Crease/Fold in Toadstool Stalk

[trothatl]

I have a large toadstool that has been in my tank for about two years now. I noticed a few weeks ago that it developed a fold in the stalk. It started out as a small crease, but now it extends through almost the entire stalk. When I was cleaning the tank the other day, I opened up the crease and some "junk" floated out of it. The stalk surface inside of this crease is normal -- it's not cut or injured, the stalk just has a crease and now the toadstool won't stand straight up. Has anyone else had this happen before?

I would wait and see if it fixes itself, but it's bent over so that the top faces a frogspawn and the two are only an inch or so away from each other. The frogspawn has been looking a little "ill" lately, and I'm wondering if the toadstool could be attacking the frogspawn at night?

Would it be a bad idea if I cut the toadstool's stalk at the crease and reattached it in another spot?

Thanks in advance for any advice. Here are some photos, although I realize that I really need to work on my reef photography. I also need to work on getting rid of that algae!

 

[Cubed]

To my knowledge, the cutting the toadstool @ the stalk, and regluing it elsewhere is how fragging of these corals is done. The possibility of one regrowing from the base that was cut from is a high porsibility as well.

About a month ago, my toadstool had attached to a different rock than the frag plug it was on. I went to move it and the middle section of the toadstool ripped. I let nature take is course, and within a day the toadstool was looking 100% healthy. From my experience, these corals are tough as nails, hth.

 

[trothatl]

Thanks, Cubed. After my original post I did more research on toadstools and learned that cutting the stalk is not a problem... as you said, cutting the cap off is a method of fragging. I went ahead and cut the stalk at the fold and reattached the toadstool to a rock using a piece of wooden skewer to temporarily hold it in place. That was last night, and today it's opened up and seemingly happy. I'm interested in seeing whether the remaining stalk (which is less than a quarter of an inch thick) regrows a full stalk and cap, but based on what I've read in this forum, that probably will happen.

I was mostly interested in how or why the toadstool formed that crease, though -- I was wondering if it was actually pinching itself off from its base, but I haven't found any information to indicate that they do that.

 

[Cubed]

As far as I know they don't pinch themselves to disattach from a base, but I'm a little new so I could be wrong.

Was it placed in an area of too hgih of a flow maybe? Mine likes high flow but I feel like it could get "pushed" over sometimes if it were ot have too high of a flow.

Think it of it this way, now you have two

 

[trothatl]

Now that you mention it, yes, he was in an area of high flow. He grew up tall enough that he was in front of a powerhead, but he stood up straight most of the time. Even after he developed the crease, he would stand up straight. It was only after I bent the stalk in the other direction and took out the junk in the crease that he stayed bent over.

Oh, well... like you said, now I may have two of them if the foot of the old stalk grows out.

 

[lostintheocean]

i have a larger toadstool right infront of a korlia 3. it loves the flow and making babies. leathers needs good flow.