Frogspawn open mouth?

[taylormaximus]

Hey guys, I just got my first euphyllia coral, about a week ago, it was labelled as a neon green frogspawn, although it definitely has more of a blue hue. It had been kind of extending and shrinking back throughout the day and night (I'm not sure if it's a coral that's supposed to close up at certain times).

But I just noticed yesterday that it's mouth was open, probably about a half inch across. It lasted probably 2 hours or so and slowly closed until it looked normal again. Now today it's probably half way shrunk up and mouth wide open again. Im not certain if it was doing it before as well but Im fairly sure I would have noticed.

On other threads I've seen it seems like it's either nothing to worry about at all or the coral is about to die. So how can you tell what's causing it and if anything needs to be done to help it? I'll post some parameters below if that will help, but based on my tests everything has been fairly stable.

Temperature: 78F
Salinity: 1.026
Nitrate: 0 ppm
Phosphate: 0.1-0.2 ppm
pH: 8.1
Alkalinity: 11 dKH
Calcium: 460 ppm

Tank size: 32 gal
Fish stocking: 2 clownfish, royal gramma, azure damsel, tailspot blenny
Coral stocking: green star polyps, toxic green candy cane, Aussie red blasto, pulsing xenia, green frogspawn

The GSP is the only other coral that will close up through out the day, particularly at night, also not sure if that's supposed to happen, but that's a question for another time.

Here's pics, and thank you!

 

[Lemons]

Could be pooping... or expelling its zoo's...

But if it goes back to inflating i wouldnt worry too much.

But the one thing that i would change is to get some nitrates going! Corals can use that stuff for photosynthesis!

Also that tank looks pretty new? How old is it?

 

[Lemons]

Also 0.2ppm po4 is pretty high... even for euphyllia. Are we sure about that number? Not 0.02?

 

[taylormaximus]

Could be pooping... or expelling its zoo's...

But if it goes back to inflating i wouldnt worry too much.

But the one thing that i would change is to get some nitrates going! Corals can use that stuff for photosynthesis!

Also that tank looks pretty new? How old is it?

So is it normal for them to open their mouth everyday for an hour or two? It inflates and shrinks up seemingly at random throughout the day, I'm not sure what's with that, but anytime the mouth has been open it's been partially but not fully shrunk back.

That's one big issue I've had going in my tank, I introduced green hair algae from one of my snail shells, and I think that's been taking up all my nitrates because since then I've never been able to get a nitrate reading.

It's been running since February, so still fairly new.

Also 0.2ppm po4 is pretty high... even for euphyllia. Are we sure about that number? Not 0.02?

Yes somewhere between 0.1 and 0.2. I just have the api test kit which isn't terribly accurate. I was dosing a very small amount of seachem razor to help with the algae, and I'm running phosguard as well. I believe the former can raise phosphate and the latter dramatically lowers it, but I could have that wrong.

Also as of writing this the frogspawn has re-extended and the mouth is only slightly open now.

 

[taylormaximus]

Here's the entire tank set up, if it helps or is of interest.

The frogspawn is on the far right, looking almost back to normal now. Hopefully it's nothing to be concerned with but if there is an issue I'd like to get a jump on it!

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

Hey guys, I just got my first euphyllia coral, about a week ago, it was labelled as a neon green frogspawn, although it definitely has more of a blue hue. It had been kind of extending and shrinking back throughout the day and night (I'm not sure if it's a coral that's supposed to close up at certain times).

But I just noticed yesterday that it's mouth was open, probably about a half inch across. It lasted probably 2 hours or so and slowly closed until it looked normal again. Now today it's probably half way shrunk up and mouth wide open again. Im not certain if it was doing it before as well but Im fairly sure I would have noticed.

On other threads I've seen it seems like it's either nothing to worry about at all or the coral is about to die. So how can you tell what's causing it and if anything needs to be done to help it? I'll post some parameters below if that will help, but based on my tests everything has been fairly stable.

Temperature: 78F
Salinity: 1.026
Nitrate: 0 ppm
Phosphate: 0.1-0.2 ppm
pH: 8.1
Alkalinity: 11 dKH
Calcium: 460 ppm

Tank size: 32 gal
Fish stocking: 2 clownfish, royal gramma, azure damsel, tailspot blenny
Coral stocking: green star polyps, toxic green candy cane, Aussie red blasto, pulsing xenia, green frogspawn

The GSP is the only other coral that will close up through out the day, particularly at night, also not sure if that's supposed to happen, but that's a question for another time.

Here's pics, and thank you!

It's starving! You need nitrates.

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

Also 0.2ppm po4 is pretty high... even for euphyllia. Are we sure about that number? Not 0.02?

0.2 is perfect for these corals.

 

[James M]

Also 0.2ppm po4 is pretty high... even for euphyllia. Are we sure about that number? Not 0.02?

Not high at all

 

[Lemons]

Not high at all

Haha true! I usually also keep acros in my tank aswell so anything past 0.07 starts to russle my jimmies lol

 

[Lemons]

Usually they poop about once day IF you're feeding them directly everyday, but as was stated before they might be starving due to no nitrates!

 

[taylormaximus]

It's starving! You need nitrates.

Great! So how do you get nitrates when algae is consuming them all? I feel like feeding more will just make more algae? I don't know if other things get to soak any of it up before the GHA gets to it

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

Great! So how do you get nitrates when algae is consuming them all? I feel like feeding more will just make more algae? I don't know if other things get to soak any of it up before the GHA gets to it

That's a helpful thing to mention when posting nutrient levels...

Show us your algae and maybe we can help point you in the right direction.

 

[Reef Devils]

Could be pooping... or expelling its zoo's...

But if it goes back to inflating i wouldnt worry too much.

But the one thing that i would change is to get some nitrates going! Corals can use that stuff for photosynthesis!

Also that tank looks pretty new? How old is it?

Why do they expel zoos? Is it because low nitrates or after feeding?

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

Why do they expel zoos? Is it because low nitrates or after feeding?

Try it, you might like it!

 

[Reef Devils]

Try it, you might like it!

I was just asking

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

I was just asking

I know, but there are a lot of reasons coral expels zooxanthellae, so typing it all out is much more time consuming than you looking into it yourself.

 

[Reef Devils]

I know, but there are a lot of reasons coral expels zooxanthellae, so typing it all out is much more time consuming than you looking into it yourself.

Ok next time I will look it up but I mean it’s not like you have anything else to do. You are on this all day. 5 minutes would not be a big deal.

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

Ok next time I will look it up but I mean it’s not like you have anything else to do. You are on this all day. 5 minutes would not be a big deal.

Excuse me?? I work 10 hours a day, 6 days a week! Did your parents not teach you to respect other people's time??

 

[Reef Devils]

Excuse me?? I work 10 hours a day, 6 days a week! Did your parents not teach you to respect other people's time??

I guess so!

 

[taylormaximus]

That's a helpful thing to mention when posting nutrient levels...

Show us your algae and maybe we can help point you in the right direction.

It's nothing crazy, mostly just green hair algae, not very thick because I remove as much as I can and the clean up crew does its part as well, but its enough that it's taking up all the tanks nitrates. As I mentioned I have been dosing brightwell Razor, which has slowed but not stopped the growth on rocks, and almost completely stopped anything from growing on the glass, but I'm hesitant to use much of it because I know it can also be hard on corals. At the moment it seems like a bit of a lose lose.