How to Frag Your First Coral

How to Frag your First Coral

Do you keep soft corals in your aquarium? Have you ever bought a coral frag from your local fish store, or a fellow hobbyist and wondered just how exactly they did it? Have you thought about fragging coral in your aquarium, but weren’t sure where to start?

This article is written to show you how to have success fragging coral for your saltwater aquarium.

 

 

Very simply, coral fragging is the process of cutting, breaking, or otherwise sub-dividing a coral colony. While it may seem harsh to break apart a coral, you should know that coral are genetically programmed to survive and even flourish in these conditions. I’ve written about it before—

http://saltwateraquariumblog.com/fragging-coral-embryos

Even newly formed coral embryos successfully grew after being fragmented in a laboratory experiment. Plan and simple—reproducing and growing via fragmentation is in their DNA. The coral do the hard part—(healing, settling, reorganizing and growing), all you do is assist with the fragmentation.

If this is your first time fragging a coral, one of the easiest specimens to start with belong to the group of corals commonly called ‘mushroom corals’. These guys grow on rocks as individual, large, fleshy polyps. They routinely ‘frag’ themselves either by splitting (a process where the polyp forms two mouths and eventually splits itself down the middle) or by budding, where a piece of the foot of the mushroom pinches off and forms a new polyp.

In my experience, just about any sliver of a mushroom coral can and will reproduce a new polyp, no matter where it is cut from, and no matter how small. That is why I recommend these coral as a first –choice for fragging.

One note of caution—you should never try to frag newly purchased corals. You should let them acclimate to your aquarium conditions for a couple months, undisturbed before trying this. Once you feel certain the coral is growing well, you are ready to begin.

Materials:

• 1 brand new razor blade
• 1 small bowl
• 1 piece of live rock rubble or other substrate to attach your frag to
• 1 small patch of plastic mesh (from a bag of fruit, or wedding veil material from a fabric store, etc.)
• 1 rubber band

Step 1: Pull out the entire rock that the coral is attached to. You don’t want to frag the coral in your tank if you don’t have to. It’s best to pull the rock out. The rock will be wet—very wet, so make sure you place it in a bowl or on a stack of paper towels to minimize the mess

Step 2: Take the razor blade and slice off a piece of the mushroom coral. As I mentioned before, almost any piece will do. My preferred ‘method’ if you can call it that, is to try and cut the entire cap off of the mushroom coral—by using the razor blade to slice horizontally across the stalk, leaving the foot (the part of the coral stuck to the rock) behind.

Step 3: Fill the small bowl with aquarium water and drop the piece of the mushroom in—you’ll likely see some white stringy material hanging from the fresh-cut fragment, and you’ll see some brown stuff ooze out.

Step 4: After a very brief dip in the bath, take the fresh-cutting out of the water, place it on the live rock rubble (outside of the bowl) and dump the fouled water.

Step 5: Wrap the live rock rubble up with the plastic mesh and hold in place with the rubber band

Step 6: Gently place the rubble in an area of your tank with low flow and return the rock with your mother colony back to its original location in your tank.

Step 7: Wait…this is the second hardest part.

Step 8: After some time, you will notice that the damaged stalk will grow a new discoid-shaped head, and the piece of coral you cut free will naturally attach to the live rock.

Step 9: Once your frag has settled and attached to the rock, you can safely remove the plastic mesh and glue the rubble to the final location in your aquarium.

Congratulations. You have successfully fragged your first coral. It’s really that easy.  Now, trade that frag with a fellow hobbyist and share this article with them, so they can do the same thing.

Fighting like cats and….fish?

Fighting like cats and…fish?

Check out this amusing (and quick) youtube video. Even though this is saltwateraquariumblog.com, I thought you would enjoy this freshwater aquarium situation. If you have a cat in your house, much like I do, you’ll find the scene all too familiar. I’ve often wondered what would happen if the cat actually caught one of my fish. While this video doesn’t answer THAT question, it answers the opposite–what would happen if the FISH got a hold of the cat.

