Below you will find a step by step outline for dividing a colony of Acanthastrea Lordhowensis with a bandsaw.  These procedures can be translated to a Dremel tool with a diamond wheel or you can purchase a low cost bandsaw from Harbor Freight for about $100.  When you consider the time & mess saved with a bandsaw they pay for themselves the first time you frag!
 

Step 1:  Safety First! 

Before you start fragging, it is important to utilize proper safety equiptment.  Protective goggles and latex gloves are a must for fragging any coral.  They are especially important when dealing with toxic species such as zoanthids.  In addition to the gloves and goggles, we always wear dust masks to protect against flying dust & debris.

Step 2: Prepare your mounting supplies.

In order to ensure the health of a divided fragment, it is always essential to mount the fragment immeadiately after fragging.  This gives the fragment a stable base in addition to providing a handle to use when placing the fragment.  Freshly cut corals will always heal faster and have better survival rates when mounted this way.

Gel Superglue is the adhesive of choice for quickly & effortlessly mounting fragments.  A bead of putty can later be applied to the sides of the fragment if the propagator wishes to create a flush surface for encrusting corals.

The BAF (Boston Aqua Farms) disk (right side) makes the perfect mount for larger encrusting corals, while the BAF plug (left side) makes a great mount for smaller fragments. The post on the base of the plug fits nicely into plastic eggcrate frag racks (made from light diffuser at Home Depot) and can be easily removed with fragging shears if the end user needs to mount the fragment onto a larger plug or rock.

Step 3: Plan your attack

When dividing a colony of lordhowensis or any other LPS they are always easy routes and more difficult routes to cut along.  Here, Charles is examining the mother colony and trying to find a nice, straight row of polyps to remove. Consideration should be given to keeping as many polyps intact as possible along the route.  The idea is to remove a strip of polyps that can be easily divided into single polyps.  When in doubt-try to cut along the top of the coralite wall between polyps.  If a polyp must be nicked-try to leave the portion of the polyp that is losing the wall on the mother colony so it will have time to heal later.

Once the strip has been divided from the mother colony, the mother is placed back into the tank in the same position.  In a month or so when the wounds from fragging have healed, the portion removed from the mother colony can be replaced with putty to allow the mother to re-encrust the area. 

By planning the fragmentation of your mother this way, one side of a colony can be harvested every 6 months allowing the other side to encrust for a full year between fragmentations.  This perpectual harvest is the goal of every coral farmer!

 Step 4: Singled out!

The next step is the easiest step to carry out.  Since the strip of polyps removed is a nice clean single row, the polyps can easily be divided down into single polyps.  These cuts are straight for the most part and can be carried out in no time at all. 

In the second picture you can see a perfectly divided single polyp.  This polyp is ready to be placed into a cup of tank water and transfered to the mounting station.  The strip will typically be completely divided into single polyps and placed into the cup with the frags from the same mother.  This cup can be labeled with the mother's name so they fragments are kept organized. 

Step 5: Mounting the fragment

The cup containing the fragments has been transfered to the mounting station.  Jen will typically lay the fragments out in a group with the flat undersides placed on a paper towel to dry them.  A single fragment is then selected to be mounted.  If the underside of the fragment is not completely flat, a pair of bonecutters is used to trim the excess material.

A BAF plug is selected to mount the fragment onto and a liberal bead of superglue gel is applied.  The fragment will then be placed firmly onto the superglue and held in place for ten seconds to ensure a good seal has been made.

Step 6: Ready for market!

We hope this has been helpful & informative.  Corals can be quite forgiving so don't be afraid to give fragging a try.  We owe it to our wonder animals to spread them around the reefing community thus propagating a bright future!

Ciao,

Jen