Fiji Yellow Splitting, or Unhappy?

[banasophia]

Hi Everyone, 

 

I’ve had this Fiji yellow leather for about 6 weeks now. It came with a small baby on the rock which I fragged and rehomed since I don’t have much space for two. Anyway, for the past 1-2 weeks part has been shriveled looking with only minimal polyp extension. (The shriveled part is about the size of the baby it came with.)  For those of you with experience with Fiji yellows, does it look like it’s going to split, or do you think it’s unhappy and I should do something different like move it? 

 

Thanks!

[dferrari13]

Mine gets like that from time to time but it always seems to bounce back... yellow fiji leathers are very very hardy....hows your water parameters?

[banasophia]

1 hour ago, dferrari13 said:

Mine gets like that from time to time but it always seems to bounce back... yellow fiji leathers are very very hardy....hows your water parameters?

Thanks, that’s reassuring. Here are my parameters from yesterday, right before my water change:

SG  1.026  Milwaukee

pH  7.8  Hanna

Ammonia 0  API

Nitrites  0  API

Nitrates 20. API

Alkalinity 6.8  Hanna

Phosphate  0.193 Hanna

Calcium  490  Hanna

 

Those pH and Alk levels are low, but I’m not 100% sure they are accurate yet, as they were testing in more normal ranges before (pH 8.2 and dKH 10 last week using my API test kits)... just got Hanna checkers yesterday, so I’m not sure if these results are user error since it was my first time using the checkers, or if my parameters are off. 

 

Will be retesting today using both API and Hanna to check for accuracy first, then taking action as needed. But the issue with the Fiji yellow started when my parameters were within normal limits.

[Lugmos12]

Sometimes they do that to she the outer layer of skin. Mine do that every now and then.

[dferrari13]

17 minutes ago, banasophia said:

Thanks, that’s reassuring. Here are my parameters from yesterday, right before my water change:

SG  1.026  Milwaukee

pH  7.8  Hanna

Ammonia 0  API

Nitrites  0  API

Nitrates 20. API

Alkalinity 6.8  Hanna

Phosphate  0.193 Hanna

Calcium  490  Hanna

 

Those pH and Alk levels are low, but I’m not 100% sure they are accurate yet, as they were testing in more normal ranges before (pH 8.2 and dKH 10 last week using my API test kits)... just got Hanna checkers yesterday, so I’m not sure if these results are user error since it was my first time using the checkers, or if my parameters are off. 

 

Will be retesting today using both API and Hanna to check for accuracy first, then taking action as needed. But the issue with the Fiji yellow started when my parameters were within normal limits.

I dose kalkwasser in my auto top off (one teaspoon for each gallon) to maintain proper alk and ph.....really easy to do....but a soft coral like the fiji leather should be able to endure fluctuations of chemicals/ph/alk/elements

[banasophia]

27 minutes ago, Lugmos12 said:

Sometimes they do that to she the outer layer of skin. Mine do that every now and then.

Thanks! How long does it usually take yours to go through the shedding process? 

[banasophia]

9 minutes ago, dferrari13 said:

I dose kalkwasser in my auto top off (one teaspoon for each gallon) to maintain proper alk and ph.....really easy to do....but a soft coral like the fiji leather should be able to endure fluctuations of chemicals/ph/alk/elements

Thanks, I will look into that. May be switching water soon, so perhaps that will resolve the issue. 

 

Love your tank, btw, is that an IM Fusion 10?

[dferrari13]

Just now, banasophia said:

Thanks, I will look into that. May be switching water soon, so perhaps that will resolve the issue. 

 

Love your tank, btw, is that an IM Fusion 10?

Thanks....Yup fusion 10....i use carib sea "sea-pure"....its pre mixed cuz I'm lazy lol but even the salt water I use has a low alk ....so im always fighting low alk with kalkwasser

[Lugmos12]

14 hours ago, banasophia said:

Thanks! How long does it usually take yours to go through the shedding process? 

the longest it took one was about 2 weeks. I was losing my mind waiting 😂

[banasophia]

4 hours ago, Lugmos12 said:

the longest it took one was about 2 weeks. I was losing my mind waiting 😂

Yes, I hope mine will be okay...

[Lugmos12]

is that your tank in your avatar? it looks great. make a journal!

[banasophia]

7 minutes ago, Lugmos12 said:

is that your tank in your avatar? it looks great. make a journal!