Check it out, I laughed my caudal fin off.

A few fun aquarium links

A few fun aquarium links

 
A lot of the time I try to create blog posts that empart something I have learned about the hobby (a lot of the time through my own errors). But I think the nice Spring weather here has mellowed me out. I thought it would be fun to just share with you some of the cool content that others have created–that I have consumed over the last few days.  The first thing is a link that was sent to me by my father. It’s a 360-degree panoramic underwater view of a reef in New Caledonia, by Richard Chesher. Check out the link here:

http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/2EZU2j/:E6$j9v_@:1OggyI$F/www.360cities.net/image/symbiosis-coral-blue-lagoon-new-caledonia/

If you view the page on your iPhone or iPad, the panoramic view is interactive and intuitive. I spent way too much time looking at these here.

Finally, in the spirit of being helpful and having some fun, I thought I’d share this YouTube video that I found. The author takes you through a quick, but informative photography lesson and then shows you how to take cool pictures of your aquarium.  Enjoy.

Bare Bottom Reefing

Bare bottom reefing

 

If you are setting up an aquarium in the near future, one of the decisions you will have to make is whether you want to go with a bare bottom. I’m not kidding. Bare bottom reefing is the rage these days—so if you don’t want people to make fun of your DSB, you should take note. Alright, you caught me. I went for the easy puns and sensationalistic language to get your attention. Did it work? Let me take a step back to explain what I’m talking about.  

 

What does it mean to have a bare bottom tank?  

 

It is when you set up your aquarium with no sand or crushed coral along the bottom. As the name implies, you leave the bottom bare (I know, scandalous, right?) In its simplest form, a simple fish-only aquarium (like the one in your local fish store) qualifies as a bare bottomed tank. But even advanced aquarists may choose to go bare-bottomed with their reef tanks.

What does DSB stand for?

 

DSB is an abbreviation for Deep Sand Bed. Whereas bare bottomed tanks have no substrate on the bottom of the aquarium, a tank with a deep sand bed has at least a 4inch (or deeper) layer of sand or crushed coral on the bottom.  

 

So, why the controversy?

 

Well, let’s face it, if you’re serious about this hobby, you must have free time.  And what do people do with extra time? Spend money and argue…so…it is a perfect fit. Deep Sand Bed

Pros:

• DSBs harbor beneficial critters like copepods, amphipods and other invertebrates.
• Even more significantly, DSBs provide a significant amount of substrate to harbor beneficial bacteria that add life-sustaining biological filtration capacity to the tank
  • Shallow areas of the DSB provide ‘the usual’ filtration steps of turning ammonia into nitrite and nitrite into nitrate
  • Deep areas of DSB (areas where oxygen can’t reach) actually harbor bacteria that take nitrates OUT of the water, essentially lowering aquarium nitrates
• DSBs are a pH buffer and source of calcium for the reef tank
• DSBs provide a home for burrowing creatures like engineer gobies, jawfish snails and other creatures

Cons:

• DSBs take up valuable real estate in the aquarium that could be filled with more attractive things like coral or live rock
• Sand from DSBs could possibly leach silicates or phosphates into the water, leading to problem algae or cyanobacteria growth
• DSBs can form ‘dead zones’ where noxious chemicals build up from the de-nitrification process. If too much of the gunk gets ‘churned up, the release of the chemicals into the aquarium could cause problems

 

Bare Bottomed Tanks

Pros:

• Easier to keep the bottom detritus free and clean
• You can use as much flow as you want without fear of blowing around a lot of sand
• Less risk of introducing silicates or other contaminants to fuel possible algal growth

Cons:

• Loss of beneficial surface area for biological filtration
• More difficult to keep burrowing species healthy

 

Conclusion

 

Like most things in life, there are pros and cons to whichever method you choose. Don’t sit on the sidelines, don’t straddle the fence. Pick a side and join the debate. Bare bottom or DSB… which do you prefer?

