Frogspawn Coral

[JJMS86]

Hi...I bought a larger frag frogspawn coral about 2 months ago...seems to be doing well - but I wonder...it seemed greener in the store...but more beige/green in my tank...is that normal? It has also split into about 4 separate sections, but still on the same frag...any comments would be appreciated !!
Thnx!!
JJ

 

[neilanh]

Corals will change colors dependant upon the lighting they're provided. Plan on this happening with 75+% of the corals you get.

For instance, if wherever they were "raised" had them under 20K lighting, and you're supplying 10K, this will cause them to change.

 

[ccCapt]

I agree with neilahn in that the lighting over the tank will determine how the coral looks to you. However, the light the corals was grown under doesn't make the coral a different color. The corals pigments reflect the light back and the colors you see are the colors from your bulbs reflected back by the coral. The coral itself doesn't change colors, but the light it reflects changed because of the diff color light output from the bulbs.

If you look at a coral under actinic only, it looks alot diff than under actinic and daylight. The color of the coral didn't change, the color of the light it reflects did.

 

[cmor1701d]

Corals will respond to ligth intensity, spectrum and UV received. A coral contains symbiotic chlorophyll-containing cells called zooxanthellae. These cells use the light to produce the nutrients for the coral through photosynthesis.

If your lighting is more intense than the coral is accustomed to it can (and will) expel zome of these cell to protect itself from the excess oxygen being produced (coral bleaching).

If the light intesity is lower the number of cells will increase along with the amount of chlorophyll within the cells.

Less light = More cells = browner appearance
High light = less cells = lighter appearance. Too much light = bleaching.

Reds and Orange are not visible under daylight but pop under actinic. So the spectrum of light will also alter the color you see.

UV is damaging to coral tissue so they developed UV protection that is in the blue, purple, pink range. These are the shallow water sps corals. As we don't have this intense UBV in our tanks they lose some of this pigmentation.

 

[dgpilot]

I also just recently acquired a couple frogspawn heads and read an interesting article on how feeding brine shrimp and other meaty items gives better color to the frogspawn.
Apologies but I didn't save the link..