Corals and the other fun stuff

[Finess]

Is there a Coral for dummies book around? I would like to add some of the more hardier stuff and wanted to know also what are frags? :?

[paulsreef]

I'm not sure there is a Coral For Dummies book, but I'd have to say there shouldn't be if there is ;-) The best thing you can do is read everything you can find on the subject and ask lots of questions on boards like this. You can never be too educated on the subject. A good starter resource is Simplified Reefkeeping by Robert M. Metelsky. You can find the book and a ton of other info on his website (http://www.simplifiedreefkeeping.com).

A frag is a slang term for a coral fragment. Many species can be fragmented and grown in this manner. For soft corals this means cutting a piece off a parent colony and mounting it to something. That piece will grow into a new coral. For hard corals, it usually means breaking a piece off a parent and mounting that and it too will grow into a whole new specimen. Fragging corals is a great way to reduce the impact on wild reefs and diversify your collection by trading with others.