It is, thanks. ☺️ I’ve never felt like a good journaler, but maybe I’ll give it a shot! 🙂 

[Clown79]

Leathers are funny corals.

 

They react to anything, waterchanges, moving them, being touched, and then their normal waxing over and looking like death itself.

 

They are very hardy. The waxing over can last for days. I've had one take weeks to open.

 

When they start going brown or you see white areas that are mushy- then you have an issue.

 

Yellow Fiji are my fav, not easy to come by!

 

You can eventually frag it and make money or trade.

[banasophia]

2 hours ago, Clown79 said:

Leathers are funny corals.

 

They react to anything, waterchanges, moving them, being touched, and then their normal waxing over and looking like death itself.

 

They are very hardy. The waxing over can last for days. I've had one take weeks to open.

 

When they start going brown or you see white areas that are mushy- then you have an issue.

 

Yellow Fiji are my fav, not easy to come by!

 

You can eventually frag it and make money or trade.

Yes, I really love Fiji yellows. I wish I’d kept the baby that came with this one.

 

When I got it, it had a small green mossy looking thing at the base that I thought was just a little piece of moss-like algae, but turned out to be (I think) a tunicate... I removed it after the leather started shriveling 2 weeks ago...  not sure if it was in any way related to the shriveling. 

 

I sure hope it bounces back! 

[banasophia]

Okay, mystery solved, looks like I have a fat little nudibranch that’s been feasting on my Fiji yellow. 

[banasophia]

[1891Bro]

50 minutes ago, banasophia said:

Okay, mystery solved, looks like I have a fat little nudibranch that’s been feasting on my Fiji yellow. 

Nice catch. How’d you find it?

[Christopher Marks]

Holy moly talk about camouflage, what a sneaky lil bugger! A fiji yellow nudibranch 😅

 

I had heard many coral eating nudibranchs match their 'victims' really well. Good find @banasophia!

[banasophia]

4 hours ago, 1891Bro said:

Nice catch. How’d you find it?

 

54 minutes ago, Christopher Marks said:

Holy moly talk about camouflage, what a sneaky lil bugger! A fiji yellow nudibranch 😅

 

I had heard many coral eating nudibranchs match their 'victims' really well. Good find @banasophia!

 

Yeah, that little guy was so hard to see, even when I was looking right at him. I took my coral out to dip it and examine it before moving it to a spot with different light and flow. At first I thought I was just debriding dead tissue, but then this little piece was a bit suspicious looking, and then when I picked it off it clung to the forceps and started to move. 😯😬 I hope there aren’t any more. 🤞🤞🤞

 

Now I’m trying to adjust to the new look of my tank since I moved the Fiji yellow to a new spot for it to heal and I went out and picked out some new additions to fill its old spot... just doesn’t look right to me yet, but maybe it will be nice when everything opens up. 😊

[banasophia]

Well apparently my rock flower anemone likes my new tank arrangement, even though I’m still deciding. He has been hiding underneath my large RFA for about two weeks, and I’ve been worried about him... he finally reappeared in a spot between two of my torches that I glued down yesterday. 

[Christopher Marks]

Little rock flower anemone, just taking a tour of the new neighborhood 😆. Must be the new flow has roused it. Hopefully the torch coral don't mind the visit!

 

How is the yellow leather looking today?

[banasophia]

4 hours ago, Christopher Marks said:

Little rock flower anemone, just taking a tour of the new neighborhood 😆. Must be the new flow has roused it. Hopefully the torch coral don't mind the visit!

 

How is the yellow leather looking today?

Yes, I was so happy when I saw the little RFA... figured it would need to come out of hiding soon for food and light or it wouldn’t make it. 

 

Thanks for asking... I think its it’s still too soon to say for the Fiji yellow, maybe a little better today... I hope there aren’t any more nudibranchs, or eggs. Its new location makes it easier to visualize the underside, so hopefully I’ll be able to detect others more quickly. 

[banasophia]

Haha he’s on the move, who knows where he’ll be in the morning!

[Gyu ri]

 

I totally agree with this opinion

 

"Leathers are funny corals.

They react to anything, waterchanges, moving them, being touched, and then their normal waxing over and looking like death itself."

 

haha.

 

Yesterday, I bought a long-tip leather and it's my first leather.

I like leather not that much so far, but I want to know about leather.

now the shape is... funny.

As I know, the alk is very important to leather.

hopefully your leather looks better!