Frogspawn Coral - need help

serhiyi

New member
Hi everyone.

I have Frogspawn Coral for some time now. It started as two heads and I have 5 now.

Couple of days ago one head did no open. I looked closer next day, couple of tentacles were out but some of them were very small and looked like damaged.
It is not opening at all today and I noticed that other head are not opening well.

I have Zoanthus Colony Polyp Corals, Starburst Polyps and lots of mushrooms that are doing fine.

I added pictures.
Full view:
81917IMG_0004.JPG


First head that looks bad:
81917IMG_0005.JPG


Second:
81917IMG_0006.JPG



I'm not sure if you can see it on the picture, but skeleton of the coral if visible on those two heads and very few tentacles are out.
Other heads look good, may be a less open then I they used to.


Is it something wrong with coral and I should be worried about other heads?
What should I do, check?

Any advice is welcome.

Thank you.
 
Tank is about two years old. Probably more.

I tested water today again:
Ammonia: 0.25
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: <5
Phosphate: 0
Ph: 8.2
KH: 125.3
Calcium: 500
Salinity: 1.028
 
I'm checking my records. I started them in Jan 2007 and I had the tank for some time when I started recording.

2007-09-08 Added frogspawn coral with two heads
2007-09-25 Changed lights (4x65W PC)
2008-03-26 Replaced Lights 4x65 (10000k/Actinic) bulbs


Should I try changing bulbs again or it is better to wait?
 
Hard to know why.

My $0.02 is that your Ca is on the high side for softies. But, if that were the problem, you'd see a more more system-wide effect.

Know that just because one head dies away, the others won't necessarily follow along.

Have you experiented with spot feeding? Mouths are in the middle of the head. Mine love spot feeding once a week or so -- using a turkey baster and a very small micron food like Reef Chilli. That might be a way to coax that head back out.
 
I'll try spot feeding it, but I'm not sure I will be able to do it for those two heads that do not look right.

I realized that Ca is a bit hight. Do you think this can add to a problem? I will try to bring it to 460-480.
 
Ammonia is definitely a problem. I suggest a substantial water change to bring it down.

You might also try asking in the LPS Keepers forum. Although they have fleshy tentacles that move like soft corals, frogspawn are actually large polyp stony corals. I purchased my first frogspawn thinking that it was a soft coral. It was just one head, without a stalk, and I thought it was a soft coral attached to a live rock pebble.
 
I've recently experienced a similiar phenomena in my tank w/ frogspawn, hammer and a candycane all of which are years old. Most recently been working on the addition of a new calcium reactor. Didn't think the calcium was that high, will triple check it tonite. this is a common reaction to high calcium?
 
This is a stony coral. It is particularly sensitive to low alkalinity and hates any ammonia at all. The calcium is somewhat high: should be about 420. The alk s/b around 8.3-9.3.
Also, soft corals spit chemicals at stonies and try to kill them. Run carbon to take this out of the water.
 
Ammonia is almost surely the problem. It also looks a little too clear for a frogspawn. Mine isn't nearly as translucent. I would try feeding it.
 
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