Frogspawn Requirements

[Tom D]

I am considering buying a frogspawn for my 55 gallon reef, and I was wondering what kind of conditions are best for this species.

Thanks

Tom, I'm too new to suggest requirements, but I know the 1st questions they are going to ask are Tank size? lighting setup? age of system ? live rock ? live sand ? critters?

Seeing as you've taken the 1st step by registering, you now can go to Tank Specs section and post what you have . This will make it easier for everyone to see what you have for a set-up. And save you time by not having to type it in for every post.

Welcome Phill

[Doug1]

Welcome Tom. Frogspawn corals like good lighting(at least vho or pc or a LOT of normal output flourescent) and seem to benefit from supplemental feedings a couple times a week. They seem to tolerate lagoonal environments like the similar Elegance corals but being large polyped stony corals calcium at 400 or better and Alkilinity in the area of 8-12 DKH helps promote good skeletal growth. On the whole a pretty good LPS coral to start with, watch proximity to others they do sting and are somewhat territorial.
If you don't have a copy of "A Practical Guide To Corals for the Coral Reef Aquarium" or Julian Sprungs similar book, I highly recommend the PGTC, its relatively cheap and while not real in depth it can save you grief . Julians book covers the same stuff but more ID photos and placement and feeding info, together they would be a worthwhile addition or great start to reef library,HTH, enjoy

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Reef as if your life depended on it, yours might but the sea's does
Doug moderator TheReefTank

[FishDaddy]

Tom,
Frogspawn (Euphyllia divisa) require good lighting and low or medium water flow. Though their tentacles will capture food particles from the tank, occasional direct feeding will benefit. Their tentacles will sting other corals. Mine has seven heads and is about a foot across so they need room in the tank.
In my 55, my frogspawn is under vho lights and I feed about once a week with either frozen brine, Prime Reef, Formula One or whatever I'm feeding my fish. I use a turkey baster to get the food near their orifice and their tentacles do the rest.
You need to keep your calcium and alk up. Kalkwasser, B-Ionic or other calcium and alk supplements should be used.
Enjoy yor frog!
Dick

[horge]

Here's a pic of Euphyllids in the wild (green and rose colored) --yes I know one of them is actually E. glabrescens, but the requirements are pretty much the same.)

http://www.geocities.com/art_harvest/euph.jpg

Note how the surrounding stands of Pectinia coral shelter it from excessive current and, but do not shade it from good light? You want just enough current to move the tentacles --not so much that they retract defensively. The water was quite warm (80 of your Farenheit degrees) --but what is important here is the absence of rapid, large shifts in temp.

They are also food hogs --and by food, you have to think in terms of phytoplankton, zooplankton, animal wastes, dissolved organics and the like --not just obvious-sized morsels. If you see them dragging in grunge-laden mucus strings --DON'T INTERFERE with a siphon in the name of neatness -- your Euphyllids are trying to eat via mucus-net!

If your tank is too new to provide such grungy/planktonic nutrition (and too young to handle the attendant bioload), your coral may not flourish long term. Many of the initial failures with Euphyllids --involving tissue recession/sloughing seem due to insufficient initial acclimation (water quality and light)and malnutrition.

Good luck --they are handsome beasties.
HTH

[Dale D]

I've had my frogspawn for about 5 years. It's in a 90g with 175w 10000K MH and 2 NO 40w actinics. I keep it about 2/3 of the way up in the tank and over to one side, under light to medium current. I don't directly feed it very often and when I do it never seems to eat the food. I always find it floating around in the tank afterwards. My 2 clowns use it as their home and I have seen them feeding food to it.

Dale

[This message has been edited by Dale D (edited 05-06-2000).]

[tdwyatt]

Welcome Tom (Really good name, especially the D),
I concurr with the above statements, expecially the info re: calcium and alk and occasional feeding. The note about the clowns using the frogspawn as a surrogate host is quite common (as well as long tenticled plates) My "Moron" clown still occasionally swims over to the frogspawn and looks at it longingly (E quadricolor is it's current host) Frogspawn is a good starter large polyped stony, although it will do better in an established tank, it seems to be rather tolerant of less than optimal conditions. although it may not seem to have obvious mouths, it is important to feed at least one mouth in each branch of the frogspawn. The feed ing will supplement the nutritional needs that the euphyllia cannot get from normal capture if your tank is young (less than 18 months old), and I would suggest 2 to 3 times a week feeding with gentlepuffs of brine soaked with hufa (selcon, etc) and/or purred shrimp/clams/squid with hufa also. Good luck on the frogspawn. BTW, if unfortunately the frogspawn does die, do not remove the skeleton from the tank. occasionally "dead" skeletons will come back with very small colonies that will grow into normal sized polyps within 8 to 12 months if water conditions are good.

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Tom <"{{{{>(
(TDWyatt)
Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools, because they have to say something. -Plato