pink soft leather info

[ziggy222]

i bought a coral 2 months ago labeled pink soft coral.i'm looking for info on it.so far all i've come up with is a few pictures and a paragragh about it saying its difficult to keep and such,and that its rarely in the aquarium trade,very vague care directions.at first it just fell apart,i lost half of it.all the parts scattered in my tank and i have small ones growing in a few places.now the main rock has regrown and looks ok most of the time,accept it wilts sometimes for no reason.it looks like a carnation coral but smaller.anyone know where i can find info about this coral?i'd much appriciate it,thanks
http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/117311softpink.jpg

[bllfish]

Looks like a carnation.

[ziggy222]

it can't be a carnation though cause its doing too well and spreading.i could never keep a carnation and would not try with my limited experience.personaly i don't feel carnations should be sold do to there 99% chance of dying within like the first 4 months.anyway carnations get like a foot high and this stays under 4inches.

[bllfish]

I agree with your view on carnations but I think that is what you have. Keep doing what you are doing. It is obviously very healthy and likes where it is.

[ziggy222]

they had a bright orange one also where i bought it from that i wanted but it was gone before i returned with the money so i got the pink one.i don't think carnations come in orange.they did have a hot pink carnation there about a foot tall and it was labeled carnation.i asked the store owner for other names so i could do research and he said this was its name and that it was not a carnation,that carnations got bigger.i've found photos of it online but no care instructions,so i've had to experiment.are carnations ever refered to as soft pink leathers?now you've got me worried.

[bllfish]

When I first started my reef I had an orange and a pink carnation. LFS explained how colorful they were. They lasted about 6 weeks.
I have never heard of a soft pink leather but that doesn't mean much. Don't worry about it. It looks like it was a healthy specimen when you bought it. I believe the problem with a lot of the "Hard to keep" fish & corals is in the way they were collected and cared for before they reach the retail stores. I have a leopard wrasse that everyone said would not last very long. He is doing fine after almost a year.

[graveyardworm]

I second carnation, possibly dendronephthya.

See this (http://archive.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=524097) thread.

[ziggy222]

yes i've read about the carnations.theres all kinds of info available about them,basically it all says you cannot keep them even in a public aquarium run by professionals.thats why i beleive my coral is not one.that and all the pics i've seen are of large single stalks and mine and the one i did'nt buy were rocks with about 20 small ones encrusting the rocks.i also don't beleive my 29 gallon with such a lame set up is gonna be the 1st to have a carnation that produces frags that live.i have 5 frags that are doing well.i feed the tank once a day.i have a simple aquaclear70 filter,and prizm skimmer,thats it.i removed the wavemaker cause it heated my tank,and i have no refugium or sump.i currently have a small hair algae problem,this reef is anything but advanced.thank you for reading and responding back.

[bllfish]

If you find out it is a carnation, you might want to go back to the LFS you purchased it from and let him know you are getting more knowledgeable about corals. I did that with mine and whenever I was thinking about buying something that was not right he quickly let me know the pluses and minuses.

[graveyardworm]

If you read through the thread I provided you'll find that a handful of people are keeping them successfully. So far the reasons why are unkown. They dont usually perish right away it can take up to a year. Throwing out babies and spreading is generally sign of stress and means that the coral is not doing to well. However in a limited number of cases the babies seem to grow and flourish.

[ziggy222]

yes bllfish if i find out its a carnation i'll do that.i know this guy well enough to know he knows his coral.ty. yes graveyardworm i read what you sent,ty.i also went on to read a bunch more.when i brought it home over 2 months ago most of it was in the center.the 1st cpl days here,the center disintegrated.what you see in the picture is the frags to either side of the original that have since grown,theres about 6 more babies throughout my tank that are well.it has'nt fragged since that 1st week,however they do wilt periodicaly which i'm beginning to think is normal. i reelly don't beleive they're carnations but boy do they look like them.the ones i posted are about 3 inches tall and don't look like their gonna get any taller.if you guys are right,i'll move this to the carnations thread soon.

[JDS]

Your coral could be a scleronepthya sp. Which is very similar to a dendro. But they have a little better survival rate in captivity. Whichever one it is it does need to be fed for it to survive.

[bllfish]

I just read that if it is a carnation "it does not need light and are predominately found in caves and under ledgeswith slow current. It says they are quite unsuccessful when hair algae is present in the aquarium.
(p. 72 - A practical guide to corals - borneman)
If it looks like it is not doing well might want to move it under a ledge?
In "Aquarium Corals" - Borneman (p. 143) - it says scleronepthya sp. resembles dendronephthya have a short stalk. So yours probably is not scleronepthya sp.

[ziggy222]

lol JDS is the man!he found it,he misspelled it,its a Scleronephthya sp. i knew ron at my lfs would'nt lie to me.its not a carnation.my tank was nothing before their guidence.yes JDS i feed my tank a pinch of cyclopeeze every night,i don't target feed and everything loves it.i may target feed the Scleronephthya sp. in the future to see how much faster it spreads out.now that you showed me what it is i have all kinds of info i can read about.its still i hard to keep coral so i guess when i move it to the 50 gallon breeder this fall i'll have to be very careful.i found it for sale on http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_Display.cfm?pCatId=2080