Leather coral ID

[NicoleC]

Anthony,

Thansk again for coming out to talk to us in So Cal last weekend. I was so busy getting rid of excess zoanthids, I forgot to talk you to about that leather coral I have and what would be the best way to frag it. Although it's a manageable size now, it's quadrupled in the past 3 or 4 months from being a cute little leather and may need regular trimming. However, the base is quite large, so any method that also takes part of the base would be good.

The color has darkened from a pale beige to a rich light brown with hints of purple, and the polyps have a dustinct greenish cast although it is not the neon green on some of the expensive toadstools. It just finished shedding like a toadstool so the polyps aren't all the way open, but here it is:

I suspect some sort of Sarcophyton, but other than that I have no clue. It's hard to ID something when you don't even have part of a name I did find this similar leather on photography web site that attempted to name everything and labelled this one a Lobophytum.
http://www.livingreefimages.com/Page51b.html (top image)

Any ideas appreciated,
Nicole

 

[Anthony Calfo]

cheers, dear

Its wonderful to hear from you. I had a blast at SCMAS... everyone was so much fun! I wish you could have joined us the night before at the lecture/presentation.

You are correct... your leather is a Lobophytum. Like Sarcophyton, they are hardy and handled quite the same.

Propagating this one will be very easy.

If your goal is to control growth of the colony in the position it is currently in, I'd recommend a bilateral cut that leaves only half or even a third (the side facing the front of the display likely for aesthetics) on the rock, and cut the rest away.

Literally take a sharp single edged blade (X-acto knife or blade from a craftsman Robo-cutter... excellent because it is long)... and then simply cut the coral in half from the top down right through the stalk: making a mirror image set of halves.

The half or third that gets cut away (off the rock) you can let heal/attach to another rock for a quick formation of two large whole specimens. Or... you can take the mass cut away and frag it into more/many smaller pieces (like we did with the ring of Sarco. tissue at the workshop... chopping it in small one inch chunks).

The key to success is fast clean cuts... and strong water flow/good water quality to let all heal quickly.

with kind regards,

Anthony

 

[NicoleC]

Thanks for the info. An Xacto knife won't cut it (no pun intended!) -- not big enough to make one clean cut (or even 5 or 6), but perhaps I can find a nice old-fashioned straight razor.

Wish my lovely yellow tonga grew as fast... or maybe not, since I can't bring myself to hack away at it,

 

[Anthony Calfo]

Heehee... does your tang look scared BTW

The old-fashioned razor is a fine idea... if its handy or not too expensive, you might consider cutlery too. Those blades the sushi chefs use would be just ducky! Mmmmm.... sushi

Anthony