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 Pulsing corals.
What you need:
| Substrate |
| Scissors / Scalpel |
| Needle & Thread |
| Superglue |
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 (and pulsing well!), 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 cut it from the parent animal cleanly,
with a pair of scissors or a scalpel. The cutting will shrink a
little, as will the parent. The parent coral should recover from
this within an hour or so, and the 'wound' should completely heal
within a week (maximum).
Step 3 - There are two ways of
attaching Pulsing coral cuttings to their substrate:
Firstly you can use a needle and thread to 'stitch'
the cutting onto the substrate (if you are using a Milliput 'plug',
punch a hole for the threads at either end when you prepare it!).
The stitching should be fairly tight, but not excessively so, as
this will damage the tissue. As a rough guide, you should not be
able to see "daylight" between the cut base of the cutting
and the substrate after you have stitched it. It is best to use
two "loops" of thread, in case the cutting tries to 'escape'
from it's new home!
Alternatively you can place the cutting on the
gravel bottom of the tank, in an area of low water movement (you
may need to setup a shallow plastic bowl filled with gravel for
this purpose). After a few days the cutting will attach itself to
one or more grains of gravel. At this point you can superglue these
gravel grains onto a suitable substrate, which the cutting will
then completely encrust within a matter of days.
 |
Gold Pulsing Xenia frags "growing
out" in my home coral farming system. |
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. Within a
week the cutting should have encrusted the substrate completely,
and be growing well! If we leave Xenia frags in place in our systems
for too long, they tend to attach to the shelving (see picture above!).
Step 5 - Rinse any equipment you
have used in freshwater, to remove any coral mucus and saltwater.
Wash your hands thoroughly!
I have used this technique (both methods) on gold
and white pulsing Xenia corals.
|
