fragging issues

[esacjack]

I have some bam bams that have a very unique coloration, and some eye of rah zoas which are just plan ole eye of rah. Both were overgrowing the plug, so I decided to frag them up. However, one by one, all 6 of my frags rotted from the base, up. They never actually closed up, but the base started deteriorating. I'm down to my last frag of EOR and Bam Bams now. I'm not sure what the heck went wrong in the process. Another thing to note, the polyps didnt seem to want to attach to the base. Even where they were glued, they appear to have separated from the glue, and are rotting away slowly. The disc gets enormous, the tentacles lean back, and then for a lack of a better description, they look like bob marley on a bad hair day. So does anyone have any advice? Post fragging, they went into a 78 degree tank, 1.024SG, 5PPM No3, 0 PO3, under dual t5's. After a few of them rotted, (none of them melted as zoas normally do) I moved a few over to my kessil based frag tank, and one over to my QT tank thats lit by a PC/Par38 Combo. And sitll the rotting persists. I've tried Lugols dips, Furan2, feeding, decreased light cycles, increased light cycles... I'm at a loss... Up to the point at which I fragged the colonies, they were growing like weeds.

[victoly]

I'm not a huge fan of gluing a freshly fragged zoa. Sometimes you have to (with singly polyps), but if i can get more than one polyp I like to rubberband them. I seem to have better success rates that way, but it is more frustrating when the b4stards float away.

[esacjack]

yeah most of these i fragged as individual polyps.. I wasn't able to get much of the mat in the process Im wondering if i change my post-frag method. Instead of putting them in a highflow environment, putting them in a low flow environment till the mat has attached..?

[crendon2003]

If u can get more that one head or polyp your survival rate is much higher. What are u using as terms of glue and disc or plug?

[ckyuv]

What glue did you use? try to keep everything consistent, changing light cycle and repeatedly dipping will only stress them more IMO

[esacjack]

i used cyanoacrylate/CA+, but unfortunately all I had was thin. I've used it in the past without issue. I also fragged up some radio active zoas with the same glue, and they're thriving.. As a matter of fact, on one plug I mixed both the RADE's/EOR's and the only thing that survived on the plug was the RADE's (which have since grown 5 polyps) Currently I'm using Thrive zoanthid plugs (the dome shaped ones) which have been curing in my LR vat for about 8 months. (i bought the 100 pack) I also have discs, sea cookies, frag cubes etc... I could switch plugs if the suspicion lies in the plug type.

[FarmerTy]

I usually frag with more than one polyp... survival rates are dismal otherwise.... even two polyps is not worth it to me.

I also leave the plug where the colony was originally. It is already stressed with the fragging... but also adding different lighting and flow could stress it even more.

[esacjack]

Agreed. all of my other zoa frag attempts have gone without issue. So I'm wondering why these particular ones aren't doing well. I'm starting to think maybe its the frag plug. Im hesitant to remove it from the plug and put it on a disc or live rock.. but if that might save it, i'm all for it.