Leather Coral Growth/Care

[Crob5965]

Hi Just looking for some feedback on Leather Corals, I have a couple of different varieties in my DT and although they look healthy and open up every day they have barely grown at all.

I have 2 Tyree Toadstools placed med/high (8" from top of tank) which were growing pretty fast initially but I have seen little to no growth since then. I have a frag of  green Devils hand Coral that is placed about the same height as the Toadstools and again same thing no real growth, I also have a Green Cabbage Coral lower in my tank about 3" off sand bed.

     I have tried placing the Toadstools lower in the tank thinking they were getting too much light and or flow but they didnt seem to like it much. I have always had trouble keeping some of the beginner Corals like mushrooms, Kenya tree and Xenia all seem to die off in my tank, LPS do very well my Duncan has trippled in size over the last year, I have some of the easier sps like Birdsnest, Monti caps, setosa's and some neon green hairy thing I have no idea what to call all growing extremely well.

 

Sorry for being so long winded with my question, just kinda lost as to why I cant get them to grow.

 

Thanks

 

Craig 

 

 

[Coral Hind]

Are they regularly shedding skin like a snake? Toadstools do this about every month and it seems to be a part of them growing. There should be no polyps for a day or two while this layer sloughs off. How long has it been with no noticeable growth? Are you doing regular water changes.

[Crob5965]

Are they regularly shedding skin like a snake? Toadstools do this about every month and it seems to be a part of them growing. There should be no polyps for a day or two while this layer sloughs off. How long has it been with no noticeable growth? Are you doing regular water changes.

 

Cant say i've ever noticed it shedding, there are days when they dont open however, about once a month, i'd say I havent noticed them grow any for the last 3 or 4 months, I was away training a lot over the holidays so regular WC weren't really happening, hence the GHA issue I am now dealing with. that may be it I have increased my WC vol from 20gal to 30gal every 7-10 days to try and get things back in check and I recently added a BFO Reactor.

 

Just seems weird that it's just my leathers that aren't growing.

[YHSublime]

My leathers never grew for a long time, and then one day the polyps stopped sprouting out. It was like that for about a week, and then it came back bigger, and brighter than ever. If you look close, you can sometimes see them starting to shed, and the skin kind of glistens.

[zygote2k]

sounds like you need to get back into regular w/c and deal with the hair algae. Once those issues are cleared up, the leathers will most likely start growing.

[Crob5965]

Agreed Zygote, that may be the root of the problem, when I was on top of tank maint, I never really saw much growth,but at least I was getting some, maybe I just need to get a normal job

[Crob5965]

My leathers never grew for a long time, and then one day the polyps stopped sprouting out. It was like that for about a week, and then it came back bigger, and brighter than ever. If you look close, you can sometimes see them starting to shed, and the skin kind of glistens.

 

Thanks Isaac, I will take a closer look the next time they dont open for a day or 2, they may be like kids, you never really notice how much they have grown until someone tells you.