Frogspawn Heads Receding?

[VVolfe]

This Frogspawn has done well since I added it about 6 months ago, splitting from 2 heads to 5.
In the past week, the lower heads seem to be receding. I notice what looks like a very tiny head starting further back on the stalk. I circled that smaller head in the image.

I really don’t want to lose this coral. The top two heads seem just fine. Any advice?

 

[VVolfe]

Should I dip it or something? Is there something wrong with these lower heads?

 

[eggplantparrot]

just going to strike in the dark here. are you doing water changes?

i just went on a streak of losing a few hammers and torches, all other LPS looked like **** and started receding. i stopped doing water changes when my alk, cal, mag, NO3, PO4 & PH were stable and in good range. but i guess some sort of micronutrient i wasn't testing for was depleted as they started slowly dying.

I gave up trying to salvage it and just did a huge water change and immediately the corals started doing better.

 

[VVolfe]

Yeah, I do weekly water changes.

I added a mail order anemone this week and it melted within 24 hours of my clown “loving it to death.” So, I did another water change after taking it out.

My parameters do look stable and my other corals are good. I’m curious if those heads are exposed to more light than the other heads is part of the problem.

I’ll do another round of testing tomorrow and post in here.

 

[Uncle99]

Water chemistry change is a first suspect.
Need a numbers post.

 

[VVolfe]

Water chemistry change is a first suspect.
Need a numbers post.

had to work late but got the round of tests in

Ammonia 0
Nitrites 0
Nitrates 0 API
5 Salifert
4.5 Hanna
pH 8.0
Alkalinity 10.5 dKH
Phosphate .01

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

Has your alk changed recently? My euphyllia prefer all around 8, and they get really upset if it changes quickly in either direction.

Also, what's your salinity and temp?

 

[VVolfe]

Salinity 1.027
Temp 75

My Alkalinity is up from 9.5 two weeks ago when I started noticing the heads looking odd.
9.5 has been where it sat since around November.

I get a bit frustrated with that test since it seems so simple but I have done back to back tests with 9.3 the. 9.5.

Is it possible the reef roids I added the last two days are pushing this up?

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

Salinity 1.027
Temp 75

My Alkalinity is up from 9.5 two weeks ago when I started noticing the heads looking odd.
9.5 has been where it sat since around November.

I get a bit frustrated with that test since it seems so simple but I have done back to back tests with 9.3 the. 9.5.

Is it possible the reef roids I added the last two days are pushing this up?

I agree that testing for some parameters can be frustrating, but overall consistency is the key if things are doing well. I'd try to *slowly* lower the alk back to 9.5-ish. Salinity is higher and temp is lower than what I run, but if the coral looked ok with those numbers before, then it may not be a problem. Euphyllia is funny sometimes- I think things can be out of whack for a while and they manage but then look terrible one day, and it's hard to trace back to what the issue might be.

 

[VVolfe]

Thanks!

There’s nothing indicating I should try to dip it or otherwise though? That would likely just cause more stress?

The temp is a bit lower than usual; typically it’s at 77. I’ll double check heaters when I get back from work today.

It seems like every time I start feeding anything other than the fish one or more of my parameters goes off.

Once I stopped giving reef roids or phytoplankton I started to get stable numbers but when this one started looking sick I thought I should give it some food maybe.

 

[Charlie brown]

Magnesium baby! My hammer was looking like it was on the road to dying every other coral I got in my nano was doing great acans acros and Monties were good but he was looking half at out the tank watched some videos from a dude in Canada that had the same issue from frag box tv and he bumped up his mag up to 1600 from 1250 min was at 1250 i thought from the recommended parameters i was good but after watching the video i was like I'm gonna try it see what happens and I bumped it up to 1600 over a 2 day period and my hammer looked better then when I bought it. So check your magnesium and if you want check out this video the dude really knows his stuff.

 

[Uncle99]

Phosphate a bit low @0.01ppm, I shoot for 0.05ppm at the least and run 0.12ppm. What’s MG?
Those numbers look fine to me provided they are not moving, especially Alk.
You have a coral doing well for 6 months, everyone is OK, then poof, two heads.
While that does happen (for no apparent reason), it’s a bit odd.
Seen quick changes in light kill a head or two, a crab tasting, something fell on it, a fish bumped it.
You post that an nem, just melted away and your parameter’s may not be stable, those are key contributors.
The good news is the death does not usually spread, if parameters are stabilized.

