Toad stool leather coral deadly ?

[sahmad43]

I placed the toad stool at a distance from my finger leather coral ..about 6 inches .. but I was surprised to see its tentacles grow as long as 14 inches .. and before i could save my finger leather ..it was already stung and it lost one branch totally ..
is the toad stool leather coral so deadly and has such long tentacles. . how can it be placed anywhere in a tank ? I have a feeling that its parts of tentacles were getting loose n floating arround the tank and causing other corals at distance also to effect.

i have a 90 gallon tank.

[Ninong]

Think of it this way: In nature corals compete for limited space. Millions of years of evolution have resulted in a variety of adaptations to make them more likely to survive this competition. One of those adaptations is sweeper tentacles. A sweeper tentacle is nothing more than a regular tentacle that becomes elongated and developes much more powerful nematocysts. Some corals, like some boxers, have greater reach. This is a distinct advantage. Some have more potent nematocysts.

And that's not the end of it. Corals can engage in chemical warfare even when the distance between them is too great to be bridged by sweeper tentacles.

The only thing you can do when this sort of a problem pops up in your aquarium is to try to separate the belligerents, or the bully and the victim, sufficiently that they will cut it out.

Good luck!

[sahmad43]

thanks Ninong for the reply. This coral is not recovering from the sting and has totally closed and looks like burnt limb . can I do anything to help or will it die for sure ?
does anyone know how potent is the sting of a toad leather coral?

[dave00gt]

calm down.

as long as it is not dead , then it has a chance on recovery

[BubbaWPB]

You might want to consider using activated charcoal on a regular basis in your tank since you obviously have more than one soft coral. It helps rid the tank of the chemical warfare agents produced by many soft corals.