Yellow finger leather ok??

[impur]

I have had this leather for about 3 weeks. It was not attached to a rock so i have loosely tied a piece of netting to keep it on its rock. Lately it has split in 2 spots on opposite sides of the coral. It shrinks down at night and expands when the lights come on. I have never seen any polyps extend from this guy, do these leathers have polyps that extend? Anyhow i'd just like to be sure if it is doing ok and some advice as to keeping this guy in tip top shape.

[impur]

Another pic. This is just after lights on. Another thing is that this coral tends to reach for the stream from my powerhead. I guess it likes the higher flow. It is about 2" from the powerhead stream and I have it place high in my tank. My lighting is the 96watt power quad and the tank is a 10 gal. I have had the tank up for 2 months now and water parameters are 0 ammonia, 0 trites, 5 ppm trates, 12dKH, and pH of 8.1. I have a calcium test but have not tested for a few weeks. Other inhabitants are zoos, shrooms, GSP, daisy polyp, hydnophora frag, Montipora digita frag, as well as an emerald crab, hermits and snails. I run Chemi-pure in the HOB filter. Thanks for the look!!!

[impur]

1 more thing SG is 1.024

another pic

[impur]

A close up of one of the sides where its splitting.

[impur]

Nobody can help me out???? :confused:

[Lyzann]

Did it split where you had it tied to the rock?

[clkwrk]

Leathers are very hardy if it does split then you will have another.I think you will be fine. As for polyps ,yes they do have them but looks alittle mad so you wont see them till it is happy . I have a big toadstool leather that got pinched by my lv rock and it took 3 months to recover and show polyps again.

[impur]

No it didn't split where the netting is holding it down. 3 months eh, ok that makes me feel better. I went from worried when i got this coral, to ok, then to worried again. I'll just give it plenty of time and wait it out. Thanks for the replies, i really appreciate the info.

[clkwrk]

No prob . The only time I would really be concerned would be if it was turning black and showing decay. Leathers also have a tendancy to turn off colors when molting or mad. My redish orange guys go to a gray color and most yellow's I have seen tend to look tan/brown in color.

[impur]

About a week after i got this guy, I did notice a small "finger" turned black. I scraped off the black coating and the finger has actually grown some. Do the polyps on these leathers come out at night or during the day? From what i have read its during the day but i'd like to be certain. And as far as feeding i feed phytoplankton by kent mainly for my Montiporo digita. Will this fella eat the phyto too? Thanks again for the help!

[clkwrk]

Well from my experience it can differ. My huge devils hand shows polyps at night . My toadstool and frags from my deviles hand show during the day. When my toadstool got pinched ,it showed no polyps for 3 months . The only reason I can think of why my huge Devils hand shows at night is becasue it could have been adapted to my lighting time.For 5 years the tanks light were on during the day and now they are on during eve.

[clkwrk]

I also want to note that I just noticed this is in the Expert forum. By meposting here I do not think I am an expert .I followed another thread to here .To help a fellow reef keeper. So if anyone has any better knowlege on the subject please post . Everything I posted was either IMO or IME.

[EricHugo]

Sorry, I was doing a experiment in lab for twelve hours yesterday and was too tired when I got home to answer posts.

You have a Lobophytum, it looks ok, and the paling is the only thing that bother me, but the colonya ppears to be dividing so this would not be unexpected. You might also see a mucus tunic slough soon after introducing it to new tank conditions, but nothing to worry about.

[impur]

No prob Eric, but thanks for reinforcing what clkwrk as said.

clkwrk you are more of an expert than me!!!! :D

Thanks again for the info, much appreciated. I'm off to research all those big words Eric used. :lol: Have a good weekend all!!!!

[clkwrk]

Thx glad to have helped ! Lobophytum is the proper name of the type of leather you have. Here some info

Lobophytum sp.
Color - varies brown,red,orange,yellow
Low to High Lighting (Standard, VHO, compacts, Halide)
Low to Med water current
Medium aggression
Recommended to beginner through advanced hobbyist.
Photosynthetic, no direct food required, Phytoplankton does accelerate growth and color.