Plate Coral...Frag or not to Frag?

[flyingarmy]

I have a green plate coral that at one time had died on one side. It came back but when it did there now are at least 15-20 mouths and seperate plates. I was hoping they would just fall off but they haven't. Has anyone ever had this happen, and what have you done? Pictured below!

 

[ericmcj31]

pics?

 

[flyingarmy]

Pic won't post, trying again! Wierd...thought the pic might be too big resized it and it still wouldn't post.

 

[xyzpdq0121]

Ya we will chop it up for you tomorrow.

 

[fishwhisperer]

Yes, this happens all the time with plate corals. They should fall off.

 

[slayer]

i've taken a dremel to one ...worked out great..

 

[cgill311]

My plate did the exact same thing. Just leave it alone. The baby plates will fall off once they get about 1-2 cm in diameter.

 

[reefscape]

hell as victor would say man -up..an chop that thing up

 

[glxtrix]

and when they come off, I know a certain 140 that would like to have one

 

[flyingarmy]

Trying a picture again...this plate has at least 21 mouths that I can count!
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[cameron]

Wow! I had given up on keeping plates since they seem to die so easily. Congrats on keeping and growing it.

 

[soarin']

I just got a little plate from Big D tonight -- while I was chatting with him, he said that the plates will start creating little babies if they get damaged, so that if they die then their children will live on. He said that some people use this to frag them on purpose.

He also said (if I remember correctly) that if sometimes if you "help" a frag along, that it doesn't make it. That's similar to what I read of Dendronepthea -- if they get stressed they will drop branches, but if people "help" along the branches by cutting them, they posted that the new babies will die.

So I vote to just let the process go naturally. You can sell the babies and recoup some of your reefing costs!