Yellow Leather ID

[NaughtyCashew]

Does anybody know what kind of yellow leather this is? It seems a little bit different than the Fiji Yellow Leather I often see. The polyps are very small.

I won this coral in a raffle a couple months ago, and although it has the potential to be very beautiful, it hasn't seemed to flourish in my tank.

Water volume = 60 g (40 display, 20 sump)

My params are:

Salinity 1.025
Calcium 400ppm
Alkalinity 6 dKH
PH 8.2
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 0
Temp 78 Degrees

I am keeping it with SPS (montipora & pocillopora species)
and LPS (echino, echinata, acanasthrea, micromussa, ricordia, gsp, zoas, and a candy cane). It is positioned towards the top of my tank w/ high light and moderate flow.

Thanks!

 

[DJ88©]

Cashew,

Looks most definately like a S. Elegans to me. Tricky soft corals to keep. A lot harder than most people suspect. I'd try moving it to a different location in the tank to see if there was some kind of irritant in that spot bothering it. Your params look fine other than that.

FYI I have mine 8 inches below a 400W MH and as high as it can go. Yet my sisters is in the bottom 1/3 of her tank under a 175W MH. Her's doesn't grow as fast but it is a much brighter yellow than mine.

hth

 

[NaughtyCashew]

Thanks Darren!

I was hoping it would be something else as I've been moving it around my tank quite a bit and nothing seemed to have helped. It may be better off in someone elses tank where it can get better light and more space. I'm running a 4 bulb tek unit that is barely off the surface of the water, I think my lighting might not be enough to keep it healthy.

 

[reefwick]

Naughtycashew- I don't think the lighting is the problem I have one under 48 watts of PC and it has done very very well. Pics in my gallery.

 

[tinyreef]

can you post another pic of the coral? morphology is tricky with sarcos sometimes but sometimes they're also very distinctive.

i've noticed some irregularities in form and appearance with corals often associated or identified as "sarcophyton elegans". i suspect they're either hybrids or different species entirely, e.g. i've seen s. pulchellum often mistakenly id'd as s. elegans (but these are mad ravings from a hobbyist only :wildone: ).

have you tried any aggressive chemical filtration methods? e.g. weekly carbon changes, Poly-Filters, etc.

also, have you examined the coral itself for any injuries or infections/rot?

a fts would also be helpful. kinda seeing how the water flows and affects the yellow sarco. i'd tend to agree with reewick that the lighting seems to be sufficient ime, especially if you're placing it high. hth

 

[MiddletonMark]

What kind of flow do you have it in?

I agree about these being tricky soft corals. Had one for 3 months or so, in my softie tank, where I struggled to make it happy. When it started to seem `worse', I decided to give my stony coral tank a try - where it had full polyp extension as I hadn't seen within the hour. Couple years later - grows slow - but has been happy in that tank vs. w/ it's softie brethren in my other tank.

I'd be sure to have good water quality, regular w/c. Have mine at the very bottom of the tank under 250w MH, pretty high flow and it seems to color/polyp just fine now.