Green Frogspawn Coral Pics and Info

[wwest]

Newest Edition..

Green Frogspawn

http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i126/wwest2/CoralID/frogspawn.jpg

Here is a close up of the polyps

http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i126/wwest2/CoralID/frogspawnclose.jpg

Description: Branched skeleton with dense stubby and fleshy tentacled polyps. Tips (housing nemocysts) are neon green with purple accent.

Care: Medium intensity lighting with VHO and PC's most suitable. If kept under halides (up to 250W) place on bottom of tank out of main current. Actinic lighting accentuates the green and purple tips. This coral has been in the propagation program since 2000.

Care Level: Medium
Light: Moderate to High
Water Flow: Medium
Placement: Bottom
Tank Conditions: 72-80°F; sg 1.023-1.025; pH 8.1-8.4; dKH 8-12
Temperament: Aggressive
Ideal Supplements: Calcium, Strontium, Trace Elements
Origin: Indo-Pacific
Family: Caryophylliidae
Frogspawn corals are photosynthetic, so no direct food is required, however Phytoplankton foods will accelerate growth and produce better coloration.

Average Cost $30-$50 Small - Large

[CarmieJo]

Beautiful coral Wes!

[wwest]

Thanks. Im very happy with it... very cool coral..

[V]

sweet, thanks for posting west, its great doing some coral profiles. just a tip,dr fosters forgot to add the chemical warfare factor & the fact that their photosynthetic only, u want to fill that side in?

[wwest]

No problem. :) and do you think maybe you could fill us in on the chemical warfare factor? :)

[wwest]

i know its called allelopathy and that is a chemical that is use to protect it against other corals. but i dont think i could explain it like you can veriann..

[V]

ok, lets rock!

http://micro.magnet.fsu.edu/featuredmicroscopist/vanegmond/images/anemonelarvalarge.jpg (http://micro.magnet.fsu.edu/featuredmicroscopist/vanegmond/anemonelarvasmall.html)


chemical warefare is made up of a few different stages or employed in different combinations. typicly iit is designed to deter or damage a potential threat to the point of retreat so they may expand and dominate an area! keeping in mind most of the animals in questionwhich are capable of this prefer to be or are sessile animals.

now im not sure how other corals know there is competion in the area, (tanks in our case) im assuming its a chemical signal or terpenes that each animal produces and is released. id have to ask evolution for abit of clarity on this one! what i do know is that excites dormant areas within the animal, setting off a chain reaction to grow instuments of war that can be completed in some species within a few days! although some developments can be up to a few weeks!

another factor to take into account is what species are engaging in battle. cause even when being attached on muilt fronts, some will still lock on to one attacker only to become damaged at the point of contact from the other.
in saying that Barnes & Hughes did an experiment in 99 on just this, only to find after the retreat the defeated coral invested its energy into sweeper tenticals which it sent out and thus created a perminant barrier between the two.

ok so now on to the tools of war....

we have sweeper tentiacles, these are kinda self explanitory, these are purpose designed poylps that are thinner and much longer & are filled with nematocysts.
they grow these to protect the outer permeter zones and are packed full of stinging cells to inflict maxium damage with minimun contact or proximity!
a corals aggressive effeciency is measured with the amount of nematocysts per polyp head.

http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20050604/a6215_1325.jpg
^ BORDER DEFENSE. An anemone polyp (arrow) leans over to attack a small scout from the patch of clones next door. An empty zone (central swath in inset) separates patches of clones.



then we have mesenterial filaments, these are from the coral's digestive organs, & can be used as another battle aid! during battle, one of them, the aggressor, will extrude mesenterial filaments through the mouth cavity or the body wall onto the surface of the other, literally digesting it's tissue. the result is a zone of naked skeleton that can then be overgrown. this zone can be overgrown by the attacking coral itself or it can be colonized by encrusting organisms, thereby creating a "buffer zone" between the two species.

allelopathy is another process of chemical warfare, or more locally the word is toxic terpenes expolsion. this a basicly a chemical control agent thats released indescrimanately by the coral to "stunt the growth" of any would-be invader! very effective at keeping the growing zone clear for the future!

and finally we have acrorhagi phaze. these are mainly associated with anem's. they are grown or inflated in the zone below the tenticals themselves. basicly they are sacs that are teaming with extra stinging cells that when called apon can unload hell!. also when these sacs make contact with another anemone, they leave behind a layer of tissue that results in localized tissue death of the intruder. thus once again leaving the door open for a buffer zone between the two parties.

