Frogspawn Dying—Oh, No!

Hi all,

I'm new to reef aquariums, and my frogspawn is the first LPS coral I've gotten (so it's important to me!). It looked great for the first two weeks or so—8 heads—but has since gone downhill. I first noticed the tentacles on two heads retracting gradually after I split the skeleton so it would fit better in my tank, and the individual tentacles were flattening out and shriveling. After about a week, the tentacles started to die off of those heads, leaving just the skeleton beneath (plus little white "hand" thingies poking out of the middle of the heads, which you can see in my pictures—these are how the frogspawn filter-feed, right?). I originally thought something was eating them and got rid of two camel shrimp. Since then, though, four more heads have gone in the same way over about three weeks! There's no color change when the tentacles shrivel up, either.

I'm including some pictures: You can see that one of the heads is in the process of losing its tentacles, and the other head's tentacles are retracted. They're in the sand right now because that's basically the only place they haven't already been. I've tried moving the frags all around the tank, but I've mostly stuck to relatively well-lit and strongly-circulated areas. I'm feeding my corals Phyto Feast everyday: 40 or so drops in a 28-gallon tank.

This doesn't look like the pictures of brown jelly disease I've seen, and I don't see any "bugs" on the coral.

If anyone can offer advice, I'd be FOREVER grateful! Maybe I'll send you a frag someday if they recover. ;-)

Here's my tank info.:

28-gallon JBJ Nano Cube, which I set up about 5 months ago

Salinity: 1.024
Nitrites: 0
Nitrates: ~0
Chlorine: 0
Alkalinity: ~350
pH: 8.3
Calcium: 460 (I've been dosing, and brought it up from about 360)
Temperature: 80 (I know this is a little hot; I've ordered a fan)

I dose with B-Ionic's Calcium Buffer System daily to keep the calcium up, and I do a 5-gallon water change every other week.

2 return pumps on a 30-second wave maker delivering 266 GPH
2 Hydor powerheads on a 30-second wave maker circulating 425 GPH
The lights are 150-watt power compact lights, on for 8 hours a day, plus LED moonlights, on all the time.

I don't have any activated carbon in the tank currently.

I've got 2 clownfish, a Melanurus wrasse, a goby, 2 fire red shrimp, and emerald crab, and assorted hermit crabs and snails, plus some zoanthids and some 'shrooms.

 

Welcome to 3reef.

Thanks for including a detailed post, that helps a lot.

If your true value of ALK is 350 that could very well be the issue.

Reef Aquarium Water Parameters by Randy Holmes-Farley - Reefkeeping.com

 

Alk of 350?? I am used to dkh where you want 8-12 but am even used to the numbers where 3.0-4.0 are good, what kind of number is 350?? Maybe he means 3.50meq/l??

Assuming is alk is not 350 dkh, I would say that fragging the coral was cause for the demise. I remember reeding about these guys and if you crush the skeleton when fragging instead of making a clean cut it leads to problems. I dont recall the specifics maybe someone can chime in to help you out

 

Well Frogspawn needs lower current and lower light. They recommend on the bottom in most tanks.

I have frog and hammer I keep my calc at 480 and my alk at 9 and have never lost a head. But from experience frogs and hammers dont like getting beat up by current.

Also you said you split it to allow it to fit, did you cut on just a skelton area or area with flesh?

 

Is it just me or does the third picture look like it has a barnacle in the skeleton?

From the pictures they looks stressed, deflated and drawn back, when they do extend do they reach up for the light? or do they always stay small now? You want good lighting and lower flow. they like to be softly pushed about not flailed till they beat themselves to death.

Do your clowns hang around them a lot? I know my clowns love my frogspawn, and with that if they get a little Too wild the frogspawn will retract. If they stay retracted for too long they don't get enough of that tasty tasty photosynthesis.

 

what kind of softies do you have? could it be possible that some of the soft coral are leaching out toxins? he is not running carbon... it could be stressing it. also mine looked like that when it got too much flow... do you have any algae, where is your p04 level?

 

Low alk or low Cal usualy reasonable for whats going on. I had the same issue and lost like 15 heads on a colony after fragging it.

 

Agree on above. Also in the 1 pic I see what's called a barnacle. What thing almost a little hand with feathers.