Is this a Devil's Hand???

[dustin323]

Can anyone help me out with an ID on this softie. I was thinking a devil's hand. What do you think? Thanks.

A pic of a fether duster I also got. These guys are super cool & only 15 bucks.

 

[45commando]

no, it looks like a sacrophyton leather,or a toadstool by common name,HTH.

 

[dustin323]

Ok cool I was kind of thinking that. From what I was reading elsewhere I see that it is difficult to identify the exact species of sacrophyton.

I think I may have a problem now though. Today he is a little shrivelled up, has a mucous on him, & you can see all his little pores. The trachaphylia brain I got a week before him is doing great though.

I have a 55g with 260 watts power compact. He is about mid way up in the tank sitting on a rock. The water flwo has been adequate, but today I hooked up another Maxi-Jet 900. So that makes a Maxi-Jet 900 on each side of the tank & the movement from the filter return. Any ideas?

 

[xcreonx]

Sarcophytons are fickle creatures. They can shrivel up and stay that way for days. Make sure he is getting good flow to help shed the mucous and a good amount of light. They love both.

Remember, never touch them with you bare hands! They really don't respond well to that.

 

[xcreonx]

Make sure you are feeding that feather duster ALOT of food! They need lots of food to survive. Get live phytoplankton, baby brine shrimp and other particulate foods to keep it alive. they are tough for any length of time.


And that is indeed a sarcophyton and not a lobotphytum (devil's hand)

 

[dustin323]

Ok, thanks. You know how some of them have little tentacle type things all over the top of them? Is this their polyps(still learning corals)? Because when I ifrst got him he was totally smooh like in the pic above, now he has a bunch of them out. I also had read on here somebody said there toadstool"s polyps didn't come out hardly ever. Could this be what is happening?

 

[xcreonx]

Yes the bumps are where the polyps come out. My toadstools always have their polyps out, except at night after the lights are out.

 

[dustin323]

Thank you great info youv'e given me, I do appreciate it. How do I go about feeding the feather duster? The guy at the LFS said MarineSnow was good.

 

[dustin323]

Ok here is a pic of it a few minutes ago. You can see the mucous type stuff.

 

[xcreonx]

uh, I've never used marine snow. I've heard some bad stuff about it. Personally, I feed my feather dusters DTs phytoplankton and newly hatched baby brine shrimp. I also disturb the sandbed every other night to stir up some stuff for everyone to eat.

Use a turkey baster and slowly and gently squirt some food just upstream of them so they can eat.

Your leather looks normal. It will shed the mucous and polyp out, hopefully Nice looking leather!

 

[dustin323]

Thanks I do appreciate the help. I'm new to saltwater so I was a little freaked out by the looks when it first started doing that. I'm glad it looks ok to you though.