[Stevej72]

Nicely done V :party: :party:

[wwest]

WOW! everytime you do something like that you amaze me. thanks alot for the info and i hope it can be useful to other people as well.

thanks again for the help :)

[V]

lazy till called apon, thats me.
glad to help out

[m8298]

Are they really photosynthetic only?

[wwest]

Yes phyto and such will "help" alittle with the growth and coloration but i wouldnt rely on feeding them.

[cabbagehead]

This is great information. I have been feeding my frogspawn since I got them. I guess I assumed that the cyclopeeze whas being consumed by the coral.

[V]

my understanding is there's no evidence suggesting they take up phyto or rots. and that they rely on correct lighting to grow

[m8298]

But, don't they have mouths?

[cabbagehead]

m8298
This is why I was feeding my frogspawn because I saw that it had a mouth.

[Stevej72]

I swear mine has & does eat mysis shrimp and cyclopeeze

[wwest]

To my knowledge ( correct me if im wrong V )
Frogspawn are in a group known as cridaria, most if not all have a mouth and this mouth is used for eating as well as dispersing digested food. However they are not dependant upon eating to survive. How they survive is that corals like this have tiny organisms that live inside there tissue. These organisms are why lighting is such important. They provide the coral with o2 and nutrients that are produced during photosynthesis. The orgaisms take the carbon dioxode and provide nutrients for the coral to survive..

So what i think is they have the means to eat in turn they will eat, However this is only a added perk. ( if you will ) Im not so sure that feeding them would make a diference or not.. I have found findings that people feed them along with people that dont feed them and both frogspawns are large and very healthy. IMO i would rely on lighting since that is there main intake to health.

currect me if im wrong i am still learning lol

[Stevej72]

I think you are right Wes my point is that I have seen mine eating. so I know that they can/do eat. not that they need to.
I dont spot feed mine but it does catch food in the water colum

[V]

ok, forgive me, i stand corrected, they can be gross feed just like any other anem. although they dont need it under correct lighting it can be construide as a welcomed habit! ive asked some of the top minds down here, they assure me with a slap on the back of my head, if its got a mouth part, chances are it can facilitate food noodie! hence the same herding action towards it! its been bought to my new found attentions that smaller sized feedings pieces are prefered, and this is the part i did know> they extract juices from the water column anyways.

so i now bow out gracefully on my way to naughty corner!

[V]

guys, how much quicker do u find they grow when u gross feed them!?

[Rob]

yes, we are getting on the right path now

the Phylum Cnidaria, this group contains many marine invertebrates.
it include corals, anemones, jellyfish etc.

it basically groups together animals that have stinging cells.

to my knowledge all Cnidaria have mouths. that said, if it has a mouth it can and will consume food as needed.

as mentioned, many the corals that fall into this group are photosynthetic, well actually in there tissues they have zooxanthellae a micro algae, it is this algae that is photosynthetic.
this algae uses photosynthesis to create its own food, but is very efficient and created far more food than it needs, this feed is them released and the coral consumes it.

when lighting is insufficient for feeding the coral, it will consume other foods through this mouth. this may be a regular thing for some corals, or a rare thing for others

corals like hamemrs and frogspawn will regularly take meaty foods and free particulate foods as a means of supplementing there nutrition.
is feeding required? it depends on the environment, if there is enough light and free nutrients in the water column supplemental feeding may not be required, but if its basic needs are not met, feeding may be in order..

it has also been shown that if you do feed these types of coral, it will induce more rapid growth. how much and how rapid depends on the specimen.

HTH

[V]

nice work, abit late, could have used ur info yesterday:o before i showed gaps in my knowledge, but nice just the same!;)

[Stevej72]

Don't worry V if you have gaps then the rest of us must have craters:)

[m8298]

I dunno, my gaps in knowledge sometimes feel as though they could be clasified as black holes....

I don't really directly feed mine, but I've noticed that once in a while, if some mysis land on it, it seems to take them.

[iglowce]

i always get confused btwn frogspawn and hammer branching

[V]

http://www.tylermerrick.com/images/corals/hammer-7_18_05_small.jpghammer

http://www.melevsreef.com/pics/0405/frogspawn_closeup.jpg
frogspawn
you can be forgiven for that comment very very easily, cause theres not much that differs externally except the poylp extensions & tips

link-out sweeping beauty (http://www.reefs.org/library/aquarium_net/0197/0197_2.html)

[iglowce]

i have it too =]

[wwest]

Ok i purchased my frogspawn last weekend. It looked really good untill this morning. it has a total of four heads. Three out of the four have bubbles on them..

