Fragging blastomussa

**Ashurbarnipal** · 06-01-2012, 12:53 AM

So, I have had a blastomussa frag in my 30 gallon for a good few months now, just a single polyp, and I wanted to know more about fragging them. I've heard they're slightly more difficult to propogate than some corals. Anyone here had experience with it?

Here's a pic of it

**Cliff** · 06-01-2012, 02:26 AM

I have fragged candy cane corals which are LPS corals like a blasto. But each time I fragged it, I only removed a single head by cutting the dead skeleton far from the living tissues.

I don't think you can frag a single head of a LPS coral.

**Ashurbarnipal** · 06-01-2012, 02:30 AM

So, is there any way at all to propogate it or is it just gonna be that single polyp ? I'm really not sure how they reproduce.

**Cliff** · 06-01-2012, 02:56 AM

In time they will grow other heads and the base will grow leaving a dead base behind it. Once that happens, you can frag it.

At least I don't know of any other way to frag a blasto

**kaybee** · 06-02-2012, 12:48 PM

The fragging procedure and associated ease or difficulty may depend on which type of blastomussa you have.

There are two types: Blastomussa merleti and Blastomussa wellsi.

B. Merleti is the perhaps the easiest to frag. The polyps of this coral are small (about the breadth of a fingernail, not thumbnail) and the skeletal structure is somewhat tubular about the width of a pencil with the polyp existing at the top:

B. merleti skeletal stucture is visible at lower right quadrant of the colony. The skeleton is fairly brittle and are fairly easy to snap apart by hand

B. Wellsi has a completely different skeletal structure. The polyps are at least twice the size of b. merleti polyps which completely obscure the skeleton. The way b. wellsi grows it doesn't leave a dead base behind.

B. wellsi

This b. wellsi was stung by a another coral which resulted in the destruction of one polyp and partial damage to some of the adjacent ones. The bare skeletal structure of the absent polyp and surrounding damage can be seen.

The corallites of b.wellsi are adjacent to each other (not raised, tubular or stalk-like) and the skeleton is denser than b. merleti. Fragging requires equipment and polyp damage is near-inevitable. Damaged polyps are quick to recover though.