Dyed sarcophyton?

[ReeferAl]

A few months ago I bought a leather coral at the LFS which looked like a Sarcophyton elegans-fairly bright yellow. It languished somewhat for a few weeks and its bright color faded a bit. It looked so bad and was so long and skinny that I cut off the head to try and save it. Subsequently both the head and the stalk have started to grow. Both however have turned the typical beige color of a Sarcophyton glauca.
Is it possible that a yellow sarcophyton could change to beige or is it (I suspect) more likely that this was a dyed coral?
Allen

[MarLooney]

very possible. too bad you couldn't just look at your skimmate as with other dyes. yellow looks like what you'd collect anyway. at least you got two healthy leathers now. ;)

[jdieck]

A Yellow Sarcophyton needs lots of light to keep the yellow color.
When I first got mine I put it in a medium to low light area and turned pale and creamy color, I moved it directly under 400W metal halide and the yellow returned.
It has grown to about 14" under halides.

[bunnyman]

what color is the slough?....mine was sloughing yellowis/brown....
was supposed to be a yellow, but turned out to be dyed......

[ReeferAl]

Originally posted by jdieck
A Yellow Sarcophyton needs lots of light to keep the yellow color.
When I first got mine I put it in a medium to low light area and turned pale and creamy color, I moved it directly under 400W metal halide and the yellow returned.
It has grown to about 14" under halides.
One of the cuttings is high on a rock under 250 DE MH-less than 12 inches. The other sits on the bottom sand. Both are the same beige/cream color.

Allen

[ReeferAl]

Originally posted by bunnyman
what color is the slough?....mine was sloughing yellowis/brown....
was supposed to be a yellow, but turned out to be dyed......
I didn't really notice the slough color when it first sloughed. The yellow seemed to fade gradually though, not all at once.
Allen

[jdieck]

Sorry to hear that, you might have got a dyed one

[Steven Pro]

Have you seen these articles?
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2002-09/ac/feature/index.htm
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2002-09/eb/index.htm

[ReeferAl]

StevenPro, I did read the articles you linked. The problem is that there are fairly bright yellow sarcophytons which makes it difficult to tell in retrospect if the color was natural or no. If I had been thinking of it at the time I might have seen the tell-tale signs of artificial color. After it had largely faded though it's hard to know for sure. I suspect it was a dyed coral. It is 1 more reason not to shop at that LFS. I have tried to give them a chance. It is run by a friendly older couple who really do seem to care, but I just don't think they know enough to keep their animals healthy and to buy the best livestock. Their fish always seem to have ick and their corals are in low light and flow tanks. I think I'll have to give up on them.
Allen