Frogspawn (before & after pix): From Frag to Colony

**kaybee** · 02-24-2013, 03:48 PM

Purchased as a coin-sized $5 single-polyp frag in May 2007, this is a photo of my frogspawn in Aug 2007:

Almost six years later (Feb 2013), it's grown from a single headed polyp to a colony with 50-60 or more branches and primary heads:

This frogspawn colony is about 9" in height and spans about 11" from side to side and front to back (12" black ruler at bottom for size perspective):

**kaybee** · 02-24-2013, 03:49 PM

In addition to the primary 50 or so frogspawn 'heads' (which multiply by 'splitting') each branch has a bunch of mini frogspawn polyps budding from the skeletal branches. This colony thus has hundreds of frogspawn polyps:

They almost appear as a 'second generation' colony growing from the core of the colony:

It's been very interesting to see this once tiny frag develop over time into a growing colony. Luckily it 'plays nice' with other corals (thus far) and for the most part doesn't extend sweepers.

Hopefully I won't have to frag this colony though it may come to that. The branches in the front have grown into contact with the front glass forcing skeletal growth to grow in near 90-degree angles to the left or right, with a few branches even hooking backwards (growing down and up again). It's also starting to overshadow some other corals (right now I've got corals with low light requirements beneath it).