Wilting corals?

[Tina]

I have a cabbage coral which looks purple and dead one day, only to turn red and alive-looking the next. It's been doing this since I bought it 2 months ago.

I recently added a finger leather coral and it does the same thing. One day it's plump and vibrant and the next, half of it is shrunken and wilted and green-looking.

What's going on? Can't seem to find anything about this in my Sprung book.

 

[Bucktronix]

welcome to the world of leathers. outa my 6 leathers there are usually 4 open. they seem to switch on/off when they open or close. i have actually to this day never seen all 6 open at the same time. so i would say what is happening to you is prolly quite normal. cabbage is a very hardy leather.

does anyone have a rose leather? if so how often does your open up with the bumps?

 

[davelin315]

never heard of a rose leather, does it refer to color? If so, it could be dyed, there was a large influx of dyed corals a while back. By the way, yes, flow does affect the leathers. The more flow will help to keep it healthier and shed the skin quicker.

 

[Bucktronix]

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by davelin315:
<strong>never heard of a rose leather, does it refer to color? If so, it could be dyed, there was a large influx of dyed corals a while back. By the way, yes, flow does affect the leathers. The more flow will help to keep it healthier and shed the skin quicker.</strong><hr></blockquote>

well it's not dyed in color.. i don't think you can dye a leather can you? anyhow here is a pic of it open. when it is open its covered in all these lovely bumps. sadly it dosn't do it very often. it does have good current and nothing is close enought to really pester it.

 

[davelin315]

A lot of leather corals will do that. Most will also shed a layer of mucous coating periodically. Don't worry about it's health unless it becomes squishy to the touch and bleeds chalky liquid (or just plain rots away).

 

[EmilyB]

I wonder if flow helps this, my tank is pretty high flow and the leathers rarely show this behavior.

 

[Bucktronix]

^bump^