Removing Leather/Toadstool

[flluke]

I have two leathers in my nano, which have grown too large for my tank IMO. They look like they've attached themselves pretty well to the rock, and the green polyp one is starting to attach mid stalk on another rock it's resting on. The guy at the LFS said I might be able to wiggle it off the rock? Here's a pic that I had in my gallery to show the size of these things. And the green one was the size of a quarter when I got it!

 

 

What are my options?

[tinyreef]

are you looking to transplant it wholly or frag it up?

 

fragging is relatively simple and i would suggest that first.

 

if you're looking to transplant it i would chisel a portion of the base of the rock rather than cut it.

 

you could cut thru the base (use a very sturdy kitchen shears-type of scissor) but that would be my last option. the sarcos appear to be massive base-types (i think the green is an s. ehrenbergi [nice specimen!], not sure on the one on the right though - could also be an ehren i'd have to see more of it) and those aren't very conducive to a stem/stalk horizontal cut.

 

a vertical cut (cutting down to split it in mirro halves or quadrants) is more doable but again a bit too invasive imo for the situation.

 

hth

 

hmm, after looking at the smaller closeup pics, i guess you could do the horizontal cut on the ehrenbergi (and maybe the other one too). both are stretching to get out from under the neighbors so they have a extended stalk more conducive to that kind of cut.

 

again, it's tricky cut in that it's a major operation cutting deep into the body mass.

 

a quick lobe cut/pruning is much less stressful on the corals and system. jmo

[flluke]

are you looking to transplant it wholly or frag it up?

 

I was looking at transplanting it to a different tank, possibly to my LFS for a trade in on something that won't grow so large so quick. hehe

 

fragging is relatively simple and i would suggest that first.

 

Simple is good! And I guess reducing the size of it down would help my tank from being over crowded by them. If I go this route, can you point me to some threads or resources on how to go about doing this?

 

if you're looking to transplant it i would chisel a portion of the base of the rock rather than cut it.

 

I don't think that's going to be possible for me. I'd like to attempt this without having to actually remove the rocks. Last time I moved my rocks my tank was not too happy with me.

 

you could cut thru the base (use a very sturdy kitchen shears-type of scissor) but that would be my last option. the sarcos appear to be massive base-types (i think the green is an s. ehrenbergi [nice specimen!], not sure on the one on the right though - could also be an ehren i'd have to see more of it) and those aren't very conducive to a stem/stalk horizontal cut.

 

a vertical cut (cutting down to split it in mirro halves or quadrants) is more doable but again a bit too invasive imo for the situation.

 

hth

 

hmm, after looking at the smaller closeup pics, i guess you could do the horizontal cut on the ehrenbergi (and maybe the other one too). both are stretching to get out from under the neighbors so they have a extended stalk more conducive to that kind of cut.

 

again, it's tricky cut in that it's a major operation cutting deep into the body mass.

 

a quick lobe cut/pruning is much less stressful on the corals and system. jmo

 

The one on the right is actually attached to a smaller rock that I could remove all together. I like the rock that it's attached to, but it's not imperative that I keep this rock. Would of been nice though as it has some gsp and other cool stuff growing on it and the shape worked really well. But I can always get a new rock. The other one (green one), will have to be removed from the rock. As it's attached to the two main rocks that make up 80% of the display.

 

If I did go with the horizontal cut on the green one. Will it grow another head from what is left attached to the rock? Or will I need to scrape/remove what's left on the rock off?

 

tinyreef, thank you for your response. You have been very helpful!

[tinyreef]

you could horizontal cut the green one and it should grow another new head eventually.

 

i have to be upfront with you on this, i'm pretty sure that green one is an sarcophyton ehrenbergi. it's considered a fairly rare and beautiful coral, i.e. $$$. you can either 'lobe cut' it piece by piece and get income that way or sell it en masse for a good chunk of bling imho.

 

personally, i'd leave it alone and let it mature and hope it spawns. just for the event itself for me. i doubt it'll fertilize or be fertilized by the other, more due to timing than incapability (just my personal theory on their reproduction though).

 

you can practice lobe cutting on big terrestrial mushrooms or even pizza pies. i find that the pizza dough/crust is actually very similar to the resistance you'll encounter (on average) cutting the cap/lobe of the sarco. twisting the circular pie shape also lets you practice what kind of frag shape you'll be aiming for. it's not identical but pretty close imo. just don't use the same kitchen shears.

 

btw, your tank won't be happy with any cut/fragging you do so make sure you can waterchange immediately after operating inside the tank. i prefer to do any such operations outside the tank (via submerged transfer) that way i can toss most the affected water and the orignal tank doesn't suffer as much body fluid/coral farting.

 

check out the aquaculturing forum here, search around for some of the described methodologies/techniques. if this is one of your first attempts, i would definitely recommend the lobe cut and practice prior to the actual attempt. also read up and prepping the equipment beforehand. hth

[flluke]

i have to be upfront with you on this, i'm pretty sure that green one is an sarcophyton ehrenbergi. it's considered a fairly rare and beautiful coral, i.e. $$$. you can either 'lobe cut' it piece by piece and get income that way or sell it en masse for a good chunk of bling imho.

 

wow, i didn't know that I love the coral, but I was reading if they get crowded they can give off harmful stuff which might not be so good for my tank? And if you look at the pic, it's kinda crowded between the glass and rock. Maybe I can move some rocks around to give it some more room, that's an idea. And if you don't mind me asking, how much would a piece like this go for?

 

personally, i'd leave it alone and let it mature and hope it spawns. just for the event itself for me. i doubt it'll fertilize or be fertilized by the other, more due to timing than incapability (just my personal theory on their reproduction though).

 

That would def be cool to watch How much bigger do you think this thing will get? I'd say the stem is like 3-4 inches long, and the top must be at least 6-8 inches wide (if it could spread out). right now it's between the glass and the rock.

 

After studying my tank some more, I think I could def move the rocks back to give it some more room. My main concern was crowding and it getting unhappy.

[tinyreef]

moving the corals around is good for contact concerns but sarcos are actually more chemical content concerned. so for them the need is to make sure the water content itself is relatively purified of offending compounds. that's why carbon filtration is often recommended.

 

price depends on the buyer. steve tyree sells some of his Tyree Limited Editions (LE) of this coral for obscene amounts. sorry, but that's how i see it. but i also don't begrudge him for it, people willingly shell out the money for it (it is a rare species afterall).

 

in fact, i just read of a very interesting and very rare (or at least not very common around the USA) completely lime green sarco being sold (by someone else, not tyree) at $200+ per 2" frag. so from that you can gauge somewhat your price targets. presentation and marketing also will help immensely, of course.

 

spawning events are very rare and it requires the coral to be sexually mature (despite the male coral's insistence). for sarcos maturation supposedly occurs at a very large size, e.g. around 7" girth at the stalk. this will likely vary with the species though as some sarcos are naturally/predominantly a girthy stalk or aka 'massive stalks', e.g. s. latum or s. nanwanensis. iirc, the typical timeframe stated for attaining such sizes (in the wild) is around 7~8 years. but i'm not sure if this is strictly an age or size condition. hth

[dferrari13]

Hey guys sorry to steal this post but I'm hoping someone will be able to respond to this since the last post was 2008 but I have a similar issue and my Toadstool leather Coral is embedded into pieces of rock in my tank and I really would not want to move either of these rocks so how can I remove it.... I don't feel like it is doing good anyway and probably won't survive so I would like to learn how to safely remove it