Hope you guys can help me. I am new to the hoby and new to the sight. I have a 12 gal nano and everything has been great for my first 3 months. I recently brought home a nice toadstool leather and set it up in the tank. I made sure to acclamate it to my water and it was actually opened up in the bucket before I ever got in the tank. For the first week it was awesome, it stayed open and looked great. Then this week it started withdrawing and the polyps are withdrew. It is trying to slim up a little also (I do have carbon filtration). Everything in the tank is great and growing (Zoas, Green Star Polyps, Richordia, Acans, chalis, feather duster) Hope there is nothing wrong with the leather, I really like it.
What is the flow on the leather? Also what kind of lighting and how high up in the tank do you have him? I have had coral do the same thing...they usually pop back up and do good. Have you checked your parameters lately? Sometimes one particular coral may be more sensitive to off params than the others, including temp swings or changes in light cycles.
I would say its getting medium flow off and on, I have a rotating powerhead. Its located on the bottom of the tank in the sand. I have compact florecent lights on timmers. I have thought about moving it up a little higher in the tank thinking it may need more light.
Moving it up is something I would definitely try. PC (Compact Fourescent) lights don't put out as much PAR as MH or T5's. I think my next upgrade would be a nice T5 setup.
I would not worry just yet, leathers go through cycles where the polyps stay retracted for several days and then they shed a mucus like covering off the crown and open as normal soon after that.
+1 to greentrees. I have had toadstool leathers stay closed for over three weeks and then all of a sudden the polyps came out. And they do this when they are moved to a new home, don't worry about it right now just give it some time and it will come around.
You are getting some great advise, stick with it and don't worry about the leather for a while, mine do the same thing. Watch for it to shed it's mucus cover and then it should be fine. They also can benefit from some additional iodine.
Its looking better now, it was opened up when I got home and its streching back out. I fed a little nannochloropsis and rotirich to see if that perks it up some. I know the dusters, barnacles, and the bivalves love it.
i wouldnt worry to much, sounds pretty normal. bac in the day i had several dif species, gold crown, tru blue, fiji yellow. all 3 had dif likes an dislikes. the most difficult was the fiji yellow to find its sweet spot. the diff in sweet spots varies from species, region and where they are harvested from. the mucus is usually a sign of growth or shedding of parisites. they realy enjoy lugals iodine. gold crowns( unbrella) which are hard to find anymore usually like around 6 to 10 in from bottom, mod to slow flow. tru blues toad ( very rare) like it at the top fairly heavy flow, most yellows like on the bottom with almost no flow. again it will vary depending on where at in the colum they were harvested........fish
