Toadstool Leather dying... parasites/Starfish

ReefKeeperNick · Mar 15, 2022

Hi reef keeping friends,

I've been struggling with the health of my Toadstool leather over the last couple of weeks. Initially the Leather closed down and had a tantrum and took around a week to shed.

However since the shed it's stayed closed and is becoming slowly covered in what appears to be algae. On closer look today it also seems to be covered in small starfish and small worms!

Pics attached. I'll attempt a dip tomorrow...any suggestions on the best dips and the IDs on the critters would be good. Very sad to see this coral dying, it was my first coral when I started reefing around a year ago!

Thanks in advance reefers.

Hoodstream · Mar 15, 2022

The worms at the base just look like Spirorbid Worms which are completely harmless. Have dozen at the base of my torch and rock. As for the leather unsure of what’s going on. Hope you get answers.

ReefKeeperNick · Mar 16, 2022

Thanks for the reply!

Hoodstream said:
The worms at the base just look like Spirorbid Worms which are completely harmless. Have dozen at the base of my torch and rock. As for the leather unsure of what’s going on. Hope you get answers.

sfin52 · Mar 16, 2022

Can you take a pic under white light.

Uncle99 · Mar 16, 2022

Bit of a jump as the cause IMM.
Can we rule out water chemistry, and inadequate flow firstly?
post your numbers and indicate stability in terms of flux.

Jeeperz · Mar 18, 2022

I had a nice big leather just shut down once. Closed up, and started fragging itself. Left me with a stump. After over a year the stump has begun to regrow. Try an iodine dip? Or frag it.