Is this leather common

Deuce67

New member
I purchased this softy about a year ago thinking it was a green polyp toadstool. It was about a half dollar in size at the time. I realized a few weeks later that it wasnt a toadstool. It looks like one of those yellow fiji leather except this has green polyps. I havent really seen much of them here in RC. The coral is about 4-5" in diameter now. Is this a pretty common leather? And what would be the actual name of this softy? Thanks!

softy800x600.jpg
 
Well, normally the toadstools I see at my LFS have longer polyps. They also dont have a ruffled edge and more of a disk shape. The one I have looks like a coral that is advertised as an umbrella leather. Is umbrella and toadstool the same?
 
The polyp extension depends on a number of factors including flow, lighting, etc. Usually the toadstools found in the store are of a somewhat smaller size which tend to not have folds. As they grow they will typically get the ridges. My white polyp sarco was as flat as a plate when I first got it, but 4" of growth later it's got 5 very distinct ridges. HTH.
 
I'd go with the green polyped sarco, too (toasdstool, umbrella-just loose physical descriptions). Mine green polyped toadie is flat (it's only about 2" in diameter), but my gold crowned sarco's start flat and develop the ripples as they grow (then they drop babies from the folds). Some caps are concave and some are convex.
 
if you can post some more pictures of it from a side angle (so we can see the stalk and transition to cap), with its polyps retracted, and some closeups of the cap/crown we might be able to guess the species or at least definitely eliminate some.
 
hmm, maybe a sarcophyton infundibuliforme?

it's not a 100% match, the peaks are too prominent for my tastes but morphology can be affected in some many ways. but i still think it's very close (95%). infudib is also one of the sarcos that often get green polyps regardless of age. i think younger sarcos are more prone for green polyps, for some reason (just my own little guestheory, nothing concrete).

is the body very pinkish? i can't really tell under the actinics-only. :p infundib is pinkish normally (imo).
 
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