Toadstool not fully extending polyps

Syncere

New member
Been having quite a tough time making my toadstool leather happy. :/ It does extend its polyps but never fully as when I saw it at my lfs. Within the first two weeks I had it I kept it on the sand bed to avoid bleaching it so early and tried low, medium and high flow and got the same result each time. Since then it has been in the same spot going on three weeks now as I am sure I may have made it mad by moving it a few times. Just recently these last three days it has stayed closed and am sure it is just shedding the top layer as skin. So what should I do as far as keeping it happy? And how often do they shed? My lighting is a 24" tek fixture 2' off the sandbed where the toadstool is and it is receiving moderate to medium flow. All parameters are good as all of my other corals (lots of Acans, frogspawn, gsp and palys/zoas) open fully everyday). Will post exact params if needed.

Thanks,
Marc :beer:
 
mine doesnt open soemtimes to i have had it for over a year.they do like a good flow and lighting.there are days mine is completly shut and days it is all the way out.
 
Ok I am kind of worried now as it has been 5 days since it has last opened and has not been moved in two weeks. It still gets the same flow and lighting. Should I make any adjustments? Is there anything I should be looking for in case things are going south for the leather?

I have checked all the parameters and every other corals is looking great.
 
Closest pic I could get. It doesn't look shiny it looks more like it is building up detritus but it does not blow off in the flow. I did move it higher towards the light however and into a little more flow.
 

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I'd say it's shedding, perfectly normal for a toadstool. Just make sure it is receiving decent water flow to help it get rid of the coating afterward.
 
Good news! After a little over a week of being closed the toadstool was just shedding. Thanks for the responses! Now I just have to see how far the polyps extend once the rest of the old coating is wash away. I did move it higher towards the light since it was pretty far to begin with and into more flow to hopefully make it a little happier.
 
From my experience, toadstools are very moody like kitties. They take a long time for it to feel happy again and reopen. they do like a lot of light from what I have seen.
 
When you say all your parimeters are in check what are they? When I kept softies magnesium was a big factor. When the corals seemed a bit droopy I would check mag. Many times it was low and when I added mag things improved. There are many things that can affect polyp expansion but mag is one thing some don't mention. Just my $.02

Good Luck!
 
Thanks I will make sure to look into that. The only reason I haven't been dosing anything is because I don't have any of those test kits. Have read many times before not to dose anything you can't test for. Will definitely start looking into the higher end testing and dosing now to give my corals all the supplements they need.
 
Will do. Just did a water change an hour ago so waiting for the water to clear up. Most of the coating has already come off and a few polyps are out now. So glad everything worked itself out. :)
 
It might close up from time to time. Mine closes up every 2 months or so. I would keep it in a high flow area and it will shed much quicker.
 
It is open now but still only extending the polyps the same. :/ Will leave it in the new spot and see if it just needs to settle in.
 

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So about for two weeks now after it had shed it was starting to open up more and more each day till again it has stopped opening. It is shedding again as this time it is clear to see the shiny coating on top. Is it normal for shedding to occur this often? Is it a sign that it likes its placement and going to grow a lot better?
 
Yeah, thats the one thing about toadstools I do not like. Ya never know when the are going to do that. I had a friend come over the other day to see my new corals and of coarse that was the day mine closed up! Seems to me that cleaning the tank and water changes might sometimes trigger mine to shed. I also noticed that my shedding periods seem to be briefer (or more brief, Ido not know it briefer is actually a word)
 
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