sick or unhappy frogspawn

woodstock '69 · #1 01/02/2007, 10:13 PM

My frogspawn is unhappy I think. It has (make that had) 5 good heads (branching frogspawn). 2 weeks ago for no reason I can think of one of the heads withdrew and never came back. I have been fretting ever since. Then last week another head started to do the same thing except it took about a week for it to totally disappear. The 3 other heads look fine. The picture below was taken about 4 days ago, the head is now almost gone and does not look nearly as well as it does in the pic.

And I also have a hammer (also a euphyllia ) that is doing fine.

What is causing this? and what can I do? Does anyone have any ideas?

temp.............76.4
sg.................1.024-1.025
ph.................8.2-8.3
flow .............medium
light .............150 hqi 10k bulb is 15" above coral
kh or alk........ 8.5dH
calcium ..........480
phosphate ....<.003
nitrate .......... <.025
ammonia.........0

Michael

tmplge · #2 01/03/2007, 01:03 AM

maybe direct feeding might help? sorry not much help i guess.

ReefArtist · #3 01/03/2007, 06:38 AM

I have to agree with tmplge, have you feed them? Not sure from the pic but they don't look as bright as they should be. What do you feed your tank? I target feed mine different food each week but you could start with Mysis - they seem to really like that. Do you add any vitamins? Treat your tank as you should treat yourself - good nutritional foods, vitamins and variety.

woodstock '69 · #4 01/03/2007, 10:22 AM

Thanks for the suggestions.

I do feed them. Once a week, a little mysis or cyclopeaze out of a syringe. Been doing it since I had them. I also vary the diet alot. I feed mysis, cyclopeaze, OceanNutrition formulas one and two, frozen spirulina treated brine shrimp, and tetra color bits (rarely).

I can't tell if they really eat it, but I do target feed them.

Michael

pink_floyd · #5 01/03/2007, 10:29 AM

You seem to be doing everything proper... that is strange that it just recedes like that... maybe some of the occupants of the tank is bothering it? that is the only other thing i can think of.

woodstock '69 · #6 01/03/2007, 10:19 PM

pink_floyd - how cool is that? I came to the same conclusion. We may both be guessing incorrectly but it is the only thing that seems to make sense. I do have 3 scarlett leg hermit crabs, and 2 peppermint shrimp.

The shrimp are aggressive (I think) they come right up to my hand. But I have never seen them on anything except one time I target fed cyclopeaze and they were all over the frogspawn. I made them leave but who knows?

btw - one of the all time top 10 concerts I ever saw was pink floyd playing the entire dark side of the moon album in concert at the Alexandria Va Rollerink-A-Rina. Sat 3rd row center. The dry ice machines smoke covered the first 10 to 15 rows. It was the first concert where I saw a live band use a tape recorder to fill in some of the stuff and it was cool as hell.

Michael

spsgtr · #7 01/03/2007, 11:48 PM

any fish, specifically clown fish hosting it? i've had frogspawns in the past and they did fine. just grew better with feeding

shepod · #8 01/05/2007, 03:18 PM

Do you check Magnesium at all? I had a problem with a branching frogspawn and lost a head. Someone suggested the problem might be magnesium. I tested and it was quite low. I've upped my Magnesium and now test and dose for it regularly - I've not had a problem since.

woodstock '69 · #9 01/05/2007, 11:38 PM

shepod - good call ..... at least to try. I remember reading a while back about the importance of magnesium but can't remember anymore why it was so important. I will re-read about it and probably get a test. Shoot!! I just got an order yesterday with free shipping. Oh well!

Thanks

Michael

Oh yeah and one more thing. I was persuaded to cut off the two bad branches for a number of reasons. When I did, I noticed this red like growth? I think, or maybe coraline algae?( I don't think) or maybe bugs? on one of the stalks I cut off. Well there are a bunch more on one or 2 of the other branches as well. Does this stuff look normal or harmless? Could this be a problem?

Michael

maxdout · #10 01/06/2007, 02:22 AM

good question i would like to know too as i just bought a frag today that has some of those red markings.

jessp · #11 01/06/2007, 04:23 AM

move it from medium flow to low flow, that is probably the problem.

Surfzone · #12 01/06/2007, 08:19 AM

i would do the Lugals Iodine Dip as well. it can't hurt

woodstock '69 · #13 01/10/2007, 10:54 PM

Surfzone - I did the lugol's dip a couple of days ago. It looked like the little red things started disentegrating shortly thereafter. I think they are mostly gone. Also ..... I think it is feeling a little better. With the 3 remaining heads, none has started its dying routine ..... so far .....fingers crossed.....

Thanks for the suggestion.

Michael