Kessil

Is this big enough to frag ?

I have a larger piece of Oregon tort and I’m wondering if it’s large enough to frag without causing any issues?

I figure I can maybe get a good one or two cuts out of this

thanks!
 

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You can frag SPS at virtually any size without any issues.

That said I'm also with the consensus of letting it grow out. For me I want a nice looking colony in my tank first* and foremost, if there gets to be some weird growth a don't like, then it's time to frag a branch, or if I want fill an area with that coral, maybe I'll frag branches and place them around just to get the area filled quicker, but I wouldn't frag that at that size.

*note: if this is a DBTC obligation, then fragging at that size isn't a horrible idea, and those cases I might want to fulfill my obligation so that I can then enjoy my coral without worry any further
 
Was thinking about fragging it and making it my first DBTC offer since its one of my first coral to get to a size where I can offer something...But there is no true rush
 
I’d let it grow out more too. Mainly because once it reaches a critical size it should grow much faster and be no big deal to cut off a couple frags.
 
I’d let it grow out more too. Mainly because once it reaches a critical size it should grow much faster and be no big deal to cut off a couple frags.
Actually smaller frags grow much faster than large colonies...at least from my experince..
But agree I would grow it bit more to reduce risk of fraging.

I also think this is a cali tort not Oregon tort btw..

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I’ve seen it reported that for any given mass of stoney coral that it will grow faster if you cut it up and have lots of frags. For example if you have a colony and cut it up into smaller frags vs leave it intact. Aside from shading and the issue of growing in all directions vs only in one direction for any given branch, I’m personally not convinced.

But I’ve never seen it reported that a smaller mass of coral like a frag will add new mass faster than a larger mass of coral like a colony, which is the situation here.

Also I’ve experienced and heard from others that an SPS will grow minimally for a long time then quickly accelerate its growth once it reaches some threshold size or maturity.
 
I’ve seen it reported that for any given mass of stoney coral that it will grow faster if you cut it up and have lots of frags. For example if you have a colony and cut it up into smaller frags vs leave it intact. Aside from shading and the issue of growing in all directions vs only in one direction for any given branch, I’m personally not convinced.

But I’ve never seen it reported that a smaller mass of coral like a frag will add new mass faster than a larger mass of coral like a colony, which is the situation here.

Also I’ve experienced and heard from others that an SPS will grow minimally for a long time then quickly accelerate its growth once it reaches some threshold size or maturity.
What I have seen, small frags that i accidentally break off colonies and glue next to the mother colony grow fast really fast up to a point where they are double or triple size then slow down and grow regular speed as the mother colony.
But am talking about moving from 1/4 inch to like 1/2 inch in a month yeh the mother colony is not growing at such rate...

Things like red dragon they will triple I'm size in a month then slow down to regular growing as the mother colony


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Do you want to rehome those torches

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As much as I love torches I cannot for the life of me keep them happy in my sps tanks. Used to keep them happy back when I ran higher nutrients mixed reefs, but with my low nutrients these babies never seems happy:((

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If the goal is to make a frag, you can frag it. If the goal is to have a nice colony of that coral in your tank, then obviously cutting off 40% of the coral is going to slow down that process a lot because there is 40% less of an already tiny coral. And for all of the talk of frags growing faster than larger colonies, in my experience larger frags grow faster than smaller frags which grow faster than little nubs. From a purely health perspective, I've accidentally fragged/broken many new corals I've received as I'm dipping and remounting them, and I can't recall any notable times I've lost a coral because of it. Healthy SPS corals are very resilient to being fragged.
 
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