The popularity of keeping reef tanks is skyrocketing right now as more and more people within the fish keeping community decide that they want the challenge of keeping corals in their tanks.
After publishing our articles on bubble coral dying and candy cane coral dying, we noticed people reaching out about frogspawn coral dying so we have decided to publish this article on the topic to try and help any of our readers who are looking to keep frogspawn coral in their tanks.
The most common reason that frogspawn corals will start dying in an aquarium is due to unsuitable water parameters with there being a number of potential issues for frogspawn issues that can go wrong within your water parameters.
A less common reason that frogspawn coral will start to die in your aquarium is due to the coral being bitten, nipped or eaten by its tank mates.
The vast majority of problems with frogspawn coral will be due to water parameters though, this is why you really should be getting yourself a decent reef tank water test kit to keep on top of your water parameters as cheaper test kits tend not to test for everything.
If you do have multiple corals in your aquarium with the other corals doing fine but your frogspawn coral having problems then there is a high chance that there is an issue with the ammonia levels in your tank and if you correct them quick enough, your frogspawn coral should make a full recovery.
What Does Healthy Frogspawn Coral Look Like?
Healthy frog spawn coral should have a smooth, flexible stem growing from the base of the coral with a soft head that is usually a different color to the stem of the coral.
In some cases, the stem color can be the same or very similar to the color of the head of the frog spawn coral but this is rare these days as the high contrast colors tend to sell better.
The stem of a healthy frogspawn coral should be able to move freely in the water flow of your aquarium with the frogspawn kind of looking like a beating heart when moving in your water.
Please keep in mind that there are a number of slightly different frogspawn coral morphs available on the market now with some being more rigid than others but the standard frog spawns are usually the more common still.
Technically, a healthy frogspawn coral should be paler than the vast majority of the frogspawn colors that you see as they will take on a surprising amount of water when healthy and this causes their color to fade slightly.
The fatter the coral polyp is, the paler it will usually tend to be but this does not mean that your frogspawn coral is sick or dying and often just means that it has absorbed more water than usual.
Why Is My Frogspawn Coral Dying?
The most common problem in an aquarium that will cause your frogspawn coral to start dying is poor water parameters that our too far out of the recommended norms for keeping the coral.
Depending on the exact water parameters that is out of whack with your corals, you may find that determination of your coral can be rapid often making it extremely difficult to get your coral to recover.
You should always try to keep reef safe tank mates in any tank with corals and anemones no matter their species but this is particularly true for frogspawn coral.
Some species of fish and shrimp will take to nipping, biting or even eating your frogspawn coral causing it to start to deteriorate.
Thankfully, this is often obvious as you can see the areas of the coral that are being harrassed and you should get plenty of warning to move the offending tank mate to a separate tank prior to your frogspawn coral getting to the point of no return.
One less common problem with frogspawn coral is the lighting with moderate lighting usually being recommended for frogspawn coral but some people can accidently provide too much or too little light resulting in problems with their corals.
If you provide too little light then your frogspawn coral will often refuse to feed and become malnurished, provide too much light and the coral may burn or bleach causing other issues that are ofern difficult to correct so stick with moderate lighting if possible.
Does Frogspawn Coral Like High Flow?
Frogspawn coral will do very well with moderate water flow in their tank but they can do fine in slightly higher water flow tanks in certain setups without issue.
Low water flow tanks are usually not recommended for frogspawn corals though and it will often cause the coral to retreat and have problems.
If you do have to have a higher than average water flow setup in your tank then be sure to try and place your frogspawn coral on the opposite side of a rock or other decoration that can block and slow the water flow that actually reaches your frogspawn coral.
You will often find that this is more difficult than you think though so if you do have other things in your tank that require high water flow rates then we would usually advice against putting a frogspawn coral in there as it will have problems from the very start.
With moderate water flow reef ranks usually being the most popular option with beginners to reef tank keeping, there really should be no problems from your water flow rate though.
If you have noticed that your frogspawn coral is starting to die then we would be looking for the potential problems that we covered earlier in our article as they are far more likely to be the problem.
Conclusion
That brings our article going over why your frogspawn coral is dying to an end. Although frogspawn coral is considered to be a beginner friendly coral, you have to keep in mind that the term “beginner friendly” when referring to coral usually presumes that you have some experience keeping a standard aquarium without corals and you are used to maintaining water parameters. We do see people see the term beginner friendly and jump right in and corals can be a challenge and although they are very popular right now, you will have to put more time, effort, and potentially money into your corals if you are starting from scratch without any prior experience to keep your frogspawn coral healthy.
