Calfo fragging tip- Hammer babies

[~Flighty~]

For anyone who didn't see the Calfo talk he mentioned an interesting way to frag a hammer. Apparently they put out little buds on the dead part of the branch in case the top gets broken off. Normally these little buds are shaded and they grow and wither away while they wait for a chance at some light. You can chip them off with something like a chisel for woodworking. Then you glue them to a frag plug and they will grow into a new colony rather than being wasted.

It didn't cross my mind to take a before pic, but here are some after fragging pics of my coral. The parent colony is looking grumpy from being handled, but the tiny little babies are already open.

According to Anthony, the parent will keep on replenishing the babies on the stalk and you can lop them off as often as they grow. He also said fragging these guys will become particularly important to the hobby as the new regulations may limit or prevent wild collection.

Parent and babies:

 

[~Flighty~]

Just parent (looking pretty good for being out of the water 10 minutes ago) :

 

[~Flighty~]

Just baby. It is on one of the small BAF plugs for size reference.

 

[~Flighty~]

A pic that shows babies of various sizes on the parent is here on melevsreef:

http://www.melevsreef.com/pics/1104/hammer_111004.jpg

 

[Richard]

Will the babies grow their own skeleton?

 

[~Flighty~]

They have a little skeleton already. I have no idea if it will encrust or just grow from that little point. They are like a tiny little branch off of the mother colony. It was narrow enough at the base to just break off with a knife.

 

[Richard]

Very interesting, I think I'll lop off some of mine and see what'll happen.

 

[Skinpuppi]

Great! Keep us updated.

 

[clamm]

I also think he mentioned that this technique can be used on alot of branching type lps... I don't have picture but I have done this to my tourch with similar success.

 

[meemoo]

Also wondering if you can frag frogspawn that way?

 

[~Flighty~]

I think anything that makes the liitle buds would be good to go.

 

[montec24]

Thats cool!! I jsut looked at my hammer and it has at least two "babies" Im gonna go get some super glue tomorrow and frag them.

 

[cyannotater]

I had a candycane coral (Caulastrea) make a bunch of babies as well. I was always hoping that they'd grow up but this would be a great way to propagate those little buds. On the parent colony they did build skeleton but it was a skinny little shoot comparable in size to the polyp on top.

 

[Greg Hiller]

>According to Anthony, the parent will keep on replenishing the babies on the stalk and you can lop them off as often as they grow.<

But these will only occur near the area where the tissue of the colony still exists. If you take the baby off, all of the tissue will come with it. A new bud will not form in its place.

 

[jango]

Also wondering if you can frag frogspawn that way?

I think all branching types of euphyllia grow small buds.