Fiji Leathers, What's the Trick?

[Kaiser Tang]

Anybody got a secret to keeping yellow fiji leathers and toadstool mushrooms? I've been very successful with LPS, Xenia, Zoas, Polyps, and Clams. I can't seem to keep the leathers though. Do they like lots of light? Do they like more nutrient rich water or nutrient poor water? Do they like a special kind of feeding. What's the key?

[Der_Iron_Chef]

I give mine lots of indirect flow and fairly high lighting. They shed that outer mucousy layer every so often, so flow seems to be important to keeping them happy. I have never fed mine anything, and if I had to guess, I would say they prefer a more nutrient-rich environment. Mine is (a nutrient rich environment), and both of my toadstools are b-e-a-utiful :)

[Candi]

Not sure what the secret is, my neon green toadstool came to me the size of a pinky finger nail, it's far bigger then my hand with all fingers stretched out now less then a year later. That said, the larger sized yellow leather frag I had barely hung on for a few months and then melted away... very sad!

[Kaiser Tang]

I'm thinking that is has to do with the light. I know xenia loves intense light. I have all my LPS at the bottom of my tank, but my xenia loves to be at the top right under the 400 watt halide. I think that the leathers are the same way. Can anybody confirm this?

[AquaKnight]

The some leathers don't have to have bright light. I have my toadstool down in the sand of my 29gal w/only 130watts of PC. And it's doing great, was a tiny nickel sized frag, and now it's over a half dollar in diameter.

I would not try a yellow fiji without bright light. I recently attempted a nice piece, but it did nothing but slowly wither away. With my success with the toadstool and xenia, I can only atest it to lack of lighting.

[Kaiser Tang]

Interesting. My Xenia, both regular and Pom Pom, only do well if they are right at the surface and right under my halides.

[Rouselb]

I have a yellow fiji and a toadstool, and i have to have both of em right in front of my PH. Both are about mid way up in the tank, im running (3)250 HQI DE MH, and (4) T5s actinic plus. If i move them out of the main flow from a PH they both close right up. Lots of flow, and give em a day or two to open.

[m2434]

Super toxic corals I think. I've heard they can be tough to keep and from my experience, If they die can do strange things to your chemistry. My tank was thriving and I bought one; within days it died and and everything crashed. It took months to get things going good again, even though my parameters were perfect! I'll never keep one again.

[jpitts101]

hey kaiser, I have your frags ready if you still want them. I think you will have luck with mine being they are about 10th generation. I have them both on the sandbed ( 30 inch tank ) and they are doing great and always have. let me know if you still want them. I made 3 of the neon green and one of the supposdidy "rare" maroon. let me know!

[tmz]

Many toadstools are very hardy and tolerant of lower light. All need flow. The yellow (sacrophyton elegans) is trickier than the rest. While all need high flow this one also needs high light and exceptional water quality in my experience. Blowing them off once in a while with a turey baster helps too.

[Misled]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10828413#post10828413 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by tmz
While all need high flow this one also needs high light and exceptional water quality in my experience.

All this I agree with. I don't blow mine off but it is in a very high flow area. The other trouble with these is getting a healthy one. When buying look for PE(polyp extension) and brilliant yellow color. When they are "sheeding" the color may dull a bit, but should still be consistant throughout. If it passes both of these hold it up close to the light,( still underwater). You should be able to see the light through it without seeing dark shadows. The dark shadows can be a fungus growing within the stalk. It will kill it from the inside. I've tried even fraging those with very little luck. With a healthy one, they tend to be a fairly easy coral to keep.

[TonyOrlando]

Yep have to agree with the majority. A nice flow and lots of light, mine is on the bottom about 2inches of sand. Its a yellow fiji, and it is very healthy and growing very nice. I would say that even though lighting and flow is important, the tank needs to be stable. Once i stabalized my parameters everything is just poppin with colors and growing very nice. I have SPS, LPS, leathers, clam, and zoos.

[nlmotoring]

I also had lots of trouble with the yellow leather. I tired it in different places but it was never happy. Everthing else in the tank seemed ok though.

[tmz]

One other poin on the yellow toadstool(sacrophyton elegans). They don't seem to tolerate much touching and moving.

[Kaiser Tang]

jpitts101 pm sent.

[jpitts101]

your box is full kaiser.

[Kaiser Tang]

hmmm. I don't know what the deal is. There were only three messages in there. I cleared them out. I guess try again. I'll go ahead and pm you my e-mail, so if it doesn't work, you can just e-mail me.

[jpitts101]

go to your outbox and clear them too.

[Ehaze]

my yellow leather started turning brown for about 2 weeks (i just bought it), then i work up one day and put it infront of a 800GPH powerhead and now it huge, and growing..