Finger leather adjustment time?

NE reefer · Mar 24, 2023

Quick question for all my softy friends. I’m building a leather/soft coral dominated tank. Recently (couple days ago) I decided to move a couple leathers out of a congested area. Two out of the three have adjusted great, a toadstool and a nepthea. The third ( green sinularia, I think) has great poly extensions but it’s flopped over seemingly because of the flow in the tank. It originally was in a very low flow area. This coral has always seemed to have a less Rigid main stalk compared to the Nepthea . I’ve tried tweaking my flow and encouraged it to orient vertically. How long should I let it sit in this spot before I move it? I’m really trying to keep my hands out of the tank.Thank you

Quietman · Mar 25, 2023

It'll very likely end up growing that way (it's still small yet) or branches will develop to the rock it's against. Either of those will make it very hard to move in the near future. They could also help it strengthen up some before heading towards the light.

If you want a straight coral you'll need to move it back to low flow and gradually acclimate it to higher flow area without bending over. Or alternatively, support it with something you don't mind it growing into (piece of rock).

You may not want to do anything. Nice thing about softies is they can take some very interesting shapes allowing you to use them very interestingly in your scape. It looks healthy (just a bit horizontal).

Lastly, you could frag off a small piece and it will likely grow straight as the new frag will accustomed to the flow already. At a minimum you'll have another option if that piece of horizontal coral never shapes up the way you'd like.

ryanjohn1 · Mar 25, 2023

Could be shedding. Mine will flop and deflate then look like crap for a few days then perk up look great for a few weeks and do it all over

mfinn · Mar 25, 2023

I might be tempted to move it once more to another spot with a little less flow. Sometimes even just rotating it a little can help

NE reefer · Mar 26, 2023

Thank you everyone. In the end I decided to rotate slightly, orienting it more vertical and into light water flow. From here on out unless it’s sick I’m just going to let it be. I’ll try and update you later today with pictures. Hopefully everything turns off well.