FROG SPAWN HELP!!

[trigger0214]

Hi All,
I have a general question about the behavior of frogspawn. I have been keeping marine fish and invertebrates most of my life and am relatively new to the whole coral thing. I am keeping a 6-headed frogspawn coral; it has been fine over the last three months. However, during the last couple of days, the bottom two colonies have been retracted. They are still bright green and healthy looking, but not flanged out like the other 4 colonies on that coral, or the other frogspawn colonies in the tank.

Are they simply expelling waste or are they not getting enough light. I have (2) 250 watt 10 K MH (an alveopora, clam, and open brain live at bottom quite happily so far....) and the frogspawn is half way up.....

What is the deal?...

oh yeah...
125 gallon, (2) 250 watt 10 K MH 10 hours a day, 40 gallon refugium with 2 (55) watt 8800 K PC's. Usual pH, calcium, and almost not nitrates....

Ideas?

 

[King Jason]

What about water flow? Has anything changed in the past few days? Have you seen anything picking at it? Maybe a clown swimming in it?

 

[Anonymous]

If the bottom portion is being shaded from the light, it will stop expanding and die. Can you reposition it so that the bottom gets light too? If not, frag the bottom two polyps and start a new colony (or two).

My frogspawn is my biggest money maker. I originally paid $36 for 5 heads. I have fragged the thing in half 3 times (received over $100 in store credit ) and still have a nice colony that is 1/3 large than the original colony.

Louey

 

[suckair]

I started out with a small colony with three heads. I now have two larger colonies and 20-30 heads. The bottom heads will push out and find light. They don't need direct light to grow. They like gentle soft current and like calcium.

I would see if something is irritating the heads. A crab maybe or a fish picking at it.

Randall