Toadstool Leather Not Doing Good

[Larry101]

Hello, I have had this coral since June and it looked really good until September which it closed up and never really opened its polyps as it had again. I have multiple other leather corals in this tank (which is a Fluval 13.5) including a decent-sized neon green leather that has never looked better, yet this one looks like it is going to die. Should I buy an iodine dip for it as its skin doesn't look right to me?

 

[fishguy242]

hi did it recently shed? or multiple times since sept?

 

[Larry101]

hi did it recently shed? or multiple times since sept?

Nope, not once

 

[Uncle99]

Is it near another leather?
Is it near anyone that stings?

 

[sfin52]

Did flow change

 

[vetteguy53081]

First thing I would do is elevate it towards path of water flow. It may be getting irritated by sand off the bedding or lack of flow.
You can take a turkey baster and give it gentle blasts. This will get sand or anything upsetting it dislodged. Mid tank is good. You want water flow towards it, and not at it.
- Moderate light and water flow
- salinity 1.024-1.025
- temp 77-79
- ph 8.0 - 8.3

 

[Larry101]

Is it near another leather?
Is it near anyone that stings?

I thought that might be the case, but I moved it away from every coral for around a month and it is still closed.

 

[Larry101]

Did flow change

Actually now that you mention it I did get a power head around 2 months ago. But the powerhead isn’t blasting it by any means.

 

[Larry101]

First thing I would do is elevate it towards path of water flow. It may be getting irritated by sand off the bedding or lack of flow.
You can take a turkey baster and give it gentle blasts. This will get sand or anything upsetting it dislodged. Mid tank is good. You want water flow towards it, and not at it.
- Moderate light and water flow
- salinity 1.024-1.025
- temp 77-79
- ph 8.0 - 8.3

My specific gravity is at 1.025, my temp is 78, and my ph is 8.2. It is on the sand bed at the moment as I wanted to be away from other corals as I was unsure if it was getting stung. I do regularly turkey baste the sand and detritus off of it after my water changes. The flow isn’t hitting it directly by any means. But it is getting a good amount of water flow.

 

[excell007]

I have a similar issue with a couple of toadstools, it never really extend like it was on the LFS tank. It will extend some of the polyps then retract, it did this for about 3 months. Then I found the issue, the damsels are picking on the polyp when it's out. They don't do it when I am watching, I see them get near it from a distance and I thought they're picking on the algae on the plug. I relocated the 4 damsels to another tank mid October, and the toadstool never looked better, they're bigger and all the polyps are extended. May not be your issue, but worth observing if any fish is disturbing it.

 

[Bepis]

Try giving it more flow

 

[Larry101]

I have a similar issue with a couple of toadstools, it never really extend like it was on the LFS tank. It will extend some of the polyps then retract, it did this for about 3 months. Then I found the issue, the damsels are picking on the polyp when it's out. They don't do it when I am watching, I see them get near it from a distance and I thought they're picking on the algae on the plug. I relocated the 4 damsels to another tank mid October, and the toadstool never looked better, they're bigger and all the polyps are extended. May not be your issue, but worth observing if any fish is disturbing it.

My clownfish died of ich in September. I am currently in a fallow stage so I don’t think anything else is picking at it.

 

[excell007]

My clownfish died of ich in September. I am currently in a fallow stage so I don’t think anything else is picking at it.

Toadstools are almost bulletproof, it will recover when it gets to the light and flow that it likes. I even dropped a rock on mine when I was tring to catch the damsels and it's still OK . Mine likes medium light and medium flow, it's about 14 inches from the surface.

 

[sfin52]

Actually now that you mention it I did get a power head around 2 months ago. But the powerhead isn’t blasting it by any means.

It could be enough to mess with it.