How do leathers propegate on their own?

[Crush Coral]

I have a beautiful leather coral that is about 7 " in diameter. Will it reproduce on it's own?

 

[kingfisher62]

Any pics? what type of leather?

 

[TylerC]

I have had leathers 'bud off' on their own or drop arms.

 

[Crush Coral]

What does "bud off" and "drop arms" mean?

 

[Dave71]

This may help. Budding is at the bottom.

http://www.thesea.org/leather_coral/toadstool_leather_coral.htm

 

[Saltcity]

This may help. Budding is at the bottom.

http://www.thesea.org/leather_coral/toadstool_leather_coral.htm

Thanks for the link/read!

Here's my Toadstool.... About 14-16" tall from the base and is in the process of moving to a new 120 gallon!

 

[kingfisher62]

Dang, that thing is huge!!!!

 

[Saltcity]

It's a little cramped in my Nano....

 

[Ynotme4886]

here are a few pics of mine when it decided to "reproduce" itself.

It looked like an old leather car seat in a junkyard...all cracked and split.

This is it now recovering from its self fragging

Hope this helps

 

[Crush Coral]

ynotme4886 that is cool!!!!!!!!! I will have to remember not to have a coranary if I see mine starting to do that. I looked at pictures of different leathers and do not see one that resembles mine. Mine does not have a trunk like a toadstool, it is neon green in color. Looks like a green piece of leather glued directly to my rock. The color is very "electric".

 

[Ynotme4886]

I took pics of the event cause I had no clue what it was doing to itself.

I still have no clue what made it go into self reproduction mode.

 

[Crozure]

There are several ways you can go about propagating them.

You can change the parameters and stress the coral out a little bit. This is more for experienced hobbyist that understands propagation on a biological method. As a survival method, leathers and other softies will loose some tissue in order to make enough glucose to sustain itself. This can come in a sudden drop in temperature, salinity, and (more so with anemones vs leathers) deprivation of photosynthetic light.

 

[Crozure]

The other way is to just take a the leather out of the tank. Use a scapula to cut off a frag of it and use super glue gel to glue it to another rock.

The main colony of the leather will stress out but they recover really well. Expect it to look like crap for a short bit. HTH

 

[Ynotme4886]

I changed my lighting...thats why it did it then.

Makes sense now

 

[Dave71]

Use a scapula to cut off a frag of it

Ouch!!! what corpse did you pull the scapula from :fun2: :hammer:

 

[StrongMN]

Thanks for the link/read!

Here's my Toadstool.... About 14-16" tall from the base and is in the process of moving to a new 120 gallon!

Holy Toadstool, that thing is HUGE. looks pretty cool. Cut and glue is how I have been told to "frag them".

-StrongMN

 

[TiTAN]

Given time and conditions it will "Bud" as others have mentioned, you can also get the Scalpel out and give it a little assistance.