Sweeper Tentacle Epiphany

I’m not sure how you feel about it, but whenever I imagine the ‘ideal’ reef aquarium, I conjure a vision in my mind of a bountiful, reef tank chock full of corals. The hypothetical aquarium is an aquatic cornucopia with SPS, LPS, leather coral, mushrooms and more all living together, filling nearly every square inch of rock work, cascading in all directions. That vision has been ingrained in my mind since the first day I decided “I have to have a reef tank.” Do you share my vision?

In fact, I have seen pictures of a few tanks that look like that. Almost every ‘tank of the week’ that you will see on other aquarium websites looks like that. I want my tank to look like that. But it doesn’t.  

The reason I’m writing about this now is because I had a bit of an epiphany this weekend related to my previous image of what the ideal tank should look like. I took my kids to the Adventure Aquarium, which is a pretty cool public aquarium in Camden, NJ. I brought my camera with me and  took as many pictures as I could before my kids would drag me onward to towards the next exhibit.  They don’t nearly have the same nerd-power that I do, but they are still young…I’ll work on that.

The kids were really interested in this display that allowed them to crawl under and then pop their heads up into a ‘bubble’ that allowed them to look through the tanks from the inside-out.

Of course, while they were doing that, it was my opportunity to take pictures of an adjacent coral display. There were electric-looking brain corals, hairy mushrooms the size of dinner plates, and then I noticed this humble-looking favid species, tucked in between. I wasn’t blown away by the colors, but I distinctly remember thinking to myself, that it was so ordinary that it looked peaceful…tranquil. So, I checked back on the girls playing ‘prairie dog’ popping up and down along the display of aquaria, and then finally, ‘click’ I snapped the photograph.

When I got home, I pulled out my SD card and downloaded the images. I flipped through, sometimes impressed with the sharpness of the photos, other times disappointed at the grainy, blurry images. When I got to the picture of the ‘peaceful’ favid, I was shocked to see that the image wasn’t peaceful at all. Extending precariously from a polyp near the base, I noticed the long, thin profile of a menacing sweeper tentacle.   

 I’ve definitely seen my share of sweeper tentacles before—it’s not like it was the first time I had ever seen one, but I think the surprise was in capturing this ‘hostile’ act in what I thought was going to be a tranquil picture. That image really gave me pause.  

The realization I had come to is this: while this hobby may be a stress relieving, peaceful activity for us—every day is still a life and death battle for invertebrates in our care.  The coral don’t know they are ‘supposed to’ be tranquil. They simply carry out the actions coded for in their genes. Sometimes, that program says… “begin war with the coral next to you. Take it out at all costs.”

Please forgive the anthropomorphic liberties I took there, but I think you get the point. As much as we may want them to be, our tanks may not be the placid paradise we want them to be for our corals. And while the natural coral reef environment may look like an underwater city with coral ‘skyscrapers’ racing to the surface and occupying every possible millimeter of substrate, the reality is that what looks like a seemingly placid underwater scene could be characterized as a violent battle (in some cases) fought on a coral-by-coral basis.

So maybe the ideal tank shouldn’t be crammed to the brim with different colonies. Maybe the ‘tank of the week’ shouldn’t be so loaded that any minor blip in water parameters is likely to cause a catastrophic cascade of events that causes a significant die-off.

These coral are in our stewardship, but they are battling for their lives every day. Can we agree, as hobbyists, to try to take that into consideration when we plan out our tanks?

I hope this doesn’t come across as too preachy. But that simple little sweeper tentacle really gave me pause, and I was wondering if anyone else out there felt the same way.

What do you think, am I being to sappy, or do we owe it to the invertebrates in our tank to provide enough space for them to coexist without provoking them to initiate war on their coral neighbors? 

The next time you find yourself daydreaming about what new frag you want to glue into that 1 x 1 inch bit of space between your frogspawn and your zoanthid polyps—try to remember this article—and that one little sweeper tentacle in the image above. And let’s band together and vote for the tank of the week…that gives each colony enough space to grow without being attacked by the other corals around it.

