Yellow Fiji Leather coral

[cosmopolitician]

Hello. My name is Anita & I live in southern California. I have a 50 g acrylic tank (system 2), that will eventually be a seahorse tank (from ocean rider). Anyways, it's 6 m/o & I'm just adding corals to it. so far all my corals are from Live Aquaria...it's been fine except w/one coral... the Yellow Fiji Leather.

This is my second time trying the Yellow Fiji Leather coral. The first time I got it, when it arrived, there was a brown growth that spread. I called Live Aquaria & they said 1) that it's a poor shipper and 2) to cut off the infected area & do an iodine dip, but it grew quickly and & consumed probably 80% the coral by the next day. So, I just disposed of it because I didn't think cutting off almost the entire coral would have helped much. So, Live Aquaria has a 14 day warantee on all corals, they sent me a replacement a few weeks later when it came back in stock.

This time it had no brown stuff on it, I drip acclimated it for 3 hours (it arrived March 10th). The next day it stood straight up & it had ruffles, just like it's supposed to be (see picture on the Live Aquaria website), but the polyps weren't out. I called Live Aquaria & they said that the polyps not being out is normal & it'll take a few weeks to fully adjust. Then on Sunday (3/12) the brown stuff appeared. I told them that last time they suggested that I cut off the infected area & do an iodine dip, but this time they said not to do that because it's a soft coral & it is too sensitive. This time they told me to scrub it off with my fingers everyday. So, I did that & the next day the brown stuff came back & it came back the following days despite me trying to scrub it off with my hands. During this whole process I was actually calling them 2-3 times a day, & I sent pictures-so they are probably sick of me now. A few days later parts of the coral started breaking off when I rubbed it, so I would stop. Live Aquaria said that I should cut the infected areas off, but no iodine dip still.

It lost all pigment. Now it's getting some bright yellow pigment back, but it looks like a tree stump-there's not much of it left. Yeah, of course I would like to do whatever I can to help, but I'm doubting if any of it is really working. Right now all I have in my tank are snails (margarita, nerite & red foot moon snails), 2 gorgonians, mushrooms, shaving brush, yellow polyps, green-polyp toadstool leather(from the same order), I'm concerned if this is affecting them. However, my 14-day warantee ends this Thursday (3/23), and Live Aquaria will automatically re-ship the coral if it's in stock (which it probably will be). I need to tell them by then if I want them to change it to credit on file, but I don't know what to say because I'm not sure what the future of this coral is. Since the brown stuff appeared, I've run tests everyday, & it's always been 0 for ammonia, nitrites, nitrates and 1.025 specific gravity, and 8.2 pH. So, I don't know what I'm doing wrong.

Here's the link for the coral on Live Aquaria: http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/....cfm?pCatId=651 (medium)

Here is a picture on my website. Sorry, I couldn't figure out how to put it in this email. It is a few days after I got it when the brown stuff had spread a lot. http://photos.yahoo.com/cosmo_chica, it's in the album "new tank" & the picture is called "coral with more brown stuff"

-All suggestions are appreciated!!!

Thanks, Anita

[DJ88©]

[moved]

[Electrobes]

Hmm okay this is what I think. I have a many leathers including the yellow toadstool and have dealt with brown jelly disease rarely.

The diea that soft corals are sesitive may be true here and there but just to inform you... often times poeple cut the heads off these things just to propogate them! Cutting off a part of the leather won't do much to it, but the iodine dip is very accurate in dis-infecting the coral. Brown jelly is pretty native to soft corals... but I wouldn;t worry too much if it got to the other corals.. it's surprisingly easy to fix. It's just as live aquaria says.. cut that part off (outside of the tank not inside) and iodine dip it. I would do a water change after that just because the toxins of the stressed coral will be in the tank and tick off the others.

The fact that the polyps aren't out for leathers is a VERY common thing. Sometimes it won't show for months (which sucks but it happens). Keep a look out for the corals but try not to stick your hands in there too often.. it will stress the corals (not murderous or anything). Yellow Fiji Leathers shouldn't be this hard to keep, but I should tell you they perfer medium flow, as do most corals.

I am a bit worried that you want to make a sea horse tank with a reef tank... I would seriously ask around before sticking anymore corals in. You could also try seahorse.org... there is a ton of info on seahorses and the people there can help you more specifically. Good luck! Welcome to the Reefcentral!

[cosmopolitician]

Oh no, the Yellow Fiji is likely to be the last thing I add. I just liked it becaues it's bright yellow. And, I know seahorses tend change to the color of their environment. Anyways, I think I'll just move it back up to it's orginal place, I have T5 lights. It was in a middle-to-high position before Live Aquaria told me to move it to the bottom to help it adjust.

-Thanks, Anita

[marie]

They also like lots of water flow. I had mine (before I moved it into the big tank) about 8" away and in direct line of a maxijet 1200. Since I've moved it, it is no longer in direct water flow and the polyps aren't coming out much anymore.

[MiddletonMark]

Often for a new coral, placement in lower light for the first week or so is ideal.

In my experience, I've found this to be a fussy coral that seems to prefer a lot more flow [and somewhat light] than your `average' toadstool. When in my softie tank, it never thrived, had poor polyp extension, etc.
Put in my high light/flow stony coral tank, it's thrived.

For a soft coral, IMO these are fairly difficult and seem to do best with very good water quality.

I'd echo the cutting/dipping advice above - except for the Iodine, it's how I propagate these sort of corals.

I'd also echo the comments about whether these corals and the seahorses will allow you to keep both happy long-term. I'm not the seahorse expert, but it seems like at least a couple of these corals might not thrive in conditions which would suit the seahorses.

[cosmopolitician]

My water quality is good, I used mixed saltwater set to 1.025 & all my water parameters are normal. Why isn't the Yellow Fiji good for seahorses?

-Anita

[marie]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6996503#post6996503 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by cosmopolitician
My water quality is good, I used mixed saltwater set to 1.025 & all my water parameters are normal. Why isn't the Yellow Fiji good for seahorses?

-Anita

I think mostly because the leather needs more water flow then the seahorses can handle

[MiddletonMark]

Yup, it wants more flow than seahorses want [maybe by a bunch].

As well as mine seems to thrive only when my water quality is pristine - and regular feeding of live foods [or phyto for your gorgonia] will make it much harder to provide enough food for them without compromising water quality for the leather.

Just my opinion - others will disagree, might have totally different experience I dunno.