Finger leather

[LCP136]

I bought a coral that my LFS said was a kenya tree, but looks more like a finger leather to me. For about a week after the purchase it was fully expanded and its polyps were all out. Today when I woke up and looked at the tank, it was partially bent over and the polyps were retracted into it. My water parameters are good, nitrites and ammonia undetectable and nitrates at about 10ppm. The SG is 1.024. I have no idea what could be wrong

[SomeHairyOldGuy]

how big is your tank? how much light are you giving it? any other corals in there?

[LCP136]

There is a small zoanthid colony, a small green star polyp colony, a few mushroom polyps, and a long polyp toadstool, but none of these are near the finger leather. It's under actinics and compact fluorescent. I forget the exact wattage, but i'll check in a couple hours.

[cdearing]

It could be that your leather coral is shedding. They all do this from time to time. They pull their polyps in and then shed a mucous layer. This can take up to several days to complete before the polyps will come out again.
Give your coral a little time and let it do it's thing. Give it about a week and if the polyps don't come back out, you might try moving it to a different place in your tank, closer or farther from the water flow and either up or down to change the lighting. I have a Figi leather that was retracted for several weeks before I decided that I'd better do something. I moved it away from the flow and the light and it's doing great now. Good luck!

[charlie]

It could be that your leather coral is shedding. They all do this from time to time. They pull their polyps in and then shed a mucous layer. This can take up to several days to complete before the polyps will come out again.
Give your coral a little time and let it do it's thing. Give it about a week and if the polyps don't come back out, you might try moving it to a different place in your tank, closer or farther from the water flow and either up or down to change the lighting. I have a Figi leather that was retracted for several weeks before I decided that I'd better do something. I moved it away from the flow and the light and it's doing great now. Good luck!

Good call!!!!!!!

[LCP136]

That did cross my mind. There were two things that worried me. 1. It is a new coral, but even so the shedding is a definite possibility. 2. The piece of rock it came on has several small aiptasia on it. I didn't think they were close enough to the coral to sting it, but its a possibility.

[charlie]

If it is that new, it is probably still acclimating itself to your system. When did you get the leather?

[LCP136]

About 11/2 weeks ago. For the first week or so it was doing very well, polyps out all day and fully expanded. For the last couple days it has been bent over and a little shriveled with the polyps in. What threw me off was that it seemed to acclimate and then get unacclimated

[charlie]

I have had that happen with leathers too, so I wouldn't really worry to much about it. If it does start to shed, you can get in there with a turkey baster, and lightly blow the shed off also.

[LCP136]

I know I should get rid of the aiptasia. How should I do this? Peppermint shrimp that I put in my tank get killed consistently, my tank isn't mature enough for a copperband, and the problem isn't serious enough for berghia nudebranches.

[charlie]

Lot of people been using boiling water and a syringe. you squirt the boiling water right into their greedy little mouths. I have also used kalkwasser paste also they tend to disintegrate right before your eyes.