Yellow leather

[Bonster]

O.K. most of you know about my shopping spree on Saturday, here's the problem. My yellow leather doesn't look so good. It's not opening and the colour is fading. I talked to the guy at the lfs and he assured me it was not difficult to keep. He lied!! After more research I have found that it is mostly referred to as expert only. Let me tell you I'm no expert!! Never trust guys at lfs!! Anyway this baby cost me $60.00 and if anyone has any advise as to how to keep it alive please let me know. Everything else is doing great. Thanks

P.S. I have it placed high middle tank. I dose with coral vite once a week.

[printerdown01]

Most leathers are VERY easy to keep! What do you have Sarco. elegans? This is yellow, and sometimes has a VERY hard time dealing with shipping and new tanks! Also the comment "the color is fading" conserns me a bit... Can you elaborate? How "yellow" is yellow... are we talking like neon yellow here (dye)...?

[tinyreef]

i'm assuming it's a sarco elegans, yellow leather from your 'expert' description. the other difficult ones aren't really yellow.

 

s. elegans needs high light requirements and decent water flow imo. (3"~4" per sec.) i'd recommend 5w/gal at NO at least. they seem to like daylight spectrum more imo but i always run actinic supplements anyway, whether i'm running 10K's or lower.

 

also i've always dosed iodine and iodide (KI) in my tanks for their benefit. coral vite has a little KI as i remember but you should get the Tech I or their iodide supplement at least imo.

[Bonster]

I never thought about dye!!! I hope not!!! It was only described as a yellow leather. It looks like my toadstool only a bit chunkier with a shorter stalk. It was banana yellow when I got it but now it's fading. I know this description sucks but it's the best I can do without a camera. Do you think they would actually admit it if they sold dyed corals? Also he was very rough taking it out of the tank. He just ripped it off the rock. Even left a bit behind. I should have known better.

[tinyreef]

HE RIPPED IT OFF?! hell's bells!

 

are you sure he ripped it totally off its base? they have a very strong grip. for the guy to really rip it off the coral would have 'gooshed' its inner liquids out in a cloudy mess from his grip on the leather alone besides the tear at the base. maybe it was just partly attached to another piece.

 

i don't think it's dyed. i don't believe you could overcome the typical beige s. trochelioporen(sp?) with enough dye to become a banana yellow. it'd have to be bleach white (dead) first imo.

 

what's your lighting and water parameters. elegans is unforgiving in its requirements (it sounds like one to me btw). is it getting mottled (brownish sections here and there)?

[Bonster]

Water parameters are perfect and lighting is 2x55 1 daylight 1 actinic. There was no gooshing when he ripped it off but he did leave a piece on the rock. Yes, it is going brown on the tips. Everything else in the tank is doing great. Am I going to lose this one? What now?

[BustytheSnowMaam]

Hi,

 

I bet that is really frustrating for you! Check out this guys's page

 

http://reef.esmartweb.com/softies.htm

 

His yellow sarcophyton is down at the bottom of the page, so scroll down. I think he may have had a similar experience to yours and he describes what he did.

 

Hope something helps- don't give up, it may just need to recover from shipping.

 

Tasha

[tinyreef]

i had to re-read your other post for timing and info. it's only been in your tank a day or so, so it may still just be acclimating itself. has it totally opened before in your tank or was it always closed up and shrunk?

 

where is the colt coral positioned in relation to the leather and what else do you have in the tank? where are they placed? you have it middle high but is it in very turbulent water or medium or low? are those percs bothering it or any hermits (if you have them)?

 

btw get some Tech I or other iodine supplement.

[Bonster]

Yes, it's only been in the tank since saturday and no it hasn't totally opened up since. I't's about 8 inches away from the colt. I also have musrooms and toadstool leather but none of these are close. The percs to my knowledge have never even bothered with it. I haven't seen anything bothering it. The water current there is about medium. Should I add Tech 1 as well as coral vite or instead of?

Thanks

[tinyreef]

i dose with coral vite. i try to dose in smaller proportions more frequently rather than on a weekly basis. i bought a bunch of dropper bottles from a lab supply place just for that reason. (calculated the amounts per drop~weeks~gallons~recommended dosages and so on)

 

if the leather is downstream from the colt i would move one or the other (or switch places). other than that and the iodine/iodide dosing i'd leave the leather alone for a few more days at least to let it acclimate to your tank, i.e. water parameters, lights, dynamics (photoperiod & water movement), and inhabitants.

 

if the brown spots deteriorate into black necrotic areas (as that link noted) i'd then snip them off with a scissor. ONLY if they get to that point tho. i don't think it'll be necessary tho. i don't believe it's a shipping trauma from your description of the coral and the lfs story.

 

btw that link also recommends dipping, i'm not one to recommend dipping, too traumatic for the coral imo. i think the iodine will be sufficient imo. just my $0.02