Leather coral not very happy?

[clk17]

My tank has been running about 2 months now.

Its 45gl with 2 blue spot damsels
And 1 cardinal.
I have a coralife light, blue and white not sure anything else about it lol

But basically i figured out i cant have any of the cool fish i want so this tank will be my coral tank until we set up our 100gl tank in the basement.

I have zoas in there that have survived the full two months now and we went to the lfs to pick out some corals and talk to the guy about them.

He told us to start with this umbrella leather and go from there. We were told just to dump it in the tank and secure it wherever we wanted...i didnt want to just dump it in so i floated the bag and acclimated by slowly adding water over about 40 mins.

ANYWAYS

Hes not looking happy.

Specs are
7.8ph
0-0.25 ammonia
0nitrite
10ppm nitrate
0-0.25 phosphate
420 ppm calcium
214.8 ppm kh

Is he just adjusting or did i do something wrong?

 

[Jayman]

its just closed up leathers will do this sometime. Let it be and should. Be fine just give it time.:wink:

 

[Jimbo662]

That's pretty normal. Mine took almost two months before the polyps started coming out.

 

[clk17]

Ok i wont stress then.

Should i wait a month to see if this guy survives before buying more?

Can i buy several kinds at a time or one at a time

 

[Jayman]

Thier should not be a problem adding more corals.

 

[3dees]

toads do this all the time. I would be more concerned about your ammonia reading. did your tank finish it's cycle?

 

[clk17]

I had a bit of an ammonia spike because i had a fish die, and me not finding him right away.
However november will be 3 months up and running.
It looks as though it has finished its cycle.

I never really got huge spikes in anything, at 4 weeks i added snails, 6i added fish and so now the 9th or so week i added corals.
The zoas and featherdusters plus the purple coraline algaei had on my rock lived happily through all 9 weeks haha so i figured conditions were fairly good.

Should i be seeing more spikes?
The leather isnt wilted or anything, still very firm just doesnt have his polyps out and about

 

[1reeflover]

CLK... Leathers also like a lot of flow & medium light! I have 3 leathers ( momma & 2 babies ) on the same rock & without my MP-10 blowing right on it they won't flower! Soon as I give them good flow bingo! Maybe give it a shot!

 

[clk17]

Ok, i turned my onepowerhead off because my cardinal couldnt swim with that much current so ill point the remaining one in that direction then.

 

[1reeflover]

Give us an update! [emoji4]

 

[clk17]

Just an update on my coral!

It seems to be happier now that my one damsel has taken a liking to it. He doesnt let any other fishes near his coral and just brushes his tail against it every now and then.
Since that happening the polyps have started to come out and stay out instead of going back in

I think we will be ok!

 

[1reeflover]

Great to hear!!!

 

[Jimbo662]

Yea!!!!

 

[Marta]

We have a purple leather that closed up and never did come back out. We finally found that a couple fish (our flame angel and another) were picking at it, keeping it withdrawn. We placed the leather in a seperate tank and it is fine now. Seems if they are bothered at all they won't come out...hope yours comes around for you!

 

[clk17]

So mr leather seems to have taken anothr turn in the wrong direction...literally.

None of my parameters changed but hes curled up and wilted now, any other advice or should i wait it out.
I dont want him to die in the tank but i dont want to take him out to early in case he can be saved. I dont have a quarantine tank

 

[1reeflover]

He might be getting ready to sluff off some skin! Give him some time... You will definitely know if he's rotting & dying!

 

[clk17]

Whatever this coral is doing lol the suspension is killing me

 

[1reeflover]

Patience my friend! Lol

 

[clk17]

He doesnt completely close up anymore. .. but his polyps are not out.
Changed my bulbs and it seems happier... mushroom candycane and zoas aee doing good lol just not this guy

Should i get completely different lighting?

 

[Jimbo662]

I'd leave it for a while. When I bought mine it stayed completely closed for over two months. In the last 2 mths since it opened it's grown and more than doubled in size.