Best way to frag a dendro?

[kass03]

My dendro has grown from 4 polyps to around 20 with babies.

I'm wondering what the best way to frag it is?

The polyps all grow so close together and all are joined by flesh so just wondered if they recover easily from fragging?

I did frag 2 babies off it yesterday using a bonecutter but it did'nt go real well. The first polyp came off ok but the second one broke in half. I'm thinking of getting a dremel.
Do half polyps usually live?

The babies and mother did open up a few hours after fragging.

Heres a few picts. Please no pm's for frags as I have local people who have been waiting a long time for me to frag it. Thanks

After fragging
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y104/kass03/Image010-1.jpg


A few hours later
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y104/kass03/Image053.jpg

kass

[Joe Pusdesris]

I was told by a very respectable "Coral farm" that all you need for a dendro to survive is skin on the skeleton. They grow new polyps on doa colonies as long as there is some tissue. They put some nearly dead dendros in one of their cardinal breeding tanks, and the baby polyps that grew survived on baby brine shrimp.

Also, that growth is impressive, how long did it take and what are you feeding? I have been feeding mine pieces of squid, and I am rather impressed with that.

[emmanuel]

I never tried it with dendros but the same thing happened to my duncans . The little fraction of a head survived

[kass03]

Thanks for the replies.
I think I had it around 8 months. I usually feed it mysis about once a week. At first I fed it more often and sometimes Rods food.

This is a pict when I first got it. It had 3 polyps and a small baby.
The polyp in the back is a different dendro.

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y104/kass03/Image006-3.jpg

Here it is now open before I fragged it and closed after I fragged it.
It did open back up a few hours later.

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y104/kass03/Image034-1.jpg

[Ihttp://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y104/kass03/Image013-2.jpg

kass

[sunfishh]

Nice frags

[stunreefer]

I use a ban-saw, but any way works really.

[untilthen]

My dendro doesn't want to open during the day... And it opens a lil at night... I have it shaded but should I put it in light and more flow?

[kass03]

Thanks yeah I dont have a band saw but was thinking of buying a dremel with a diamond blade wheel for fragging my dendros and acans.

Untilthen, I was told where I got my dendro online (who had several different kinds at the time) that alot of them dont open during the day. Mine was called a super jumbo dendro and I made him promise it would open 24/7 and it does lol.
I thought like you that if it was a dendro it would open all day but thats not the case. There are different kinds.
You can train them to open more during the day by feeding them when the lights are on. Put a little food in the tank and when it starts to open a little feed it. I feed mine baby mysis.

kass

[dendro982]

Just curious: how fast the new polyps grow to a full size - from bud?

[untilthen]

Thx for the info... I have spot fed it during the day and it has stArted to open when my actinics come on b 4 lights go out... I guess I'll keep spot feeding till it's happy

[kass03]

I'm not sure how long it takes to get them full size. I'm sure it depends on how much you feed it, water quality etc.
At first I fed mine more but now usually only once a week. Sometimes twice. I'm feeding it more now that I fragged it.
I think it's prolly putting it's energy in all of the babies that keep popping up.
If you look at my 3rd photo when I got it (I think it was last May) it had 2 full polyps, 1 about half size, and it had a small baby.
Now it only seems to have 3 actual full size polyps I'd say and a 4th one almost full size.
The full polyps are big, prolly more than an inch when not open.
So my guess is it might take a year or more to reach a full polyp but then again if you had 1 polyp that did'nt have any babies it might grow bigger much faster.

kass