so the heads would start to attach to the glue and the plug. This same method could most likely be used for zoas as well, the only difference i can see is that palys I've seen tend to have longer stalks, which makes it easy to slice in half (actually i just pretend to know which are which, zoas palys whatvsies). As long as you can cut the head off without damaging its face and leave a portion of the stock, in theory this will work with both. And as with any fragging please don't attempt this with anything you aren't prepared to lose, anything can happen

As you can see from the last picture, that was taken 14 days after slicing the heads off, i left 2 heads on the colony. If you compare the first image of the colony to the last image of the colony, you can see which heads i left alone. The stalks that were sliced have all started regrowing, mouths, skirts and are gaining colour.

You can share, you can sell, and weeks later, its as if nothing happened....Or do it all over again. Enjoy

And if anyone tries this method, please post your experience, GOOD or BAD

Cheers