axial fragging question

[JoshF]

Hi Anthony (and anyone else who's doing this) I've been plowing through the fav links here and at Marine Depot and see reference after reference to axial cuts of stony corals into 1/4 inch discs. This makes complete sense from the perspective of various articles in that it make the best use of coral biomass into marketable frags.

The only disconnect is the rule of thumb I've seen about making very tiny frags and reduced mortality. I'm assuming that the axial cuts work best when the coral is in monoculture to reduce post-fragging stress. Is it the allelopathy that reduces the viability of small frags when multiple types of corals are fragged together?

Anyway, this is what I gathered from putting together a lot of different farming and fragging articles in my head, so essentially I'm just looking to make sure I didn't completely misunderstand something along the way!

Also, if anyone has pictures of stony corals growing out after being sliced into discs on a wet-saw, I'd love to see them!

As many others have said, thanks for the wealth of info that you've provided into the hobby as well as injecting MANY doses of reality on farming, the industry, and reducing the footprint of our hobby on the reefs. Keep up the good work!

Josh

P.S. I'm about to start building a farm system with three 6' x 3' by 16" plywood tanks. Eventually I'd like to expand into an outdoor greenhouse, but I must convince my wife that it's feasible! Anyway, I look forward to the new edition of the BOCP and I'll be ordering some posters soon!

 

[Anthony Calfo]

you are very welcome my friend... and thanks for the kind words

As for the smaller frag sizes... no, it snot allelopathy principally (though it is an influence) that increases morbidity and mortality in frags, its the smaller mass of living tissue that is less able to sustain injury and susequent stress (if any more follows as with relocation happy fraggers)

More mass... greater survivability, short and sweet.

 

[JoshF]

Well, then I'll admit I'm a little confused.

So here's a quote from one of your threads:
"But do you know what's better than 4-6 new branches off of a bilaterally split coral frag? 20+ branches! And we get this by instead sawing the 2"/5 cm frag into say five 10mm disks/wafers! (done with a thin wet tile saw blade or lapidary saw blade as some of you have seen Eric Borneman or myself do in frag workshops... see 2005 IMAC and/or MACNA DVDs)."

Am I missing something, or do you simply accept a higher mortality rate with this type of fragging and know that the overall productivity is higher? Or is it a "try-it-and-see" which corals this works for or not in an individual system.

In other words, from a farming perspective how effective is this as a production technique versus a more conservative approach.

At this point, it's mostly academic interest as I'm more interested in jumping on the anemone bandwagon. It's a good bandwagon, and I'm pretty sure I heard some Rush blaring from the speakers....

Thanks again!

Josh

 

[Anthony Calfo]

When making wafers... you will see that someone like myself that is absolutely militant about monocultures, QT and conditioning (not even thinking about fragging a coral that is less than 4 months established and has been power fed) has little to no mortality whatsoever with such small frags.

But the way MOST (impatient) aquarists frag their newly acquired, never been (target) fed and toxic soup (garden reef heavy species mix) living specimens.... ... Ahhhh, mortality is higher.

But the reason for why is no mystery. This is not rocket science. Frankly, it is very fundamental animal husbandry.

 

[JoshF]

When making wafers... you will see that someone like myself that is absolutely militant about monocultures, QT and conditioning (not even thinking about fragging a coral that is less than 4 months established and has been power fed) has little to no mortality whatsoever with such small frags.

Okay, then I WAS paying attention while reading your FAV links!

Good deal. I see all sorts of prop set-ups and almost NEVER see monoculture. Thanks for the clarification, and get some sleep! It's almost midnight Seattle, so if you're in PA and not off in some other time zone turn off Purple Rain, put down the chocolate chip cookie, and go to bed! Hope to see you at a Puget Sound Aquarium Society meeting again. The presentation a couple years back was great!

Thanks again,

Josh

 

[Anthony Calfo]

heehee... sorry I missed this post earlier. What a hoot I'm looking forward to getting back to PSAS too, my friend