Introduction
From 1998 to 2005 I ran my own Coral Farming business,
called The Other World. As well as propagating a large variety of
coral species, part of my 'mission' was to encourage other fishkeepers
to have a go at propagating their own corals. One of the most popular
parts of The Other World's website was my coral propagation guide,
parts of which are reproduced on Gabooch.co.uk. Below is a brief
description of my method for propagating LPS (Large Polyp Stony)
corals.
What you need:
Method
Step 1 - Select a healthy parent
coral to propagate from. You should look for an animal that is growing
well, showing good polyp extension (where applicable), displaying
good colouration and is generally in an all round healthy condition.
Step 2 - Select the branch / section
of coral you wish to remove, and snap it from the parent animal
cleanly and quickly. With many LPS corals, the skeleton may crumble
as you do this - be sure to snap the branch well below the lowest
section of tissue, so as to leave some 'clear' space beneath it.
The red line in the picture below shows where to snap a Trumpet
coral branch.
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Just snap here -
how to propagate a Trumpet coral! |
Step 3 - It may be possible to
attach small cuttings to a small piece of substrate, but this is
rarely feasible as the cutting is likely to be fairly large, and
with a jagged 'break' which will probably not glue to a substrate
easily. You can either leave the base of the cutting as it is, or
else carefully push it into a small "ball" of Milliput
and allow it to set around the base of the cutting. Milliput will
set underwater within a few hours.
Step 4 - Place the new frag in
a suitable position in the tank - preferably with the same amount
of water movement and light as the parent coral was in. The frag,
and the parent, should extend their polyps/tissue within an hour
or so. If you have left the bottom of the cutting 'bare' simply
wedge it into a small crevice in the rockwork. If you have sealed
the bottom of the cutting in Milliput, the frag should stand on
the bottom of the tank.
Step 5 - Rinse any equipment you
have used in freshwater, to remove any coral mucus and saltwater.
Wash your hands thoroughly!
IMPORTANT WARNING: It is easy
to damage the tissue of Torch and Frogspawn corals, so avoid touching
the tissue at all costs. Typically damaged tissue will become infected;
the infection often "consuming" the entire cutting.
I have used this technique on trumpet corals, torch
corals and frogspawn corals.
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