Is my frogspawn coral dead?

[coralenthusiast]

Hi,
I got frag of frogspawn acclimatized it for 30 minutes and put it in my tank. The coral tips were healthy in the beginning but they got shrivelled after I left them under my tank lighting for about 3 h. Is this coral dead? I observed it all day today and there seems to be stuff ejecting occasionally from its mouth. Is there anything I can do to still save this coral or is it time to take it out if the aquarium?

At a 7 inch distance another 1 week old (since I got it into the tank) Ricordea bubble tip mushroom coral seems to be doing fine.

 

[MERKEY]

Hey there, your tank looks really new.

How old is it?

What are your parameters?

What lights are you using?

 

[ectoaesthetics]

+1 with above questions.

no need to pull him out he is FAR from gone. You will see tissue recision when he starts to go.

Also, did he shrivel up with lights on -or after they turned off? Asking as they will typically close up at night and your lights are off in pic. Lighting specs tank size and % you are running them will also be key into for us.


to be noted: when introducing coral it can take some time before they really react to the chem differences between your tank and the previous tank -even with acclimation. And it can take several days for them to get adjusted. But all the above questions will also really help us get a better understanding of it is just “normal” stress for a new coral or something to worry about.

 

[DSEKULA]

It's not dead yet, all the flesh will melt off.
However, with how white those rocks are that looks like a very new tank and likely not ready for coral. If everything stays stable you may be able to pull it through untill the rock is more established but you may want to consider taking it back to the lfs.

 

[reefiniteasy]

Do you have flow in there?

 

[Camaro Show Corals]

We need more tank info and background, also looks like you have no flow. Corals need flow and power heads, good ones at that.

 

[PTXReef]

Hi,
I got frag of frogspawn acclimatized it for 30 minutes and put it in my tank. The coral tips were healthy in the beginning but they got shrivelled after I left them under my tank lighting for about 3 h. Is this coral dead? I observed it all day today and there seems to be stuff ejecting occasionally from its mouth. Is there anything I can do to still save this coral or is it time to take it out if the aquarium?

At a 7 inch distance another 1 week old (since I got it into the tank) Ricordea bubble tip mushroom coral seems to be doing fine.

We're here to help! Please update!

 

[coralenthusiast]

Hey there, your tank looks really new.

How old is it?

What are your parameters?

What lights are you using?

Hi,

I got the dry live rock and I left it in the water with circulation for over a month.

the pH is 8.16
Salinity 1.0019
Lights: Lumini Pixie 30
Tank size: 55 gallon
Pump-SW-4

Thank you for your support!

 

[SifuMemphis]

Your salinity is way to low. You need to slowly bump it up to 1.025. Also, you left the water circulating over a month, did you cycle the tank? Did you ever put an ammonia source in there to start the cycle? What's Ammonia and Nitrite reading ?

What is your Alk, Calcium, Mag, Nitrate, and phosphate at?

In terms of lighting str. I never used the pixie, so i can't say much about it.

In the picture, it doesnt seem like theres flow blowing the frogspawn. You might want to increase it, to give them a nice swaying motion.

 

[ReeferWarrant]

Your salinity seems a bit low for my liking, I aim for 1.026 but thats probably not the issue. What are your Nitrate, Nitrite, Phosphate, Ammonia, Alkalinity, Calcium and Magnesium readings?

 

[coralenthusiast]

+1 with above questions.

no need to pull him out he is FAR from gone. You will see tissue recision when he starts to go.

Also, did he shrivel up with lights on -or after they turned off? Asking as they will typically close up at night and your lights are off in pic. Lighting specs tank size and % you are running them will also be key into for us.


to be noted: when introducing coral it can take some time before they really react to the chem differences between your tank and the previous tank -even with acclimation. And it can take several days for them to get adjusted. But all the above questions will also really help us get a better understanding of it is just “normal” stress for a new coral or something to worry about.

Thank you for the response!

the coral shrivelled after I left it under the light. I took this picture during day time but with the lights turned off. I believe that the lights were at full brightness. I'm not yet sure how to measure the light brightness but now I adjusted them to the lowest setting on the device.

 

[coralenthusiast]

Your salinity seems a bit low for my liking, I aim for 1.026 but thats probably not the issue. What are your Nitrate, Nitrite, Phosphate, Ammonia, Alkalinity, Calcium and Magnesium readings?

I haven't tested the water for these parameters. Can you recommend a testing kit or apparatus or any other means to find out these readings? I live in Boston, MA (if it helps)

 

[coralenthusiast]

Your salinity is way to low. You need to slowly bump it up to 1.025. Also, you left the water circulating over a month, did you cycle the tank? Did you ever put an ammonia source in there to start the cycle? What's Ammonia and Nitrite reading ?

What is your Alk, Calcium, Mag, Nitrate, and phosphate at?

In terms of lighting str. I never used the pixie, so i can't say much about it.

In the picture, it doesnt seem like theres flow blowing the frogspawn. You might want to increase it, to give them a nice swaying motion.

Got it, I'll try to adjust the salinity. I did not add an ammonia source but I changed 10% of the water twice during a month's time.

Thank you for your feedback

 

[andrewey]

As others are hinting, you tank may not be ready for coral yet. It's also possible that you never cycled your tank. Are you able to get the seller to temporarily hold that frogspawn until your tank is surely ready for coral? I fear you might want to get all your biology/chemistry in line before putting any coral in and your frogspawn might not make it while you do so. If they can hold it, you can bring the frogspawn back to an environment more conducive for it to live and more importantly, thrive.

 

[Miller535]

As others are hinting, you tank may not be ready for coral yet. It's also possible that you never cycled your tank. Are you able to get the seller to temporarily hold that frogspawn until your tank is surely ready for coral? I fear you might want to get all your biology/chemistry in line before putting any coral in and your frogspawn might not make it while you do so. If they can hold it, you can bring the frogspawn back to an environment more conducive for it to live and more importantly, thrive.

I agree with all of this. And also, it is best practice to either leave lights off for the first day a new coral is added, or at least off for a few hours. And to start them off on the bottom of the tank

 

[coralenthusiast]

Thank you everyone for your valuable feedback! I'll bring it back till I get my tank ready

 

[SifuMemphis]

I haven't tested the water for these parameters. Can you recommend a testing kit or apparatus or any other means to find out these readings? I live in Boston, MA (if it helps)

Red sea has good test kits, Saliferts are great etc. While there are other ones that are good, I only have experience with these two brands.

 

[ReeferWarrant]

Red sea and Salifert like above mention, make sure you read through the instructions. Certain ones require shaking the bottle for some time vs not stirring. I was looking at Hanna checkers but I would just start with the ones that are less than $20 a piece.

 

[PTXReef]

Agree with everyones suggestions! Definitely tough to decide to bring it back but great decision. I started the cycle with Fritz Turbo start and waited a month before adding any fish, and probably at least 3 months before I added my first coral. Patience and research is key to success! Good luck

 

[ReeferWarrant]

I did the same, but I used live rock from my LFS. In hindsight, I wish I did dry rock and then did what @PTXReef did with a turbo start. Getting live rock is cool because you get all of the critters at once, live rock sucks because you get all of the critters you dont want at once.... I let my tank go for 2 months with live rock, then added a small amount of CUC since there was algae growing. I'd also feed the CUC if needed.