Yellow Toadstool Leather - need help!

[oldss72]

Hello,

I have had a yellow toadstool leather in my tank for about 2 years now. It started about 2" tall, and 1" across the top, and now is ~7" tall and when fully expanded ~5-6" across. on Monday it shed a layer, as usual. Tuesday, it was open and looked good.

Yesterday it was not open, and I noticed what looked like detritus sitting on the crown in the center of the stalk. I blew it off, and found 2 small holes ~3mm in diameter. I immediately started doing research, and read about rapa rapa snails that can burrow and aggressive bristle worms that can do the same. After the lights were off I searched with a flashlight, but saw nothing.

Today, after returning from work there are 3 holes, all about the same diameter!

Anyone know what is going on with my leather? I have several other leathers in the tank, (rose leather, long tenticle toadstool, devils hand and colt) including a baby of this yellow toadstool. Should I do an Iodine dip? Should I cut it open and search for snails/worms? I have attached a photo. My parameters seem pretty good: Alk 8.9, ph, 8.0, nitrate ~20 (higher than I want, working on this), calcium 480, mg 1390, salinity 1.026, temp. 78.

Thanks for your help!

The

[LouisianaReefer]

I looked up some stuff on toadstools a while back on www.garf.org. Their website seems to be tanking. Many links do not work. Anyway, the elegans type of toadstool leathers are more delicate than others. The folks at GARF had special way of dealing with them. You may want to give them Sally Jo a call if you can get them on the phone. Sometimes this is hard to do yet her advice is free. She may respond to an email at pollywog.cableone.net