Frogspawn polyp

[2fishy]

Tonight I walked past the aquarium to see one of my frogspawn polyps floating around in the water. It was still inflated. I could not see where it had come off and have yet to see this happen to any of the other polyps...yet. No fish are hosting this coral and there were no crabs in the area.

Any idea what would have caused this to happen, and is it a bad thing?

Any suggestions would be very much appreciated.

 

[Dustin1300]

Definately a first that I've heard in the year I've experienced with the hobby!

 

[mrbncal]

I have experienced the same in my tank several times. But thats all i can tell ya. I have never seen them attach or grow, but i never tried grabbing one and gluing it to something.

 

[flyyyguy]

its called polyp bail out. Usually caused by stress, poor water quality, or its simply heathy and reproducing.

Ive had it happen to me on two occasions. Once healthy reproduction was the only thing that made sense....... the other time I had a handful of polyps do it on a large specimen and it was defintely stress induced. I had been abusing it in a tank move for several days straight

 

[Lockhartia]

How much flow is the coral getting? I had a powerhead's suction cup let go so it twisted ever so slighty and completely changed the direction of the flow.

It wasn't blowing directly onto the frogspawn, but there was enough flow to break off a few polyps. They disappeared into the abyss of the tank, but it never seemed to bother the frogspawn. Why they use suction cups on powerheads....

 

[2fishy]

Thanks for all the responses! Something is going on in the tank, causing cyano and bubble algae outbreak at this time but nothing near the coral. There is a lot of flow in there. But nothing blasting the coral itself. I may try to change the flow direction any way. I am having trouble figuring out where the cyano/bubble algae is coming from. All tests are reading at zero including the phosphate, but I think I am going to pick up an API calcium and phosphate test kit because it seems to have been questioned on accuracy of the other test kits. As I posted in another thread in Reef Chemistry, I finally get zero nitrates and get almost an instant cyano/bubble outbreak! Argh!

 

[simmons797]

I have had this happen a few times as well, each time it happened to me was as the head was splitting. I have heard that the polyps will sometimes be shed to make room/restructure as the coral splits. If you only see it once in a while and it's only one at a time I wouldn't worry too much about it. If you start seeing several floating around your tank at once then I might worry about it.

 

[2fishy]

Oh, that would be very cool if it split!!!

 

[synofreak]

I had one pop off my frogspawn about a week ago. Couldn't figure out why. Figured no big deal. Now the frogspawn has a huge blister/airsack in it. I'm assuming its getting ready to split a head to 2 =).

 

[simmons797]

Yes the bubble you are seeing means that it is getting ready to split.