Propagating Birds Nest Coral

Seriatopora hystrix

This document explains my first attempt at SPS propagation. My first attempt will be on a first generation Bird Nest Coral (Seriatopora hystrix) that I have had for a while and has shown signs of good branch growth. I have kept this coral in high light conditions with good strong pulsed water flow.

Tools

I planned to take 4 or 5 cuttings with each being 1/4 - 1/2 inch long. I will take the cuttings from the lower branches, since the tissue of these branches get little light due to shading from the rest of the host and will die in time. I would in fact recommend lower branch cuttings for most branching SPS for this reason. The picture shows all the tools necessary according to GARF. On the left are several small pieces of live rock rubble that I have been saving since cycling the rock. A good source for such rock rubble is your LFS - they usually have a lot in their live rock curing or holding tanks. At the top is a roll of paper towels for temporarily drying the cuttings before attaching. In the middle is a small Tupperware dish with the cuttings under tank water. There is a package of Ross Super Glue Gel that I got locally at Office Depot. A diagonal cutters and needle nose pliers were used to fragment the branches from the host. Finally my log book for record keeping and a small glass of Rossi Chianti to steady my nerves. Actually the wine was my own idea and is optional.

Cuttings

This is a picture of the small cuttings in the Tupperware dish (they are covered with tank water at this point). I ended up attaching the five larger ones. I wanted to try single and multiple branches to see which might do better. The cuttings were made near the base of the host with the diagonal cutters and they easily broke free when I made a slight twisting action. The frags here are much more brown in color than the normal pink because they were taken from lower areas of the host where there is less light due to shading from the upper branches. This does not mean ill-health though. The tissue is free of mucus and the polyps were expanding. However, in time the lower branches will die due to the lack of light, so it is best to frag them now.

Coral Attachment

Because S. hystrix does not encrust aggressively and the Ross Super Glue does not hold well with time, it is necessary to bore out a hole in the live rock so that the cutting will have continuous support during grow out. There are a number of ways to do this such as using a dremel tool or even drill bit. I found that since the rock is so soft I could just use a small phillips screw driver and make a hole about 1/4 inch deep. The rock was then rinsed in salt water and the hole dried with paper toweling. Be sure to wash any metal tools with RO water and dry promptly after contacting salt water. Today, I use surgical gloves to handle the coral frags. This reduces the risk of introducing terrestrial bacteria and fungus as well as preventing my fingers from being glued to the frag! I have notice a better success rate after I started using the gloves.
I applied a dab of Super Glue Gel the size of a pencil eraser into the hole, filling it up. I then selected a frag and dried the cut end and pushed it into the hole with a slight twist. The twist put on the cutting as it goes in will insure that the glue contacts all areas in the hole, including the rock and base of the cutting (many corals will emit a lot of mucus that can interfere with the glue and this twisting action insures the glue gets through to the coral tissue at the base). I held the cutting in place for about 20 seconds, then released. I let the attached cutting sit for a minute then put the rock in a quite place in the sump to set over night. I have found this necessary since the glue takes a few hours to set up strong and the snails would knock the cutting over if not let set over night in the sump.
Using the Super Glue Gel will allow you plenty of time to do the attachment, since it takes about 2 minutes to set-up and about 6 hours to set hard. Most SPS type corals will not be harmed being out of the water for several minutes.

Attached Coral

Here three cuttings have been attached to their own small piece of live rock. You may be able to see the glue at the base of each cutting. The ones to the outside are single branch with stubs and the one in the middle has two distinct branches. The rock on the right has two frags attached, both with two branches. I would recommend multiple plugs on a single rock for faster fuller grow out. In addition, if you plan on selling the attached cutting, most people prefer lots of coralline algae growth. Here we only see a couple of patches of coralline but they will encrust the rock in a few months during grow out of the coral.

Coral Growout

This picture is a rock with two frags in the tank. Notice that the super glue has turned white. This happens when the still wet glue comes in contact with the water and is normal. I found that it is necessary to glue the rocks down with epoxy putty or the snails will certainly knock them down in time. This is a very important lesson!

Extensive Growth

You can see the extensive branching with white tips indicated continued fast growth. The coral is ready for sale or trade and represents a healthy grow out of the original frag and can now be considered a second generation colony. In fact I plan to keep this one and make second generation cuttings soon. Also, if you look closely, you will see that the rock has encrusted over now with coralline algae.

By John Rice