How do you glue a frag?

[fishforlife]

I glued a frag of Taylor's tree coral to a bit of rock an noticed that it came off today. The frag is healthy, just popped off the glue. Any suggestions on how to do it and what to use?

[Texreefer]

Take a rubberband and wrap it around the rock and the base of the coral.. glue will not hold it.

[fishforlife]

this is a soft coral and I do nto see a place where I can secure it to since the bottom is like the stem of a tree.

found this:

Use superglue gel. Put a blob of the gel on the frag where it is going to get attatched to the rock or glass. Dip the frag in the tank and pull it out again - this allows a superior skin to form on the glue and you won't have to hold the frag in place very long before the glue sets. Press the glue against the rock or glass where you want the frag to go, the skin breaks and the glue sets. All done, and it is easy to move the frag in the future.

So far it is holding, but I am not convinced it will stay. I will let you know...


OH...How do soft tree coral frags com from the store? They have to be secured some how...Anyone know?

[Texreefer]

OH, its a soft coral! had no Idea... guess I should not have tried to give advice since i didn't realize what kind of coral it was..

[LoneStar]

stab it with a toothpick and rubberband the pick to a rock.........

[fishforlife]

Texreefer no worries! Thanks for the help....Ahh stab it with a tooth pick...Makes sense. Thanks guys, hopefully the glue wil still hold...so far so good!

[Texreefer]

Just to clear things up a bit, since i saw that your frag had come loose again.
I was just being facesuis when I said I had no idea what kind of coral that was, The reason I suggested the rubberband was because I know it works, I just recently did it with some Zenia i received. anyway, the instructions you posted are for securing hard corals not soft corals. if you ask for an idea on how to do something, don't be so quick to dismiss the advice you get:bigsmile:

[Mr Cob]

I have also used the rubberband method. Works for tree corals and zenia like a charm. The coral will be on it's side for a day or two but it will straighten up once it finds the light.

For small piecies you can also wrap the coral and rock with netting/mesh with a rubberband and once the coral attaches itself to the rock then you can remove it. The mesh works good for mushrooms too.

[Kyle46N]

Even better for softies. Start a sepearate 10 gallon tank with crushed coral or crushed oyster shell for substrate. For light, any flourescent will work. Cut your softies up and drop them to the bottom. They will attach to the substrate. Then you can glue the hard base to wherever in the display.

[fishforlife]

Hey guys, thanks again for all the help (no advice was dismissed)! I have read several different suggetions for softies both at MAAST and other places. Seems like the tooth pick/rubberband is the best option for the Tree frag. Super glue just did not work, althogh the other person told me the glue is what he used for tree frags.

This is a fun hobby....

[Mr Cob]

Glue doesn't work because they release too much mucus....yuck!

[fishforlife]

DANG IT! The toothpic through the bottom tied with a rubber band did not work. I noticed this morning that the toothpic and bands were where they should be, minus the tree coral frag. I guess my "newbieness" is showing. I think I will try the place the frag in a bowl with substrate and let it attach to some sand, then try to glue that to a rock. Any other sugesstions?

[Noober]

kyle that is how ive done it once, i had a 15 gallon tank that i had a buncha rubble curing in and once the tank was stable i dropped a buncha mushrooms and zoos down in there, they attached in a week to two weeks.... but for my tree sponge, it had a tiny slither of rock at the base, i glued it to a bigger more stable chunk of rock and ruubber banded it like mentioned up top, to give the glue time to take its hold, now its rock solid. good luck

[Noober]

ps, i ordered some special frag glue from dr fosters and smith for it though, it smells just like superglue but it is more gel style

[Texreefer]

Hate to sound like a broken record here,, but take a rubberband, lay the base of the coral on a rock, wrap the rubberband around the coral and the rock several times to make it nice and snug. it will work

[txav8r]

Hate to sound like a broken record here,, but take a rubberband, lay the base of the coral on a rock, wrap the rubberband around the coral and the rock several times to make it nice and snug. it will work

I'd listen to texreefer. This is what I'm doing with the frags that I have. I'll let you know how it works in a couple weeks.

[fishforlife]

Yes, texasreefer appears to be spot on. I place the tree frag in a small home loosely placed a rubber band around the rock on one of the branches and so far it looks good. The coral is opening up and starting to wave a bit. How long should I leave the band on? a week or two?

[Kyle46N]

I agree that the rubberband method works. I have used it with success before, but you have a problem if you want to attach your frag to a rock too big for a rubberband. Or if the rock is wedged into the reef to where you would have to dismantle the whole reef to get it out.

[txav8r]

Yes, texasreefer appears to be spot on. I place the tree frag in a small home loosely placed a rubber band around the rock on one of the branches and so far it looks good. The coral is opening up and starting to wave a bit. How long should I leave the band on? a week or two?

I'm gonna give it a week or two. I figgured I'd lift the rubberband a bit after a week and see if it has taken hold of the rock.