| Difficulty | Easy to cut, demanding to keep |
| Time Required | 10–20 minutes |
| Healing Time | 1–3 weeks to encrust |
| Best Method | Snip branch tips, mount upright |
| Coral Type | Small-polyp stony (SPS) |
Overview
Mechanically, Acropora is the easiest coral in the hobby to frag — snip a branch, glue it to a plug, done. This is why the SPS side of the hobby runs on frag swaps. The skill is not in the cutting; it is in having a colony healthy enough to donate branches and a tank stable enough for the frag to encrust and take off. The same method covers Birdsnest, Stylophora, Pocillopora and most other branching SPS.
What You’ll Need
- Bone cutters or coral snips
- Frag plugs and gel super glue
- Coral dip (SPS carry pests: acro-eating flatworms, red bugs)
- Turkey baster for rinsing slime off cuts
Step-by-Step
- Choose a healthy branch tip at least 3/4–1 inch long, with good polyp extension and color.
- Snip cleanly with bone cutters. The parent barely notices — wild colonies lose branches to fish and storms constantly.
- Dip the frag and baste it gently to clear the slime it produces.
- Dab the cut base dry, apply gel glue, and press it upright onto the plug. Upright frags grow into better-shaped colonies than sideways ones.
- Place the frag in flow and light similar to the parent’s position. Do not park a light-adapted tip in shade “to recover” — that is a demotion, not a rest.
Aftercare & Healing
Watch the base: within one to three weeks the tissue should creep down over the glue line and encrust the plug — the sign the frag has taken. Color often lightens for a couple of weeks after fragging, then returns. Keep alkalinity rock-stable during healing; swinging alk is the top killer of fresh SPS frags.
What Can Go Wrong
Tissue peels from the base upward (STN): instability or a pest — re-dip, re-glue the healthy tip, and check alk/salinity. Rapid whitening in hours (RTN): acute stress; cut well above the necrosis line and save what you can. Frag never encrusts: it is surviving, not thriving — usually light or flow too low.