Pyjama Cardinal Pair Irritating Toadstool?

[cuticom]

I have two pyjama cardinals that have paired off, I've caught one with a mouth full of eggs once before and there always together, so I'm assuming there a breeding pair.... I'm not fussed about breeding them, there in my display tank so I've just been ignoring it...

I recently added a large toadstool in, when fully extended it's about a foot in diameter, it fully extends in the morning when the halide turns on and at night just before it switches off, the rest of the time the cardinals are hovering over the top of it, like only a few cm's above it... Which of course makes the leather retract its polyps and shrink...

Any ideas what's up with that? I'm certain I read they were mouth brooders, so what's with their interest in the leather? The leather is absolutely gorgeous and I would prefer to see it extended all the time...

Any ideas?

 

[SkiFletch]

In the wild, Cardinals will generally gravitate towards long-spined urchins. Sometimes in an aquarium scenario where no such urchin is around, they will pick another organism with longer thin tentacles. A leather is not out of the question. The leather is probably reacting to the cardinal's touch and/or blocking of the light from above. Tough to say if this will be aproblem longterm as leathers are hardy...

 

[cuticom]

Okay, well I'll leave it for now, if they annoy it too much will move them to my Fish Only tank, though really they could ahve picked the sun coral or something, that doesn't mind being touched.