Does anyone know why?

Here are the pictures. i left them large so everyone can see them well

http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i126/wwest2/Corals/frogspawn2.jpg

http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i126/wwest2/Corals/frogspawn.jpg

[Stevej72]

It looks like it's splitting to me.

[bubbletip]

It seems so Steve. You can see two mouths in the second picture(bright flourescent green dots). Nice coral Wes. I will have to post a picture of mine. I have had branches of this coral for the last ten years in my 65. I don't know exactly which species I have.

[wwest]

well thats what i thought, however if it is spliting them its spliting about 6 times.. Thats why i wanted to get opinions. Ive seen pictures of frogspawns spliting but they all had one bubble.. its looks like its in a slow motion explosion lol :)

[CarmieJo]

Here is a link from Borneman about this phenomena.
http://www.ericborneman.com/Coral%20Polyp%20Extrusion/Introduction/Intro.html

[V]

thanks for posting that carmie! great pictures on the subject at hand.
whats borneman like> being american and going to trade shows and the like, chances are people from TR must have met him! mixed reports come down from the mountain! id like to here some experences!

[Amphibious]

I know Eric. He's a great guy, IMHO. I've been to a lot of conventions where Eric is a featured speaker. Even invited to dinner with his entourage of friends. He's a very popular speaker and person. Very knowledgeable, personable. Some have the perception of him being a momma's boy or pretty boy but, even though I can see why, I have a different perspective. Eric is quite handsome, in a boyish way like Ricky Nelson, soft spoken, kind and gentle. People gravitate to him because of this persona he has about him. I think the detractors of Eric are jealous of him. Bottom line is, I like him and have enjoyed conversations with him. When he's talking about coral, much of the time he's way over my head and the information blows right through the hole between my ears. :rotfl:

[V]

fantastic, im gutted im not subjected to the talent in america, how bout sprung or delbeck Amp>?
personally speaking after years of following sprung's work, he's the first aquarius id love to introduce myself if i hit american soil!

[Amphibious]

fantastic, im gutted im not subjected to the talent in america, how bout sprung or delbeck Amp>?
personally speaking after years of following sprung's work, he's the first aquarius id love to introduce myself if i hit american soil!Oh V, you sure know how to hurt a guy. :cool:

Yes, I know Sprung and I've met Delbeek. Sprung is a nice guy, knowledgeable, well liked, sought after speaker, popular author. I'll never forget my first chance meeting with Julian. I had been invited to a Tampa Bay club meeting in about 1998, right after his popular book came out. He was gaining some popular notoriety and was having a bit of a swollen head. I walked into a large room filled with people I didn't know except for my friend, who I couldn't find. At the time I'd never heard the name Julian Sprung. This total stranger walked up to me and said, "Hi, my name is Julian Sprung, I'm the speaker tonight". I introduced myself and excused myself to continue looking for the fellow that invited me. At the time, it seemed like strange behavior, now as I write it it doesn't. Of course I know him better now, too.

Charles Delbeek, is the Curator of the Honolulu Aquarium at Waikiki Beach. I was in Hawaii in 2004 as a consultant to two professors at the U of Hawaii. During some off time I took the opportunity to visit the Aquarium and asked for Charles at the Information Desk. He came out and we introduced ourselves. He gave me a personal tour of the facility including behind the scenes. Nice guy. Don't know much more than that.

Also met Rob Toonen while in Hawaii. Actually it was Rob that got me the invite to meet with the two professors. That led to the squid rearing facility I installed at the U of WI, Madison where I lived at the time. That was a good experience.

[Reefbaby]

fantastic, im gutted im not subjected to the talent in america, how bout sprung or delbeck Amp>?
personally speaking after years of following sprung's work, he's the first aquarius id love to introduce myself if i hit american soil!


Hey V - I'm an Aquarius!!! Better watch it! I might get jealous!:D

[V]

aquarius speaker people> :doh:u know a TR BBQ is always first on the list!, :thumbs:

[V]

What ever happened to west? did one of my bad jokes finally scare him away?

[CarmieJo]

I think he changed jobs or took a second job and didn't have much time left over.