Six Simple Words for Aquarium Success:

Six Simple Words for Aquarium Success:

Water changes, water changes, water changes…

  

 

Perform 10-20% partial water changes weekly

 

When I was younger, I used to play basketball—and I remember my Uncle telling me that the most important things to practice on my own came down to five simple words: “run, run, run, run, run.” While the life lesson there has stuck with me all of these years, I don’t think I embraced his advice at the time. What I realize now, however, is that there was some sweet simplicity in his advice. At the time, I was more focused on teaching myself how to dribble through my legs—or behind-the-back—I wanted to have fun, I wanted to look good.

Unfortunately, my Uncle isn’t a fish nerd, like me. But if he was, he would give this advice to anyone interested in keeping an aquarium—it comes down to six words: “water changes, water changes, water changes.”

There are endless additives, supplements and foods you can add to your aquarium. You can dose vodka in your reef tank to eliminate nitrates and phosphates, you can install LED lights to simulate moonlight in hopes of creating a more natural environment for your coral, but few things can make such a universally positive impact on your aquatic ecosystem like a nice partial water change.

So don’t over-think things. Don’t focus too much on “looking cool,” instead, focus on doing the common things uncommonly well. In this hobby, that means performing partial water changes regularly with a high quality salt mix. In the end, it will help improve almost all of the other things you hope to do in your tank.

What’s the next piece of equipment or DIY project you’re planning? When was the last time you did a partial water change? If you’re like me, you have a bunch of answers to the first question—and you grudgingly could figure out (using your fingers and toes to count/remember) when your last water change was. Feels the same way I did when my Uncle would ask me about the last time I went running. Maybe I’ll head out for a jog…right after I make a couple of buckets of water.

Fragging Coral Embryos

A recent study at the Australian Institute of Marine Science has shown that some coral species are capable of being fragged (reproduced asexually when a fragment breaks off and starts a new, genetically identical clone) even in an embryonic stage. Saltwater aquarists have been fragging corals for years, however this latest discovery demonstrates that this remarkable reproductive strategy is present even in some coral embryos.   

The scientists conducted the study by subjecting the embryos to turbulent water flows in order to simulate water movement that could be comparable to natural wave action at a reef. What they found is that the water movement actually fragmented the embryos. But that wasn’t enough to stop these evolutionary marvels. Fragmented and unfragmented coral embryos both settled out of the water column and created new colonies. 

For me, this is just further evidence of how remarkably advanced these animals are. It always amazed me that tiny fragments of an adult specimen could be used to clone the mother colony, but it seems like another thing entirely that a small, newly fertilized embryo is also capable of the same Darwinian feat of survival. It just demonstrates that this ability to asexually reproduce by fragging is in the DNA at a cellular (or even sub-cellular) level.

A special thank you to ZOO MED LABS  for their sponsorship of this website.

For more information about the scientific discovery about coral embryo fragments, read the Fragging Coral Embryos story

How to Keep the Moorish Idol

How to Keep the Moorish Idol

 

Bob Fenner wrote an interesting article, posted on Fishchannel.com , about keeping the Moorish Idol, Zanclus cornutus, in captivity. Bob presents some helpful advice on keeping the fish. For one thing, he mentions that the fish are found mostly in pairs in the wild–and therefore recommends that aquarists interested in keeping these fish also attempt to keep them in pairs. Bob recommends keeping them in established, reef quality, very large tanks with non-boisterous tankmates and plenty of room to retreat and hide.  He reports observing successful specimens fed a pellet diet, but encourages a range of foods, including sponges, which make up a significant portion of their diet in the wild.

The article has the potential to spark a healthy debate–because the survival rate is so low with these fish, one could make a very sound argument against attempting to keep the fish at all. Articles like this (and my article too, I suppose) may only fan the flames of consumer demand and therefore cause more Moorish Idols to be taken out of the wild and shipped in styrofoam to their imminent death.

