I am going to be setting up a picotope 3 gallon for a frag tank and I'm just wondering what would be some good corals that are cheap, colorful, and easy to frag?
I know softies and i've frayed some GSP and some kenyas And I'm thinking about fragging some purple and spotted mushrooms like pizza style. Lastly what are he dangers with fragging zoos they release a nurotoxin right? What is he best way for me to prevent getting hurt and the coral.
I don't know if Zoas release that to be honest (80% sure they dont). Palys on the other hand will nuke your tank if you make them angry. I am no expert of fraggin however, so I cannot help you there unfortunatley. Maybe others may know.
here is a letter I got from an LFS owner in my area. All Zoa are toxic so take precautions when cutting them.
Hello everyone,
I would just like to share with you a amazing incident that I just experienced last night. I just set up a holding tank in my garage 8'long x 6'wide x1'high. Over the long weekend I had recieved some pathyoa zoanthids ( over 2,000 heads on ten large pieces of liverock ) from a client of mine. My employees put all of the liverock covered with them into my holding tank and left. I was out of town for three days, when I returned home I went to the garage to look at the specimens I was shocked to see how many polyps had grown covering all of the client's liverock. I noticed that my chiller had was on and the garage was extremely hot because I have not installed a vent in my garage yet.
Here's the cool part.... as I was cleaning my garage for about an hour, when my eyes started to burn and my nose started to run. In my mind, I thought that all of the dust that I was kicking up caused a allergy type response. Then, I had a funny taste in my mouth of metal. Then, I already had a idea that I had just become posioned with a neurotoxin. About 10mins later I had a headache, muscle achyness, my running nose became 10 times worse, my eyes were so tearful that I couldn't see. My wife and dog were in the garage with me for about 30minutes and suddenly she too had the same symptoms. An hour later my dog became sluggish and had a hard time breathing. I have to perform minor chest compressions to create a exhaul respiratory response to assist in her breathing.
So, what had happened was when the palythoa colonies was introduced in to my holding tank they released Neurotoxins in to the water. Then as the chiller raised the temperature in the garage. This caused steam from the tank and as I was cleaning my garage I was inhaling all of the neurotoxins come from the tank water. I am guessing that with the high concentrations of neurotoxin for all of the palythoa. That they became airborne and I was inhaling it for more than 1hour.
Wow! What a experience!!! I would never imagine neurotoxin posioning could be effective through air. This is why I am sharing this experience with my clients and friends. I am very lucky that none of us became seriously ill.
Neurotoxin Warning:
All species of Palythoa, and most related zoanthids including the Protopalythoa species, produce a chemical called PALYTOXIN in their mucus and gonads. Indigenous Pacific tribes used this neuromuscular agent to tip spears in order to paralyze prey animals and enemies. This is a potent toxin and can be deadly to humans. It is important to wear hand protection when touching these animals, especially if the handler has any breaks in his or her skin.
While many aquarists routinely handle corals, including zoanthids, without incident, it is still a very good idea to maintain a safe health protocol when working with these animals. Wearing gloves or making sure that no breaks in the skin are present is a start. (Aquarium Corals Selection, Husbandry, and Natural History, Eric H. Borneman pgs 182)
Oh gotcha I'm thinking about buying a medium sized leather and cutting it into tons of pieces then glueing and rubber banding them to some rubble. Would this work?
Just dragged my first shroom I read that your not suppose to glue them so they are rubberbanded to a piece of coral rubble I can't wait to see how they turn out
when fragging zoos i strongly recommend non powdered gloves and even goggles. sounds intense but the toxins def. cause eye and skin irritations.
as for shrooms i usually just chop em in a few pieces and either throw them in my tank and they grow where they grow but there are many methods. yours should work just fine.
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Related Threads
?
?
?
?
?
Tropical Fish Keeping
597.8K posts
83.7K members
Since 2006
forum community dedicated to tropical fish owners and enthusiasts. Come join the discussion about species,breeding, health, behavior, aquariums, adopting, care, classifieds, and more! Open to fish, plants and reptiles living in freshwater or saltwater environments.