side effect of leather coral

[Frank]

I have a leather that has grown so large that is cutting off light & space for the other corals. Has anyone cut one of these off while in the tank and were ther side effects.
This leather is about 12" 12" with a 6" base.

 

[UWWorld_NJ]

hi Frank yes i have cut them over 30 times in tanks full rare corals 30k worth and acropora ect. the trick is to cut and discard from tank right away. you can also use a little airline siphon and siphon the slime as it releases when you cut it. but even then it wont hurt anything in the tank, just dont cut is ALOT!! and let the slime hit other corals. hope this helps

 

[inactive]

Leathers can poison a system when handled incorrectly. The poster above is probably talking about a commercial propagation system with a very large skimmer and water volume.

Leather corals, as with most soft corals, put out some highly toxic slimes when they are cut or stressed. Slime is like acid to other corals.

 

[CoralBandit]

turn pumps off, cut it, water change, run carbon... you should be ok

 

[dfladermaus]

I have been handling leather corals and other soft corals in systems for 15 years and have never had one "poison" a system by cutting it. Just take some scissors and cut away. I have several that I do this to quite often. They will release signaling chemicals which will most likely cause other soft corals to close up, but they wont kill anything.

 

[stedfast82]

+1 dfladermaus ive cut mine alot no problem's

 

[inactive]

I'm only speaking from experience. We removed a leather coral from a nano tank and the slime that was released into the system caused several SPS to RTN overnight. If you do it right, this won't happen.. I was just trying to paint a picture of something bad that CAN happen.

 

[Frank]

Thanks for all the advise. As soon as I can find someone close by or a LFS thats wants it:bigsmile: I am going to cut away.

 

[ucantmakeme]

why dont you frag it into little cubes? there was a video on Youtube where a guy fragged one that big.. was like 15" x 15" or something and he made like 15-20 little frags out of it and sold em off... that way you get to keep your leather and make a little cash. I"ll look for it and throw the link up here if you want.

 

[lReef lKeeper]

https://www.reef2reef.com/forums/f142/fragging-toadstool-leather-37098.html

 

[ReeferBen]

Ive cut leathers in all sorts of systems with no ill effects. You can just chop the whole top off and the stem will regrow new polyps. Then dice up the crown in as many pieces as you want. I always run carbon and changing to fresh carbon after the cutting is a good idea.