How to Propagate Corals

(NOTE: for more information on this, visit our free information website at www.Corals101.com)

SPS Propagation
"Propagation by fragmentation" is currently the most common method for producing farm raised Stony Corals today. Basically this means breaking off a piece of the stony coral, attaching it to a new rock (or other substrate) and letting it grow out. The method is most successful using ``Crazy Glue". The ``Gel" type of crazy glue works better than the regular glue, because it tends to fill in gaps well between the broken fragment and the rock you are attaching it to.

The method is really simple. With a pair of wire cutters, clip off a branch of the SPS mother colony. The rock you are attaching to can be damp but should not be real wet. You can tamp the area of attachment dry with a paper towel. Put a drop of the crazy glue gel on the rock and them immediately place the SPS fragment on the spot. Adjust the frag to its final orientation and then immerse it into the tank saltwater. The frag will instantly freeze to the rock. Dont bump it as it can still come off until it encrusts the rock.

SCI doesn't actually use glue to attach our frags, but this is the best method we know of that is available to the hobbyist.

A few more notes that may be helpful. As long at the room temp is in the 70's F, and its fairly humid, the corals can stay out easily for 15-20 minutes. Don't worry about rushing them back into the water. If you can keep them covered, it will help keep them from drying out.

Also its OK to touch the corals with your hands. Dont abrade them, but if you hold them gently, the coral should be fine. This is contrary to what most divers will tell you, but we have handled thousands of pieces, and we dont believe that any have died from handling them.

When taking fragments from the mother colony, we limit the number take to about 30% of the colonies frags. This is because if you overfrag the colony, the stress and rapid loss of energy reserves can kill the mother colony.

Soft Coral Propagation
Softs are also done by fragmenting the mother colony also. A piece of the tissue is cleanly cutoff and then attached to a new rock. Attachment is the ``holy grail" of soft coral propagation. Each family of corals has its own methods which work best for it. There are a number of methods out there that involve nets, fishing line, needles, etc. Again , here at SCI our focus is on volume production so we dont use any of these methods of attachment. But for the hobbyists, these are the best we have.

Our commercial methods, are proprietary. Even if you knew of them, while they would be interesting to you, there is no way a hobbyist could use them because of the multiple and expensive steps involved, and the proprietary equipment which we built to accomplish the task.

Gorgonian Propagation
Gorgonians have a woody stalk which should be stripped of flesh from the bottom cut area up a distance equal to the depth of the hole in the rock in which you will be placing the gorgonian.You can drill this hole with a masonry bit, and then fill it in with crazy glue or other adhesive.