Rasta leather going down!

[wdcmarine]

Love the forum and the great wealth of knowledge on here. Amazing forum!

My question .... My rasta leather has gone downhill pretty quickly. I bought it about 3 months after my tank was cycled. I had what appeared to be little red or brown bugs crawling on it.in the past 3 weeks it has also started to have a few deep brown lines coming from the base. In the past week it went from pic one to pic 2. Granted I pulled it out of the water and cut off a stem that looked pretty rough and had a white fungus looking growth on it. the second pic does not look much different then the past few days.

Just trying to get advice on what could have happened. All of my other corals look fine. What could the bugs be? It has also been a favorite hangout for a hermit of mine.

Tank specs:
120 with a 40 sump, roughly 12 gallon Fuge with cheato
Nitrates 10
Ammonia <.25
S.G 1.024
Temp swings from 77 - 81
Nitrites 0
That is all of the tests kits I have. Phosphate and calcium on the way.

5 months into it. Third pic is fts. Thanks in advance for help.

 

[wdcmarine]

I see nobody loves my rasta. I would love your rasta .... is this a bump?

 

[RyanSweatt2004]

Sorry to tell you but your coral is not a rasta leather. Rasta leather is a comon name for sinularia flexibis. What you have looks like it is a type of kenya tree AKA green or brown capnella. I would check your ph and alk. Many leather corals will close up or shed a thin outer film. Many seem to be irritated by changes in these parameters and will close up and shed more frequently as well. Still looks healthy though.

 

[jwoyshnar]

Yeah not a rasta. I would move it up into some flow.

 

[Nanook]

They like higher light too

 

[wdcmarine]

Well now I feel taken, not that I knew the difference anyway. It's Already doing much better. That's for the ID guys.

 

[kingfisher62]

Leathers will often shed and look crappy for a few days.