On the flip side, if people like Bob don’t help  us to keep pushing the limits of what we know and can accomplish in this hobby, the hobby would stagnate. If we look back at the origins of the saltwater aquarium hobby, many fish that are common today suffered unbearable mortality rates in captivity. Who knows, maybe someday we will look back and wonder why we had so much trouble rearing these fish at all. But one thing is for sure–if we don’t advance the body of knowledge we have about keeping these fish in captivity, we never will improve those mortality rates. And because of that, I commend Bob for putting some helpful advice together to help build the knowledge base for these fish.

Don’t take my word for it, check out the full article by Bob about keeping the Moorish Idol, but come back and let me know what you think. Have you ever tried to keep the Moorish Idol? Do you think we should ban the importation, since they suffer such a high mortality rate?

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Image by waffries, creative commons license Flickr

Alloblennius frondiculus

Alloblennius frondiculus

A new species of blenny was recently discovered in the Indian Ocean. The fish, Alloblennius frondiculus, whose species name in Latin translates to “small leaf,” is named so because of a beautiful mark, called a cirrus, located behind its eyes.  A. frondiculus is the fifth species to be classified in the genus Alloblennius. The diminutive fish, 2.3 cm in length, was recently described in the journal Zootaxa. The fish was found near-shore at a depth of less than 9 feet, swimming among algae-covered rocks in an area exposed to wave action from the open ocean.

Here is a link to more information about Alloblennius frondiculus and to see a picture of this gorgeous fish

Here is a link to the scientific  journal article describing the species in more detail

The Five Dumbest Things I’ve Done as an Aquarium Hobbyist

I’ve done my fair share of dumb things, and I thought maybe sharing them with you will help start the healing…or at least help me get half-way to the ten dumbest things I’ve done list.

5) Siphoned gallons of water onto the floor

 Don’t pretend like you haven’t done that too. I’ve done this more times than I care to count. This symptom is commonly foreshadowed by one of the two following thoughts:  “I’ll be back in a second—way before the bucket fills up”…or, instead of taking the siphon out of the tank, “I’ll just stick the hose back up under the aquarium canopy, it will be safe there…”

4) Left a glass heater plugged in and not in the water

I don’t run my quarantine tank all the time—I break it down when not in use—however I have a habit of burning out heaters in the process. So dumb. Have you ever done this?

3) Poured a beta fish down the drain accidently while performing a water change

I loved my beta fish. He sat on the counter in a bowl. I had him for nearly 3 years. He was an old friend. I had even transported him back and forth to work several times. I had changed his water countless times—so many times, I obviously became quite relaxed about the changes. Any time I poured water out, he swam strongly upstream, away from the ‘business end’ of the water-flow…that is every time except the last time. I wasn’t paying attention, I was doing one of my fast water changes…and he sloughed right out of the bowl and down the drain in the kitchen sink. He stopped in the garbage disposal (NOT ON), I reached in and grabbed him, but my hand was disgusting when I brought him back out. Not sure how to describe the nastiness that lives down there. Predictably, he died the next day. Please, please, please, don’t ever change water like this.

2) Added shrimp to my display tank housing a large wild-caught flame cardinal fish

Trip to the fish store literally took 120 minutes round-trip. Acclimation took roughly 25 minutes. The shrimp was gone before it drifted 2 inches in the water column. GULP. Antennae sticking out of the flame cardinal fish’s mouth, taunting me for the next few hours.

1) Stuck my hand in a tank after being shocked, multiple times

So, there was a stray current running through my tank. How was I to know? I stuck my hand in the tank and reflexively jumped back, shouting “ye-ow!” Alright, it was probably an expletive. I stood there, no doubt with a stupefied look on my face (actually, that’s the only look I have), and stuck my hand back in. “Ouch. What the blank was that?” Stuck my OTHER hand back in (because clearly it must have been a practical joke my right-hand was playing on my mind). “Blank, that feels like an electric shock.” And, just to prove how dumb I really am…Zap… “yes… that has to be electricity.” But, perhaps it’s not that bad…maybe Ben Franklin got started that way.

How about you? Please tell me I’m not alone. Come clean. Confess. You’ll feel better. I do. That is, until you start heckling me.