What's the best method to prune a colt coral?

[Chaser]

Hi all,

My colt coral is flourishing, but It is getting too big for my tank. I'd like to trim it back, but I don't want to hack it up, and leave the stem (trunk) with lots of nasty scars or dead stumps.

I've read the threads on how to propagate a colt coral, but they don't seem to cover this topic.

Your wisdom and experience are appreciated...

 

[Bobzarry]

Just cut it wherever you need to. I know it seems scary the first time you try it but realy its simple. I use a ver sharp pair of kitchen stainless steel scisors. One quik snip and it leaves a clean cut. Colt corals dont take very long to heal and soon youl see new polips where you cut it. I have one that has been cut many times and it looks better then the day I purchased it.


Good luck and hope this helps........Bob

 

[davelin315]

You can also use a fresh razor. You can pretty much cut it any way you want. You can take a stalk and divide it down, you can cut off branches, you can cut a chunk out of the stalk, they'll all heal and grow back.

 

[Bobzarry]

Hi Christy........ just put a plastic tooth pick through the part that will become the base and using a rubber band atach it to a piece of rock pinning it down by the tooth pick. Dont atach the ruberband too tight, just tight enough to gently hold it in place. If you tighten the rubberband too much it will cut through the coral and the colt will go floating away. after a few weeks it wil atach itself to the rock and you can remove the tooth pick and rubber band.


Bob

[ August 29, 2001: Message edited by: Bobzarry ]

 

[Rob Klein]

I used scissors to clip my colt and attached the frag to a piece of rubble using a nylon cable tie. It attached in 1-2 weeks.

 

[Chaser]

Thanks for the help guys! I'll let you know how it goes...

 

[Christyf5]

Hey, I have a colt coral that could probably use a trim

How do you reattach it to the rock after you cut it off though??

Christy

 

[rayjay]

I use a juice glass with aragonite in the bottom, or a piece of rock, and place the colt frag in the glass and place the glass in the tank. After the colt fastens to the rock or aragonite, you can glue it to where ever you want. Of course, if you have large frags, your glass would have to be larger also.

 

[OodleyBoodely]

I don't have any colt, but, I recently fragged a large toadstool, and, the colt propagation sounds very similar. I placed my frags loose in the lower half of a sawed off plastic milk jug (gal. size) with shell hash in the bottom. The new toadies attached to the shell in about two weeks. Once attached, they can be superglued to your place of choice.

 

[tomocean]

Here is a pretty cool site that has descriptions, pics, and the steps to take for propagating a Colt coral.
http://www.atlantisaquatic.com/colt.html