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Sweeper tentacles on cabbage leather?


reefbee

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Need some help..... Picked up a small cabbage leather coral from the LFS today. The guy assured me the would be OK in a Nano reef. Tonight when the light cycle changed to moonlight the coral started sending out long sweeper tentacles. Is this thing going to sting the living $%#$@ out of the rest of my corals? Please help with some advice!

 

Thanks

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Are those the "sweepers" in the back? Those look like mucus to me which are usually normal when a new coral is just placed into a tank.

What looks like mucus is the tail end of a tentacle as it retracted when the light came on. The tentacles are long, 10 to 12 inches in the dark and have a kind of "fern" leaf appearance to them. This is a cabbage coral correct? Did the LFS screw me here?

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nano_keeper30

leather coralds do not have sweepers, is the coral leathery felling or hard to the touch ? If it is a cabbage leather he seems closed and srunk like you just put him in your tank.

 

this is what cabbage coral looks like typically.

 

Yours look a bit off or could be shriveled from just putting in your tank,

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are you absolutely positive the feathery bits are coming directly from the tissue of the coral, or perhaps they are coming off the rock it is attached to?

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are you absolutely positive the feathery bits are coming directly from the tissue of the coral, or perhaps they are coming off the rock it is attached to?

They are sweepers coming of the coral. It can retract them very quickly. Here's a better pic of them with the lights out. I used a flash on the camera this time....

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They are sweepers coming of the coral. It can retract them very quickly. Here's a better pic of them with the lights out. I used a flash on the camera this time....

 

I'm not seeing the new picture. am i the only one?

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nano_keeper30

HOLY S&!@ SON !!! ATTACK OF THE LEATHER !!!

 

With this better pic i can pretty much say that isnt cabbage leather...Looks like a type of leather for sure, but what I dont know...But Leathers dont have sweepers so WTF is it ?

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HOLY S&!@ SON !!! ATTACK OF THE LEATHER !!!

 

With this better pic i can pretty much say that isnt cabbage leather...Looks like a type of leather for sure, but what I dont know...But Leathers dont have sweepers so WTF is it ?

That's what the heck I want to know. They sold this as a cabbage coral! Do you think it will sting the &^*% out of my corals?

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nano_keeper30

Well thats just it, It looks like a cross between a cabbage and a toadstool but it isnt either of those. And it looks like not LPS that I have ever seen. So Im at a lose on this one.. Someone in here will know WTF its is give it time..

 

Anything with sweepers will sting and possibly kill any pther coral so yes to that question. Put him far away from the other corals till we can figure this out.

 

And if this is a joke i.e you photo shoped sweepers on this, not cool.

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Well thats just it, It looks like a cross between a cabbage and a toadstool but it isnt either of those. And it looks like not LPS that I have ever seen. So Im at a lose on this one.. Someone in here will know WTF its is give it time..

 

Anything with sweepers will sting and possibly kill any pther coral so yes to that question. Put him far away from the other corals till we can figure this out.

Sure don't want to take a chance on losing any of my corals. I am going to leave the light on all night so they retract. I will probably call the LFS in the morning and return this thing for credit. This thing is a freekin' sea monster!

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Sure don't want to take a chance on losing any of my corals. I am going to leave the light on all night so they retract. I will probably call the LFS in the morning and return this thing for credit. This thing is a freekin' sea monster!

This is not photoshop and I assure you it's no joke! This flipped me out so I came to the forum for help. I have had marine tanks before but I'm new to reef keeping. Thanks to all of you who have tried to help me with this.

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they're not sweeper tentacles. perhaps hydroids or some other stinging animal residing in the coral, hard to say for sure.

they look like ctenophores-- comb jellies...do a search--their strands have the same appearence...they aren't going to sring anything except filter for food out of the water column...they may irritate corals, however, not unlike the mucus strands of the vertimid snails...

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My toadstool leather also appears to have two sweeper tentacles. They are pretty much as the OP describes, long feathery filaments that the coral reels in and out.

 

They do not appear to be worms or comb jellies to me, and they are definitely not mucus. When I was researching what they might be I found some articles claiming that sarcos sometimes do have sweepers:

 

http://www.peteducation.com/article.cfm?c=...67&aid=2955

 

http://books.google.com/books?id=WYP5k7xGC...les&f=false

 

Go figure....Whatever they are, they look cool to me and nothing's died, so I'm into them.

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