fragging a Hydnophora

[Frick-n-Frags]

This is about a year old. You wouldn't even recognize the Hydno now, it is huge. And hydnoman floated off long ago and I just found him doing tank maintenance. I can't believe part of the Hydo is still alive after being stuck to a PH intake for X months, but that is a different story for a different day :D

Here was the victim, a Hydno, growing a branch that was shading an Acro
http://www.rusynyk.com/coral/HydnoToFrag.JPG

Here are some of the tools I use/have used. The nasty rusted diagonal cutters are once again the tool of choice for this job, and superglue gel
http://www.rusynyk.com/coral/HydnoFragTools.JPG

Here is where the cut will be made. The "cut" is actually a firm grip then a slight twisting motion. If you just squeeze, the frag will shoot like a bullet. It still happens so I do all fragging over a bucket of water aimed down into the bucket, so if the frag shoots, it hits the water instead of ricocheting around the room.
http://www.rusynyk.com/coral/HydnoMainFragPoint.JPG

here are the fraglets
http://www.rusynyk.com/coral/HydnoFraglets.JPG

No! get it straight right now: NOTHING IS SACRED! :D
http://www.rusynyk.com/coral/HydnoManReturns.JPG

OK here are all the glued fraglets :D
http://www.rusynyk.com/coral/HydnoGluedFrags.JPG

here is the momma returned to its original place sans offending branch
http://www.rusynyk.com/coral/HydnoAfterMomma.JPG

Let's see, possible questions:

That is a piece of cut up CD case with a tiewrap to a piece of cement anchor
Hydnoman is a lego dude with a new head. He is the slayer of rogue Xenias (Hydnos just smoke Xenias) The problem is they float and Hydnoman #1 died because he floated away. methinks Hydnoman3 will get some cement overshoes(well maybe epoxy)

if you think this is weird, you should see"Poci the reindeer" a beautiful clear plastic xmas tree ornament with new Pocillapora antlers. I gave him away at a Columbus frag swap several years ago, but I have another one for this xmas :D

[Sugar Magnolia]

hehehe....love the hydnoman. That is awesome! I now am going to raid my son's lego collection to attach a yuma ric to one of those little guys. Got one that detached a few days ago and is sitting on the botom just waiting for a new home.

[Frick-n-Frags]

That will look cool, I wonder if it will look like a chinese "coolie man" or the mexican "sombrero man" :D

Uh oh may have created a fragging monster here. (well that is fraggenstein's job - to create monsters :D)

seriously, I have just spent hours cruising those giant craft stores, haardware stores, walmart, etc looking for ideas and doodads for gluing frags too and I have found some cool stuff there too. I have some little clear plastic light-pull-chain piggies that maybe will become GSP chia pets, glass candle holders covered in zoos, a bottle that I'm going to make a vase of flowers out of various softies, etc etc still CD cases are my favorite item so far.

[Zack]

How does that work with the cd case???

[Frick-n-Frags]

I've learned that frags superglued onto glass plates(which I would prefer because they are heavy and stay put) fall off eventually - very frustrating

superglue makes a permanent bond to plastic, especially when doing it dry.

I also like the surface area. I just made up 5 frag combos of 6 different Monti digitatas for an upcoming frag swap. I cut the CD case into strips and glued the 6 frags to each strip leaving a little space at one end to rubberband some rubblerock anchors to (CD case plastic is nearly neutrally bouyant and eventually floats away)

I also have several entire CD cases covered with zoos. I just glued down single polyps or groups of 2-3 all over the case and they spread to fill it in.

I like using the clear plastic part not the black part. I got a box of 50 thinline CD cases which were free after rebates.

I'm still looking for a source of cheap plastic golf tees for SPS frags, but haven't worked out the details of securing them (maybe just in trays of coarse gravel a la Tropicorum but they use bud vases, I want a denser packing factor than bud vases)

here is a crappy pic from another frag sequence, but it shows part of one of the CD case strips right up front and you can see a bit of the orange Monti d. on it too

http://www.rusynyk.com/coral/fragdemo3.JPG