New corals and bleaching/color loss

[ainswokp]

I have a 3 gallon fluval that’s been up for a few months. We’ve conquered various pest algaes and our test coral a GSP has looked really good with all parameters staying stable the last 3 weeks. Yesterday we picked up a pack of small frags from the LFS. I have a rapport with the owner because I bought a ton of stock with them years ago when I had a lot of FOWLR tanks, and he gave us 4 frags to get started. They all opened up right away, but this (what looks like) frogspawn is fairly white/translucent. If I’ve never seen the coral colored up before, how do I know if it’s bleached or just naturally pink/white?

 

[andrewey]

There are lighter varieties (and even "white") varieties of frogspawn, so that could be what you're seeing. I'm not an expert on telling the difference between these lighting varieties vs. a "regular" frogspawn that has bleached, so hopefully someone more knowledgeable will set the story straight.

 

[ainswokp]

There are lighter varieties (and even "white") varieties of frogspawn, so that could be what you're seeing. I'm not an expert on telling the difference between these lighting varieties vs. a "regular" frogspawn that has bleached, so hopefully someone more knowledgeable will set the story straight.

That is the difficulty I am having. The base of the branches are fairly brown and have a greenish hue, but the ends are entirely translucent. Because of covid he bagged them for me ahead of time so it was retracted when I picked it up, never saw it beforehand.

 

[andrewey]

If I were in your shoes, I would treat it like a bleached frogspawn. That way, if it is, you set it up to recover and show it's true colors. If it isn't bleached, you've given it a really great acclimation to your tank

 

[vetteguy53081]

Looks very similar to my frogspawn called orange wall frogspawn - Euphyllia divisa

 

[ainswokp]

That is the difficulty I am having. The base of the branches are fairly brown and have a greenish hue, but the ends are entirely translucent. Because of covid he bagged them for me ahead of time so it was retracted when I picked it up, never saw it beforehand.

 

[ainswokp]

I should have added that I’m running a kessil a80 tuna blue. For parameters my nitrate and phosphate are 0, 1.028 ppm on salinity, 10 dKH, 8.1 pH, 500 calcium. In terms of lighting I am waiting on a controller (delivering Wednesday) but I run it at about 60% of intensity most of the day. However as it came in like this presumably the issue was before entering my tank. Should I lower the lights further if this is bleaching? Others corals in the tank are a torch, some zoas, and a Duncan.

 

[andrewey]

I would lower your lights. If you only have a 3 gallon, depending on the mounting height, 60% could be quite a bit of par! Your others corals will be very tolerant of lower lights and ramping them up slowly, whereas bleaching can occur quickly (or in the case of a coral that's possibly already bleached and needs lower lights at this point).

 

[homer1475]

Looks like a healthy octospawn. Notice the white nodules all up and down the tentacles, its whats called an octospawn in the hobby. Just a different type of frogspawn.

If it was bleached, the white nodules would be opaque not a bright white.