Leather Coral - Help

tokarsca · 01-11-2005, 07:31 PM

Bought my first leather a couple days before xmas. About a week after he would come out almost completely. This went on for about 3 days. Now for the last 2 weeks or so he will expand and shrink during the day but never proturudes his polyps. I know leathers can be finicky at times, but is this normal or is there anything I can change. He is on the bottom of a 46 gallon tank in medium water flow and good lighting.

dkling · 01-11-2005, 07:48 PM

u may want to try moving it closer to the water movement to see that helps,

i have a cabbage leather with intense lighting and med- high water movement
and its loving life.

WilyGuy · 01-11-2005, 07:57 PM

My leather never showed much life until I moved the flow AWAY from it. It has medium to high light and low flow. Read in Borneman's book that leather's don't like high flow. Don't take my word, if it doesn't improve in the higher flow move it to lower flow. I had a buddy who swore that my hammer had to be in high light, but realized it was shrinking from too much flow, so I moved it down to medium light and it is loving life.

tims · 01-11-2005, 08:18 PM

what type of leather are you talking about? the toadstool?
i have two toadstood leathers noth are in the lower flow area ( almost dead flow) and love it. my cabbage is in the mid to higheer flow area and likes pretty much.watch how much you move it around. they do not like to be handled alot.

tokarsca · 01-11-2005, 08:28 PM

its a toadstool, guess i should move to a lower flow

OodleyBoodely · 01-12-2005, 12:32 AM

It may just be going through a waxing period prior to shedding. Leather corals periodically shed the outer skin to remove dirt/algae from its skin. This is normal and can last from several days to a couple weeks. Do check all your water parameters to be sure all is good since bad conditions can also cause them to close up. Most likely it will shed soon and extend its polyps like before.

Frick-n-Frags · 01-12-2005, 01:01 AM

My toadstool leathers sulk if they are not in decent flow. In fact I just had to move this yellow one (I don't think it is an S. elegans though) from my prop tank to my SPS tank because it has been sulking a little too long. My SPS tank has ridiculous flow and I placed it where it got good back and forth swirling motion. The polyps were back out the next day.

rockster2599 · 01-12-2005, 05:22 AM

Toadstool leather corals in my experience do take a long time to acclimate to a new system. My first sarcophyton leather would barely open for the first month of having it, after that it would undergo regular sheddings (up to two a week) for a further couple of months despite almost perfect water conditions. I think it may have been subject to poor conditions during transit. It is now fine and rarely sheds despite being hosted by my tomato clown. I think it will be fine with time, as long as it doesnt start to break down I wouldnt worry.
P.s. the only time Ive ever had toadstool problems is when using the white type (aluminium based) phosphate absorber.
Rockster