Help with Frogspawn

[thegriffer]

Hello,

Recently, maybe a little over a week now, my frogspawn has been showing signs of possible irritation from something.

To give a little background, this tank has been running for well over five years now, so it is well established. I have had this Frogspawn for roughly four years now, I got it as a small two-headed frag, it is now thirteen heads. Up until this point, everything in the tank has been thriving, since I have kept to mostly simple corals/other critters. Now all of the sudden, it's tentacles are way more retracted than what is typical.

I understand that the first course of action would be to post some parameters, I can't exactly do that right now. Maybe tomorrow when I have the chance I can update this thread with some parameters, however I have been monitoring the parameters several times since I have noticed this (should have recorded them for this post), and everything is well within the healthy ranges for this coral. Salinity, temperature, flow, lighting have not changed and is right where it should be. Calcium, alkalinity, magnesium were right where they always have been, at a healthy level. No ammonia or nitrite, Nitrate was kind of low but present, right where it always has been.

I don't typically make posts, but I am at a complete loss. I have not added any new fish, coral or inverts in at least two years, which I think would rule out any sort of new parasite or disease. I have made absolutely zero changes, same brand of salt, same source of water, same feeding schedule. I have already given the coral an iodine dip just to be careful, I have checked for any external parasites, I have even temporarily segregated my clownfish since they like to swim amongst the frogspawns tentacles, however that never seemed to bother it before and does not seem to make a difference now.

I apologize for the wall of text, I just thought I would get most of that info out of the way. I have seen the coral do this before but has not lasted longer than maybe a day. Everything else in the tank is showing no signs of being stressed. This coral has survived several long distance moves, a couple not so healthy salinity fluctuations and even then bounced back within a day. If anybody has experience something like this, and has some advice, point out something I may be overlooking, I would greatly appreciate any help I can get. To reiterate one more time, NOTHING has changed, I am at a loss.

(I am aware there is a bubble tip anemone close, but that anemone moved there just recently, after I had already noticed the coral doing this. They have not come into contact with each other.)

 

[TX_REEF]

We definitely need to hear about your parameters, and how they have changed vs. the most recent prior reading. I see some hair algae, is this new? could also indicate changes.

How is the flow? has it been a long time since you cleaned powerheads, or did you clean them recently which may have increased flow? How about your lighting? change bulbs recently, and if not, is it possible they need to be replaced? Even for LED, 5 years can be long enough for degradation to start.

"Nothing changed and my coral is randomly unhappy" is very hard to diagnose, so just food for thought :)

 

[BryanM]

maybe the BTA stung it on the way to its new home.... They are rude like cats.

I'm not sure what the problem is, things look good to me.