Leather Slouched Over = Not Happy?

[joro]

We've had this finger leather for a few weeks at this point and it started out standing straight up and has slowly gone into this slouching posistion as shown. We also noticed the past week the little polyps weren't coming out and it had almost a "waxy" appearance. Today the polyps finally came back out but it's not straightening up at all. Is this normal behavior or something we should be concerned about? Parameters:

• SG - 1.026
• Temp - between 77 - 78
• Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate - All 0
• Alkalinity - 10 doh
• Calcium - 389 ppm

For what's it's worth, all of our softies, LPS, and SPS are doing great with seemingly no issues.

 

[Tahoe61]

They develop the waxy coating to remove invading algae and collecting detritus.

I would give the coral more flow, make sure your hydrometer or refractometer is correct and allow the coral to naturally shed that waxy coating.

 

[joro]

They develop the waxy coating to remove invading algae and collecting detritus.

I would give the coral more flow, make sure your hydrometer or refractometer is correct and allow the coral to naturally shed that waxy coating.

Thanks for the quick response and is there an ideal lighting/flow placement you'd reccomend? Also, is it ok to mount them not directly upright? For example, right now I have it positioned diagonal in a hole on the rock, not sure if this is causing the issue perhaps?

 

[Tahoe61]

Mod flow and lighting is fine.

I think it will recover in days in the position that you have placed it.

Leathers can be temperamental and take days to look full again, they are a hardy coral over all, what you're seeing is very common with this coral type.

If water chemistry is in line it's all good.