Frogspawn reproduction

[elaflam]

Hi all,
I noticed that my frogspawn started dropping heads. I was really worried about it and did some research. I found out that frogspawn can reproduce asexually by dropping polyps. Here are some images. Two different specimans did it. Both only dropped two out of four polyps. I was able to retrieve 3 of the polyps and I have put them in small containers with crushed coral sand at the top of my tank. The are expanding wonderfully during the day time and I'm hoping when they start making new skeletons I can move them back down into the main tank. Also I have noticed that one of the original colonies also has an itty bitty tiny new polyp starting to grow. Awesome....

[Elite]

Yeah that's what I heard too but I have a really big one and it's never drop a head.. There are a lot of baby heads but none drop yet.

[elaflam]

In the course of investigating I discovered that stress can be a factor in asexual reproduction in frogspawn. I know that about three weeks ago I almost had a major tank crash and it lasted 3 days. I ended up changing 50% of the water and this brought my water parameters back to where they should be. All my other corals are doing well. I saw the first head drop about 4 days ago. So since the rest of the corals are doing well and only half the polyps dropped off two specimens I figure that they were indeed stressed when the tank almost crashed. Also the dropped heads are so far doing great....

[Billy]

My frog spawn has done the same thing. But I started with five Heads on it and now it has 30. I think its stress or chemical warfare. The pieces that come off you need to catch and throw away or it will kill other coral when floating around the tank.saving these pieces are worthless they wont grow.

[Leoskee]

I disagree with you Billy. I currently have a frogspawn head that dropped off in my tank that attached itself to a chunk of sand. I glued the guy onto a piece of lr and he started to grow. Right now it has a skeletal stem that continues to grow. I will try to get a pic up for you.

[chessmanmark]

I had a few small heads drop off when I knocked it off the rock it was attached to. Usually to frag a frogspawn you break off a branch. I think the stress theory is acurate when it drops heads.

[Billy]

I would like to see when you get a pick.

[Mike O'Brien]

Many coral's do that kind of thing, especially LPS. It's usually called polyp extrusion. They will also form bud's, but they are usually attached to the skeleton.

Billy i think if you could keep them in a safe place they might grow for you. if they don't iit's probably due to their size. For any coral frag to survive it's got to be a certain "escape size" if the frag is too small it won't be able to sustain itself and it will die.

[deep]

If you get to busy I could baby sit for a while .lol how much