copyed this off another site
Time for another Fragging workshop
This time I'll discuss methods of fragging leather corals. This would be another of those corals (see mushrooms) that are a PERFECT place for beginners to test thier skills at propagation. IME, MOST Leather corals can be extremely durable when fragging. They are fairly disease resistant and extremely quick at regenerating open tissue. Tools needed for fragging include a sharp blade (I prefer new single-edge razors) and a method for attaching to a base.
When cutting your coral, always try to make the cut in one smooth slice. If this is not possible, take several COMPLETE smooth slices until you have cut through completely. Never SAW back and forth, as this leaves the coral fairly mangled and widely open to infection.
The first method works for most types of Lobophytum and Sarcophyton leathers, as well as some forms of Sinularia. Start off by eyeballing the coral, sizing it up and deciding what you want to frag off. After picking a spot, take your clean blade and simply slice that area off cleanly. As mentioned above, don't saw it off, slice it off. If the coral is extremely large, you may decide to cut the entire outside edge off the coral, leaving you a "doughnut" looking frag. No problem. Just cut it down to smaller pieces and mount each piece individually. The mother coral should be rinsed in clean saltwater, then replaced where she came from originally. I recommend putting the frags in an isolated chamber of clean saltwater until they stop exuding slime. Then they may be placed in thier frag tank or elsewhere for growout.
It is recommended to always try to simulate environment (Light and water movement) to as close as possible to the area from which the mother resides. This allows the new frags to focus on growing out and attaching instead of trying to adapt to it's new environment.
The next method is for branching types of leathers and softies, such as many sinularia, Colt, and xenia.
You use the same tools as above, although you need to plan your cut a little more this time around. You want to try to make the cut as to sever a WHOLE branch from the trunk (base), instead of cutting the branch in half. Try to take frags at least 1" long, as smaller pieces take uneccesary time to adjust before growing, and have rather poor success rates as compared to 1"+ frags.
Another method to fragging these corals, a little less "brutal" (no knife wielding this time!!), is to use cable ties to sever the branches. Simply wrap the tie around the branch, again at the "trunk". Each day tighten just a bit more, causing the coral to drop it's branchlet off in due time. This method is again said to be more natural, since there is no actual slicing or cutting into the coral. We simply "persuade" the coral to drop a branch off as it would in the wild naturally.
When mounting these corals, I have found it easiest to place a shallow tupperware container into the frag tank, filled with a shallow layer of Crushed Coral or Shell. Simply place the corals onto the CC and place the tupperware into a lower flow area. In a week or so, the leathers should have atached to the rubble giving you a nice base that can now be glued to a rock. If you try to glue to coral directly, the coral will slime and usually shed the glue or epoxy. This ends up with a coral floating around only to be lost.
You can also try the tulle method used with Mushrooms , or some people even try sewing them on with fishing line. I have used this method, but I have to admit there is an art to it, as too tight and the coral gets cut through, leaving a floater. Too loose, and the coral slips from the base, also resulting in a floater.
Of all the above methods of attachment, I prefer the shallow tupperware.
Most leathers exude a slime when stressed making glue an innappropriate choice for attachment, especially when considering the Colt corals. These are among the slimiest, giving me a very hard time even when thrying to sew them to a base. The tupperware method was the only way I could ensure a successful attachment rate with Colts.
Hopefully I covered this one well enough to make you comfortable in trying it for yourself. As I mentioned, Leathers are very durable to mistakes, so are a great coral to try to get started with.
