Frogspawn question

kevin · Oct 26, 2006

I recently recieved a nice 3 polyp frogspawn frag. One of the 3 polyps has not been looking good since i bought it. it's tissue has started to recede off of the skeleton. What should i do? should i move it to another location?

Thanks,
Kevin

gflat65 · Oct 26, 2006

Is it receding, or just closing up? Regardless, it isn't happy. Mine don't like a ton of light and like low to medium flow. Are your parameters in check? Alk and Ca are the most overlooked killers in a reef aquarium. How long have you had it? What kind of lighting and how much flow? I'd recommend putting it low in the tank with subdued flow to see what it's going to do for you (good advice for anything new to a tank, unless you're talking acros from under MH to under PC's, etc.). Once it starts to look good again, start moving it around to find the best spot for the tank, but give it a number of days between moves to acclimate to the new spot.

kevin · Oct 26, 2006

calcium- 420ppm
ammonia- 0
phosphate- 0.01
nitrate- < 5ppm
nitirite- 0ppm
ph- 8.2
specific gravity- 1.025
alkalinity- 3.0 meq/l

i have 225 watts of vho, and a return pump of about 600 gallons per hour going through two outlets on either side of the tank. It is in an area of low flow, and lower light.

Is there a chance my foxface (my only fish, 2.5") is nipping at it? I have never seen it do so, but it is a possibility.

Thanks,
Kevin

gflat65 · Oct 27, 2006

I guess that could be a possiblity. I suspect a Sribbled Rabbitfish of eating a neon green pocillopora... How long have you had it? I've heard Euphyllia typically don't ship well (I've gotten all of mine locally)...

JnS · Oct 27, 2006

keep it in low flow and it should come back....

jessiesgrrl · Oct 29, 2006

Agree as well... And for the record, I do think foxfaces have a really bad rep for that... at least in my neck of the woods. One lady in our reef club had to employ someone to catch one that was eating softies in her tank.

Laurie

kevin · Oct 31, 2006

I have never seen the fish nip, but i am suspecting that he is nipping at night, since more tissue is gone by the morning.

JnS · Oct 31, 2006

got a pic?

kevin · Oct 31, 2006

well, i woke up this morning, and all of the flesh off of all three of the polps was gone. Except for some tissue hanging off of the third polyp. Oh well...

JnS · Oct 31, 2006

sorry to hear! they are bad shippers, maybe you can find someone local to get some from.

fishes2889 · Oct 31, 2006

sorry to hear about the loss.... it happens to the best of us....

Steve

kevin · Oct 31, 2006

it was sitting upright in the sand when i saw it in the store. It looked very healthy when i purchased it. I would not have bought it if it did not look perfect.

czieler · Oct 31, 2006

Ok..one thing that some people do not know if they haven't had them before...is that when you bag or remove them from a bag...if the flesh is out at all....you need to jiggle the frogspawn a bit gently for a minute...and wait for the flesh to recede into the skeleton before taking it out of the water.

Not sure if this was a factor here or not. If you take them out of the water w/ all of the flesh out... it has a tendency to sometimes tear at the base from the weight of the flesh.