Do leathers need to be fragged?

[Reefer PT]

a couple months ago I had something weird happen, for the second time. My toadstool got very big and tall and then I noticed the base of the coral was starting to tear away from the rock and getting necrotic. I pulled it out chopped off the bad tissue and glued down to a new rock and not only did it survive it thrived. The same thing happened last spring with a sinulara. I chopped it up into several pieces and glued it down and all are growing well. Do these corals need to be fragged periodically for survival? or do I have a problem? I got them quite large so I am not familiar with their growth habits.
Thanks for any insight
Dave

 

[Tzwizzle]

They don't "need" to be fragged. The 'show us your sweetest soft corals' thread on the front page has some beautiful monsters in it. From my experience leathers that are diseased will rot/melt away and often times you can frag them and they will rebound.

 

[Reefer PT]

I wonder what has caused the disease. It first starts as a rough appearance at the attachment which over the course of a few weeks worsens to the point where you see the coral tearing away. The coral appears happy until this point at which time it will retract and no PE occurs. The normal color remains until after it has torn then it turns a light brown color around the tearing. After fragging the coral extends and has normal PE within a couple days. I am also wondering if this could be a reaction to carbon dosing. Possible bacterial infection? The sinulara had problems when I first started and now the toadstool had problems when I weaned off. I was having an ongoing battle with cyano that did not end until I stopped dosing vinegar. Still hovering a 1ppm NO3 and PO4 is .04 according to my hanna and it's been 3 months since stopping.

 

[Tzwizzle]

Yeah I haven't really been able to put an exact finger on why softies get diseased. Just like it's difficult to know why SPS rtn or LPS recede. Could be a number of factors but I don't think it's your No3 or Po4 causing the issue.

 

[Mock]

I have lost whole colonies due to diseased narcosis. No clue what happens. Just starts to rot. I lost my largest Finger Leather to it, saved parts but lost 90% and a Toadstool, was able to salvage parts of him too but the about 90% loss.

Would be nice to know of any studies done for sure.

 

[Reefer PT]

Well at least softies can bounce back. I rarely hear of someone stopping RTN or polyp bail out.