frogspawn

[NJ_ychung1]

my frogspawn, for the first time ever, dropped off some of its flesh on the bottom on nearby live rock. since it's the first time ever, i have to ask if it's normal. is this normal? has anyone seen this?

i know leather trees (kenya trees typically) drop off leaves and start a new colony. has anyone seen LPSs of Euphyllia family drop it's leaves or has it been cut by other inhabitants - i.e. fish or inverts...? I'm thinking of the latter but wanted to make sure...

thx

Jay

 

[Phyl]

I've had my clowns pull a piece off, but I don't know that mine have ever dropped bits off that were able to grow.

 

[calaxa]

I've had many pieces of frogspawn drop off from stress, trauma, and disease. Have seen it from other side of spectrum where pieces dropped off for asexual reproduction. I have not been able to create a new colony from any of these polyps. The longest I was able to keep an ejected polyp was about 2.5 weeks but no skeleton formed and no growth was exhibited.

 

[chase33]

I found a small piece in my tank about 8 months ago or maybe a little longer. I don't know whether it fell off or was torn off by a fish or something else. By the time I got to it (about a month or two later) it had a very small skeleton. I glued the skeleton to a frag disk and it has since grown enough to cover the entire disk. It's doing very well and is close to a year old. To me this was an easy successful frag

 

[NJ_ychung1]

hmmm... varying results from diff folks. i dun think i'm going to try to save it but was curious to see if frogspawn drops off pieces of polyps. i guess it's possible based on this reading. it's also possible the fish or crab can clip off pieces obviously....

thx everyone.
Jay

 

[calaxa]

Jay,

I wouldn't say the results were mixed. I just never bothered trying to get anything out of a polyp that was ejected. Most of the time, it would get lost to a powerhead or sucked in by overflow. Other times it got buried in the sand. The polyp stayed colored and healthy so it is possible given enough time that a skeleton would form. I don't need to culture these polyps as my frogspawn pieces grow faster than I know what to do with. I got one that is sprouting about 6 new heads at the moment with a huge bubble that has been there for the last 8 weeks. Still waiting for a head to come from there. I am sure a new frag/colony can come from an ejected polyp but with the growth rate of these guys, I would say why bother. On a slow growing coral, I might experiment a little more but you know I already have so many experiments going.

 

[NJ_ychung1]

i see with a litter effort they could be raised but..... key is giving it some extra attention that you or i don't usually have with family and other things....

thx
jay

 

[calaxa]

I think it does take some effort but not much. I would imagine all you would need to do is to grab it and put it in isolation in a fuge. Like I said, I don't bother as my main colonies grow quick enough. There is no reason to try to culture one polyp that might take a year to form a skeleton.

 

[trigger99]

I have heard that Frogspawn will shed if inadequate light and lack of food. Try dosing with some cycopeze with all pumps off. Mine go crazy for it.

 

[calaxa]

Trigger,

You're refering to polyp bailout which is when a coral is stressed/dying and is using it as a last resort to survive. I think Jay was referring to budding which happens quite often on a healthy frogspawn. Kenya tree and xenia are famous for doing this.