How to Frag Corals: A Simple Guide to Coral Propagation and Coral Fragging for the Marine Reef Aquarium Hobbyist

208 Pages·2015·7.76 MB·English

by  Ulrich

How to Frag Corals
A simple guide to coral propagation and coral
fragging for the marine reef aquarium hobbyist
By Albert B. Ulrich III
Copyright© 2015 by Albert B. Ulrich III

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Copyright © 2015 by Albert B. Ulrich III This book was published with intent to
provide accurate information. While every precaution has been taken in
preparation of this book, the author assumes no responsibility for error or
omissions. Neither is any liability assumed for damages resulting from the use of
this information herein.
All rights reserved.
Acknowledgements
As I get older, I’ve noticed that it gets harder and harder to determine exactly
where and when I learned something. Knowledge is a tricky thing, that way. As I
mention, at length, in the Preface to this book, a key source of knowledge and
information for me was Anthony Calfo’s book, Book of Coral Propagation. In
addition to that, I also learned a lot by sifting through the tomes of advice on
WetWebMedia.com and GARF.org. Please see the references at the end of the
book for other great sources of information that either directly or indirectly
connected a few neurons in my own head, some of which may have led to
something I wrote here.
Preface
I’ve heard (or read, I guess?) that successful authors give the following advice to
other authors struggling to identify what to write next: 1) Write what you know.
2) Write the book you want to read.
3) Write the book your readers want to read.
Since I don’t know much, and I don’t know how to read, I left it up to you--the
reader--to decide.
How did I know that this is the book you wanted to read? By some cosmic
paradox, I know that this is the book you wanted to read, because you’re reading
it now. Not only that, but you’re reading the Preface to the book, and only very
motivated, very interested, good looking and brilliant people do that. Ok, I’m
pandering to you a bit, but seriously, I can’t tell you the last time I read a
preface. So by some weird e-book natural selection, we have determined that this
is, in fact, a book you wanted to read. So thank you for that. I hope I don’t let
you down.
With those inane ramblings out of the way, let me give you the real story behind
this book. The first aquarium I ever had was a 10-gallon tank for a turtle. I was
very young at that point--probably 5 or 6 years old. Every few weeks, my
parents would let me buy the turtle live feeder fish. I remember watching the
turtle hunt the fish with my grandmother. It’s funny that after all of these years,
that’s probably the most vivid memory I have of her. One time, we ended up
buying a dozen guppies. The turtle made short work of 10 of the guppies, but
two survived. At some point, they became background and were completely
ignored by the turtle. Serendipitously, we ended up with a male and female and,
guppies being guppies, they started cranking out baby guppies every month.
That blew my little mind. I can remember that so clearly, and it made a strong
imprint on my life. In some shape or form, I have been trying to recreate that
aquarium full of guppies feeling in interesting and new ways throughout my life.
The feeling is one of creation, the miracle of life, even alchemy, and we are only
able to observe it when the conditions are just right—conditions which we
painstakingly create and maintain as aquarium hobbyists.
You may be wondering, what does THAT have to do with fragging corals?
Ironically, I have no memory of how the guppy saga ended, but I vividly
remember the dead turtle and throwing away the aquarium.
A few years later, I started over and bought another aquarium. This time, the
aquarium was for fish, not reptiles. That first tank led to another…and then
another…and then another. After several years in the freshwater side of the
hobby, I switched over to saltwater tanks, which is where I have been ever since
—if you exclude the occasional Beta.
My three favorite saltwater aquarium books are: The Complete Illustrated
Breeder’s Guide to Marine Aquarium Fish, Clownfishes, and Book of Coral
Propagation. Do you see the aquarium full of guppies theme?
Book of Coral Propagation was the book that inspired me the most. I had read
the seminal books on reef keeping, but quite honestly, I found the academic tone
and classification-oriented texts to be important, but uninspiring. After reading
Calfo’s book, I had an action plan and was inspired to do something different.
Prior to that, I was going to be just a saltwater fish guy. I had my sights set on
breeding Banggai Cardinalfish Neon Gobies and Clownfish (which I was able to
do, eventually).
I was inspired and ready for action, after reading that book, but I still found
myself struggling with fears. Is coral fragging unnatural? Is it safe? What
equipment do I need? Do I need a frag tank? How can I be sure I won’t damage
the coral? Will I cause the entire tank to crash? What exactly are the steps I need
to take?
I did more research online and offline and learned through trial-and-error. Along
the way, I have had my own coral fragging successes and failures. My hope is
that this book helps fill in a few of those knowledge gaps for you.
It would be brash to hope that this book will inspire you, but hopefully you will
find a nugget or two in this book that helps you explore a side of the hobby you
wouldn’t have otherwise considered.
What is it that you’re hoping to get out of this book? Send me a note now and let
me know: [email protected]
Or wait until you’ve read the book and tell me what (if anything) inspired you--
or tell me what I could change to make it more inspiring.
In homage to the book that gave me the inspiration to explore an aspect of the
hobby that was beyond my comfort zone, this is my attempt at helping you learn
How to Frag Corals.
To Inspiration
Disclaimer about the Risk of Losses
I genuinely struggled with whether or not to post this note in the front of the
book here, because I know that risk of loss and fear of not knowing what you’re
doing are probably the biggest things that have kept you from fragging your own
corals. With the exception of this section, the rest of this book is written to help
educate, inform, inspire and give you the confidence to frag your own corals like
a pro. But I thought it would be disingenuous of me to write about the techniques
and approaches to fragging your corals without providing fair and balanced
information about the risks.
Corals can be exceedingly delicate creatures, at times. Seemingly minor changes
in the environment can cause major damage to natural reefs. Other times, they
seem nearly bullet-proof, or even down-right frustrating. Just try to rid yourself
of zoanthids or mushrooms that you have grown tired of and are trying to
remove from your tank. Sometimes it just can’t be done.
Suffice it to say, any time you cut into a coral, even if you do everything right,
you risk damaging or killing that coral.
This book is intended to help you understand the techniques commonly used to
frag corals and help you build confidence to explore this aspect of the hobby. If
you are absolutely intolerant of risk, if you cannot stand the thought of ever
damaging a living creature, even if by accident, or otherwise cannot afford any
losses, you probably should not try fragging corals. There is always risk
involved.
The goal is to appropriately lower the risk, when possible, with education,
planning and technique. Actively growing corals tend to respond pretty well to
fragging. If you start your adventure by learning and practicing with some of the
hardier species (note I wrote hardier—meaning less prone to problems, not
harder—more prone to problems), you are more likely to find success and you
can gradually work your way up to a few of the more complicated species.
You will need patience, practice and high quality aquarium water. Take a deep
breath, find that Mushroom or Leather coral that won’t break the bank or
otherwise make you curl up into a ball and bawl (if it doesn’t survive), and let’s
get started.
Don’t be afraid of fragging actively growing, heathy corals, but have respect for
the process and learn how to manage the risks and most of all, have some fun—
this is a hobby.