 

[VVolfe]

Magnesium baby! My hammer was looking like it was on the road to dying every other coral I got in my nano was doing great acans acros and Monties were good but he was looking half at out the tank watched some videos from a dude in Canada that had the same issue from frag box tv and he bumped up his mag up to 1600 from 1250 min was at 1250 i thought from the recommended parameters i was good but after watching the video i was like I'm gonna try it see what happens and I bumped it up to 1600 over a 2 day period and my hammer looked better then when I bought it. So check your magnesium and if you want check out this video the dude really knows his stuff.

I’ll check this out but I don’t have a Magnesium test kit. I’ve never tested for it.

 

[VVolfe]

Phosphate a bit low @0.01ppm, I shoot for 0.05ppm at the least and run 0.12ppm. What’s MG?
Those numbers look fine to me provided they are not moving, especially Alk.
You have a coral doing well for 6 months, everyone is OK, then poof, two heads.
While that does happen (for no apparent reason), it’s a bit odd.
Seen quick changes in light kill a head or two, a crab tasting, something fell on it, a fish bumped it.
You post that an nem, just melted away and your parameter’s may not be stable, those are key contributors.
The good news is the death does not usually spread, if parameters are stabilized.

It doesn’t make sense but I started noticing the heads looking a bit retracted after I did a few days of adding Reef Energy AB+

I had added it Bc while everything looks like it has good polyp extension and decent color, not much other than GSP and the Waving hand actually “grows.”

1st day I went light on the amount I added and my tank water looked a bit like antifreeze. By morning it looked fine again and no issues seemed obvious.

I added a smaller amount every other day two more times. It didn’t seem to change the water visibly those two times so I felt better about it.

After the 3rd feeding was when I noticed one of the heads of the Frogspawn looking a little less happy. I thought maybe it was “full” from the feeding and needed less light. Just in case, since it seems every time I feed that something gets out of wack; I quit.

I chalked the anemone loss up to my clown going wacko on it after it has just been shipped across country for two days.

Everyone in the house insists that the fish I have in there are terrorists. They massacre cleaner shrimps overnight on two different occasions and are bad about trying to pull even reef roids out of corals.

Maybe they went hard at those heads after feeding.

i’ll ask lfs if they can test Magnesium. Unless I can find a more automated way to monitor all of the water chemistry; I don’t want to add another testing kit. I’ve ended up with 4 different kits for chasing Nitrates so far and sometimes they come up with really different results.

 

[Uncle99]

I use Red Sea A+B in my DT for a year now.
So for 250g I dose 15-20ml day.
Never an issue.
My water clears in 5 minutes.
Many instances of fish and inverts tasting some polyps.

 

[VVolfe]

I’ll check this out but I don’t have a Magnesium test kit. I’ve never tested for it.

Today, LFS said Mag is 1560. Asked if I’m dosing bc that seemed high.

 

[Shirak]

Today, LFS said Mag is 1560. Asked if I’m dosing bc that seemed high.

Yes a little on the high side but not so much that it would cause a big problem for your Euphyllia. Ca level? With some of your parameters high it could possibly be salinity. I think you posted 1.027sg which is a little high but not crazy. How are you measuring salinity? Maybe your reading is off and it's higher?
I also agree the .01ppm phosphates could very well be 0. Test kits have a margin of error and anything .02ppm or lower is suspect IMO. It's possible the corals are not getting enough nutrition. Ideally, the flesh should be down the outside of the skeleton much further even on the 'healthy heads'.

 

[Wasabiroot]

Take a look at night around the base of the polyp near where it meets the skeleton and look for pale brown blobs. If you see them, could have euphyllia flatworms...probably don't, but good to check.
Typically polyp recession in euphyllia is caused by water quality or parameter issues. I'm thinking you potentially had an alk swing in the past. Looking at your parameters I think you might be lacking nutrients and it's starting to show, but there are a lot of reasons that could have caused it to happen.
I would say dipping is probably not warranted as we don't know if this is bacterial and it may further stress the coral right now.