frog spawn coral?

[brandoniscool]

I am a student from Mr.Rutherford's third grade gifted class.My name is Tina and I am a 9 year old girl. I am the reef boss for my classroom.Our classroom has a 160 gallon reef tank,a breeding tank and a quarantine tank.There is 2 big frog spawn coral in our 160 gallon reef tank and I want to know how old they have been living. They have about 25 heads on each i think.

[GHill762]

Hi Tina,

first of all, it's amazing you are getting to work with a reef tank in your classroom, and you obviously have a pretty good knowledge base already at the age of 9.

Now, on to your question. It's hard to say how old it is. My frogspawn has gone from 1 small head to roughly 10 in a year's time which is a pretty average growth rate seen by hobbyists, so extrapolating on that, this colony you're talking about is at least a few years old. It could be 10 years old (or older) and had branches cut off, or it could be a 2-5 year old colony depending on its growth rate, unfortunately there's not a good way to date them (at least to my knowledge). Also, one head may be 10 years old while another is only 6 months old, so it's a bit of a mixed bag.

It's not quite like dating a tree, where it's all one organism. With a colony of coral, it's just that, a colony of small animals. Each individual head is basically an individual animal, one may be old while another is quite young.

I know that doesn't really answer your question but I hope it helps.

[MTF7]

First of all you are so lucky to be able to have such an awesome school that provides you with a 160g to study from! I wish my schools had that! And I wish I had a tank that big too!

About the frogspawn I agree with GHill762 it is hard to tell its exact age as some could be years old some could be a month old but if I had to guess it's been around for a couple of years my guess would be some heads are about 4-5 years old while the ones closer to the top would be maybe 1-4 months.

Hope you enjoy the tank in the class and eventually when you get older like me you will have your own one day!

I am 17 I have kept freshwater fish since I was 8 and I currently have a 7 year old cichlid and have had a saltwater tank for 4 years now

[Johnnycat]

Wow - I have frogspawn envy.

It's great that you get to keep a reef tank in your class.

[Reeferz412]

Truly amazing you are on this forum and community at nine years of age! You must have a good head on your shoulders and one awesome teacher. I have a frogspawn that is about 2 years of age and has about 5 heads. Growth varies from tank to tank but I would assume your frogspawn colony must be a few years old. Note that frogspawns must develop a stony branch and head that the coral must retract into. The branch and head is made of calcium carbonate which is basically what your rock is made of. It takes time and depending what your system is like and being dosed, growth varies.

[Sk8r]

Corals reproduce by sending out little coral 'swimmers'---and also reproduce when a piece breaks due to a fish or a bit of rough weather and happens to fall somewhere nice, where the head gets light. It's possible that in the latter sense some corals are hundreds of years old, because they also reproduce by dividing into new heads, and can set up shop in new places where they fall. Sometimes when stressed they 'pop' their heads and just the tissue of the head floats away: but if these find a good place where they can stop blowing about in the current and still get light, they can start growing a new bony skeleton. I've had them do that in my tank.

Frogspawn, torch and hammer coral are all euphyllia corals, and they are able to get along fairly well together, though they should not be allowed to touch---particularly torch, which is 'hotter' in terms of coral stings than either of the other two.

They belong to the larger class of stony large polyp coral (in the hobby we say LPS) that is the easiest of the stony corals for hobbyists to keep. They divide often, and are very greedy for calcium. If you keep one of these you should provide extra calcium! They eat light---they get sugar from the action of little organisms that live in their tissues: that gives them their colors; and they also eat tiny bits of food that they suck in with water. They're living filters and help keep the water clean.

[brandoniscool]

Originally Posted by GHill762

Hi Tina,

first of all, it's amazing you are getting to work with a reef tank in your classroom, and you obviously have a pretty good knowledge base already at the age of 9.

Now, on to your question. It's hard to say how old it is. My frogspawn has gone from 1 small head to roughly 10 in a year's time which is a pretty average growth rate seen by hobbyists, so extrapolating on that, this colony you're talking about is at least a few years old. It could be 10 years old (or older) and had branches cut off, or it could be a 2-5 year old colony depending on its growth rate, unfortunately there's not a good way to date them (at least to my knowledge). Also, one head may be 10 years old while another is only 6 months old, so it's a bit of a mixed bag.

It's not quite like dating a tree, where it's all one organism. With a colony of coral, it's just that, a colony of small animals. Each individual head is basically an individual animal, one may be old while another is quite young.

I know that doesn't really answer your question but I hope it helps.

Thanks for the advice that you could give me and now I learned more of frog spawn coral!
-Tina