Finger leather??? help!

[Mikes_aquatics]

i Recently bought a small finger leather from my LFS brought it home and put it in my tank. well today i noticed that any way i position it in my tank, it always starts drooping down like its leaning off the edge of the rock or somthing. Whats going on with it?

 

[InsaneClownFish]

I would leave it be for awhile. I'm no expert on leathers, but I've heard they can take several days to look "happy" in a new system. Try moving it to the bottom and make sure there is no direct flow right on it.

 

[silverwolf72]

Almost every coral will look bad for a couple of days or more when first introduced into your tank.

 

[DropinBack]

i just got my first piece of leather today and the EXACT same thing is happening... and im kind of worried

 

[Mikes_aquatics]

well today it is verry droopy and it started sheeding, after some of the skin mucusy stuff came off it was a better color underneath, this is my first leather and i have no idea whats going on, all i know is they shed??

 

[silverwolf72]

They shed to rid themselves of waste

 

[rssjsb]

Yes, shedding is normal. They also do not appreciate being handled, so I would agree with the advice to leave it alone. In a few days (maybe a little longe) you should be seeing improvement.

 

[ducklabdad]

Leave it be and just make sure that it has plent of water flow. Fingers will fluctuate on a regular basis, I have a really large on the will get "****ed off" and retract to the size of a fist with little green fingers and then in 30 minutes will flow out on the surface of the water and be 12" flowing on the waters surface.

They will change colors and extension readily biggest thing I have found is just leave them alone and let them adjuste they are pretty resilient!

These photos are all of the same coral, note for size that the return box behind it is 8 inches wide. photos are not great but you get the idea.

 

[Mikes_aquatics]

well today it turned green and it seems to be getting smaller?? i hope i dont loose the guy, afterall he was expensive

 

[tankjunky]

When I got my first leather it took about a month to become happy and fully open. The more you move it around the more it can get stressed out and not open IMO. I got a green polyp one and never touched it after I put it in and it closed up for a week and a half and now its very happy and fully expanding

 

[Mikes_aquatics]

ok so i got home from school today and went to go check on it and well... it is fully spread out, it is huge and it looks really healthy. thanks guys for the info

 

[HankB]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13594393#post13594393 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Mikes_aquatics
well today it turned green and it seems to be getting smaller?? i hope i dont loose the guy, afterall he was expensive

What kind of lighting do you have? I have one that looks like the pictures that ducklabdad posted. The parent in the main tank looks a lot like his. It's pretty amazing how much it shrinks up. I also have a tiny frag in another tank that varies from about 3/4" to 2" depending on its mood. That tank has MH lighting and it takes on a green color under that lighting. Further, it gets some sunlight and when that happens it shrinks like this:

My camera doesn't really do justice to the green color. It's a fairly bright fluorescent green. When it is expanded it still looks pale green:

IMO these corals are more sensitive to water conditions than a lot of others. We had some declining palys so I tried treating the tank with Vitamin C. That resulted in a drop in KH, cloudy water and both our spaghetti leather (what I thnk this one is called) and a Fiji yellow shrunk up and remained so for several days until water changes returned conditions more to their liking.

They also like a lot of flow. Our spaghetti leather has grown into the path of a hydor flo and seems happy with that, fluttering in the current every time this device rotates.

And as others have mentioned, they do not like to be handled, so find a spot for it and hopefully it will settle in. They will withdraw and expand on a daily schedule but it will usually be a couple days before they get settled in and start.

Good luck with yours!

-hank

 

[Mikes_aquatics]

i have power compact lighting on my corals

 

[HankB]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13630872#post13630872 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Mikes_aquatics
i have power compact lighting on my corals

Under PC mine does not get that nice green color. That takes either additional sunlight or MH lighting.

I must have missed your earlier post when you said it looked better - glad to hear it's OK.

-hank

 

[jflores]

Thanks for your thread, good info. I too recently bought a spaghetti leather, when I got it it looked much smaller than the photo that was sent, and after acclimating it seemed to pout. Both limbs were leaning, it is doing much better now. Took advice from this thread and just left it alone, now it just pouts when I turn off the MH! Really look forward to what this is going to do.....

 

[Wingflier]

don't worrie before long it will look like this and you will be fraging it