What is on this leather? Pics....

[TriniStylez]

I have no idea what this is...This toadstool has not extended its polyps in two days and has this kind of "yellowish" "something" all over it. Seems to come off if I scrap it off but I don't want to do that until I have an idea of what it is. The first day I noticed this stuff, the toadstool did open up its polyps and released its mucus, I guess to try to get rid of this stuff but it seems that since that didnt work, its just decided to stay closed.

Anyways, here it is...

Kind of hard to see in this pic but I figured people would ask whats around it...And no, the torch cannot touch it at all. The picture is very deceiving. The toadstool is way closer to the front of the tank than the torch. Man I hate the shadow that the center brace casts...sorry off topic.
http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r179/Justinpsmith/DSCN2350.jpg

Close up
http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r179/Justinpsmith/DSCN2356.jpg

[deuce6371]

Looks like stings from the torch. Although you think that it is far enough from it, they can produce sweeper tentacles a foot long. Come in late night with a flashlight and check it may be sweeper tentacles.

[fraggin]

looks to me like you have 3 leathers closed up at moment. did you do something to the tank or in it working?

[TriniStylez]

Oh...the others have just closed because I was in my tank trying to see what this stuff was. They were fine earlier. I will have to watch the torch tonight and see if it reaches the leather. I have seen it some nights and it actually gets smaller but I dont watch it all night.

[Roy G. Biv]

Looks like Neo's face when his face got burned by Smith.

[TriniStylez]

Hahahaha!

[Frick-n-Frags]

it might just be shedding. they shut down periodically and slough off an old layer. sarcos and lobos both commonly do it.

[AquaReeferMan]

Sorry this is off topic but nice Green Spotted Puffer. I used to have 4 of them. My 2 largest were about 5 inches. How is it doing with the coral? Do you have any clean-up crew or shrimp with it?

[TriniStylez]

He is about 4 inches and still growing. So far its been almost a year and he and the other puffer are both very well behaved. Never seen them touch a coral. I also have hermit crabs, which have mostly all survived him. He used to pick at them but they would hide and he could never get them out of their shell, so he gave up. He just swims right by them now. I was lucky with him. I have had him for about two years now since he was a tiny little guy in freshwater. He was acclimated to marine over a year. Again, lucky that he doesnt care about the corals at all.

No shrimp though, I think thats pushing it! Although I have a red sea star and he leaves that alone too for some reason.

[TriniStylez]

I find that the Valentini Puffer is a bit more "nippy" with things in the tank but like the Green Spotted Puffer, he leaves corals alone. I had some macro algae in the tank like sea ferns but those didnt last long! I woke up one morning and it was floating in a million pieces!

My thing with this tank is that it has become a small reef tank but its a puffer tank FIRST and if they decide to eat the corals than they can be my guest! I would never get ****ed at them for doing what comes naturally to them, especially when I put them in a tank with corals.

[TriniStylez]

Oh and I also have mushrooms in my bigger tank which is home to a Stars and Stripes Puffer. He eats them all the time when hes hungry but they seem to grow back all over the place in a month or so...Maybe because he spits them out all over!

[TriniStylez]

Heres some better pics of him.

http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r179/Justinpsmith/DSCN2368.jpg

http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r179/Justinpsmith/DSCN2362.jpg

[TriniStylez]

Anyone else know anything about the leather though? Sorry this got WAYYYY off track!

[TriniStylez]

This stuff on the leather seems to come off easily if I gently scrape it. Should I do that or just leave it? Seems a bit worse today.

[Amphiprion]

Try getting a bit more water flow to the coral. It looks like detritus and other debris that have settled on the coral and are caught in the mucus. That is one of the major reasons why they shed.

[TriniStylez]

Ok, I will try for more flow I guess. It actually gets quite a bit where it is...I already have about 38x flow in this tank and this leather is in a "high" flow area but I will try to find a place even closer to a powerhead of something.