what's up with my leather?

[IPT]

I have a Toadstool leather that is getting to be a decent size. It's about 16 inches across now. My Two clowns have taken it on as their home and have been in it for about a year or more. They are always "cleaning" it and it hasn;t really seemed to care. Sometimes polyps retract, other times it barely responds, but they ahve been doing this for months and months.

Recently I had a bad temp spike (due to heating in the building), and a ALK spike (my fault, not monitoring Litermeter). There is a patch about an inch and half by inch and half where the polyps haven't been opening. The clowns were messign around there at one point. They have been in a different area now for quite some time. This small area has yet to open or do anything for weeks now. WHat should I do about this? Scrape it down maybe, just leave it? Any ideas?

 

[Mathews Z7]

the only time I've had spots like that was when it had a hard time slothing off a shed, you might try increasing the flow in that area a little and see how it responds.

 

[IPT]

yeah, that was one of my thoughts. Though unlike in the past it never really all closed up and sloughed off anything. Even so, when it first started I blasted it a bunch with a turkey baster. A short time later I even used the edge of the baster to "scrub" the area. No change thus far.

 

[Mathews Z7]

...............Though unlike in the past it never really all closed up and sloughed off anything.

how much or how little it closes up during a shed is proportional to how much of a growth spurt it's undergoing. under VHOs i had slow minimal growth and you hardly even noticed polyp retraction only the slothing of a thin layer, under MHs I'd get full closure for a few days and a thick shed and a very noticeable growth when it opened back up. in either case though if for some reason it was unable to sloth off the above pic is approximately what it looked like.

i do recall once i had a MH bulb explode and the glass particles left scars such as the pic but they only lasted a few days and they shed off.

if you've already did some rubbing/scrubbing, I'd just leave it be for several days and watch that it doesn't get bigger, aggravation can in most cases make things worse.

 

[gflat65]

I've had white spots open up into frags on at least two toadstools. That looks like it may be more toward the center, though, huh? I wouldn't do too much scrubbing. I leave anything that isn't falling apart and/or doesn't have black slime "eating" away at it, alone and they generally come back around eventually.

 

[IPT]

yeah, I haven't scrubbed it in a while. It has been several weeks now since I did that. I can't be sure how long it has been this way ow but I'd say at the least a month, if not two. It's under T-5s and VHO actinics. Growing pretty well (probably at least 3x the size of when i got it if not more).

I am just gonna leave it. I may frag it some just to stimulate it. It is really not centered, more like in the upper left of the coral. In a few inches from the edge, but it's a 14+ inch coral so far from centered.

Anyone else having clowns digging their Leathers? They totally ignore a GTBA. I had the same thing happen 10 years ago with two clowns and a different Toadstool.

 

[csm]

My clowns go down in my leather alot but dont really bother it.