Attaching Montipora capricornus

SherryQ

loves pufferfish
What is the best way to attach Montipora capricornus under water? I have a piece of it which does not have any rock attached to it. I want to attach it to the side of a big rock in my tank. What is the best way to go about it?

Thanks.
Sherry
 
If you're REALLY fast, you can use crazy glue....... dry the edge off, cover the edge with crazy glue, and plunge your hand into the water like there's treasure at the bottom and attach the frag quick. I've done this before so I know it works, but it may take several tries. Moe's suggestion is better though ;)
 
I've tried using that epoxy underwater with gorgonian and haven't had much luck. I recently put the epoxy on, then put a rubberband around the gorgonian to see if that holds (not sure yet - I haven't removed the rubberbands). But you might want to give that a try.
 
it helps if, before applying the aquamend, you scrub that part of the rock with an (old) toothbrush to remove slime, algae, etc.
 
If you can wedge it into the rockwork someplace it will eventually attach it?s self. You can also super glue it to a small piece of rock and wedge that into the rockwork.
 
Hey Sherry - is that what we got at Greg's class - montepora capricornus (the orange frag)? Do you know what the other frags were? I know there was a soft mushroom - was that a toadstool? Remember those tiny little frags we attached to one rock? What were those? Then I have another greenish hard tree thing. Sorry to hijack the thread - I just thought you would probably know. I like to know what I have in the tank so I can research them (a little late now, but still want to know).

Thanks,
Daire
 
the orange one is a monti cap. The little ones I believe Greg said were pocilipora. The leather one with the toothpick is sometime of toadstool leather coral. The green one is a montipora digitata. Greg, please correct me if I'm wrong. Thanks.
 
I just mounted a Sh*t-load of monti caps.

I mounted them on cement plugs that were being sold at MACNA. I love them! I used Loc-Tite GEL. I make a nice big dollop of glue, pinch the frag on, and submerge it. For some reason, when salt water hits the loctite Gel, it instantly cures. It worked very well. I'm so pleased with these cement plugs !!

I have a lot of itty bitty frags of this and that, and the nice heavy plugs keep them from blowing all around.
 
Daire,

The leather you have on a tooth pick from Greg may be a Mushroom Leather from the Solomon Islands, the polyps extend to around 1/2 inch or more, it is a beautiful specimen. I got one at a meeting last winter from Greg, it was small and mounted on a tooth pick it's got a lot of growing to do but it's coming along nicely. I posted this picture but here it is again, Clowns love it, Greg said they would.

Jim
 
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Hey Sherry -

I try to NOT use the Aquamend or any other two-part, reef safe epoxy, for mounting frags (though it's exaclty what I use to secure rocks or anything non-coral). The reason is because it heats up a little once you've mixed the two-part mixture together. Sometimes the heat can damage the coral in the spot where there is contact... 'causing the loss of the frag or a very slow start-up growth rate. I think Hiller actually told me about the epoxy heat issue a few years ago... so I've stuck (no pun intended) to the super-glue-for-frags only rule.

For caps, I try to just find a crack in the general location of where I want the colony to grow out... then gently wedge it in without breaking the frag to bits.

Good luck with your new frags.


bec
 
Hey Jim - I saw that pic on the photography forum - it's an awesome pic! I can't believe that's a toadstool - it's beautiful. I hope mine looks that great in a year. I got a really healthy one from Cape Maid Farms last week. It's about 6" across and really beautiful. I'll take a pic and post it in photography later this week. Now I have my small frag on a tooth pick to watch grow into a big, beautiful coral. :) Thanks for the info.

Daire
 
Thanks for all the suggestions. The problem is is that there is not a crack I can wedge the frag into and the place I want to attach it to slopes down pretty sharply. I wasn't sure if I should use the epoxy for fear of damaging the coral tissue (which Rebecca confirmed). So, I guess I can try the place glue on the frag and quickly try to stick to the rock . As a last resort I guess I could remove the rock and attach it outside the tank (a major pia). Any other suggestions are welcome. I have three caps which have been waiting to be attached for over a month now.
 
Sherry I have used Aquamend in all my frags with no problems whatsoever. But if you don't want to try it then at least glue it to a small rock and aquamend the small rock into the big rock. Just don't put it unsecure in the tank because it WILL fall off due to a snail/crab/fish/tuxedo/etc/etc. I've seen it happen many many times and people loose the frag or part of it laying down on the sand, right Gustavo? :p :D
 
Use a two part epoxy to mount a piece of rubble to your slope and give you a nook to wedge it into. That way you don't have to worry about too much and heat.
 
There is a lot of back and forth about the heat issue. Look at RC, people have been arguing about it for a long time. A lot of people have super glued an awful lot of stuff without incident. I think a two part will generate more heat than a Cyanoacrylate pre-mix. The Loctite GEL is completely cured and solid in about 4 seconds once it hits the water, and (relatively) cool water is a large heat sink.

I am not an end all resource, but I have had good successes thus far, and my preference is to keep my coral off the sand (by mounting to plugs/debris with glue).
 
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