Splitting/disintegrating Toadstool Leather (sarcophyton)

[thefirethief]

Good afternoon all. Over the last week or so I've noticed a few small 1cm (ish) chunks breaking free from my Toadstool Leather and the entire thing seems to be splitting down the middle. I've tried to do a bit of research without much luck, I did find out that sick Toadstool leathers often become 'cheesy' in texture when exposed to pollutants, however that's not the most descriptive way of identifying whether that's the problem or not.

It appears to be otherwise healthy with polyps extended 90% of the time, this wasn't always the case however a change of water flow solves the problem. The bits that have fallen off seem to be healthy too with good polyp extension. Water param's are all the norm. Only change over the last month has been the weekly addition of Calcium, Magnesium and Buffer Solution.

Any ideas?

 

[SkiFletch]

Huh, don't see this often for sure. What are the other fish in the tank? And you mentioned the split off parts are surviving with good PE? Is that still the case or do they wither away and die eventually?

 

[Lynden]

I had this happen to my largest Sarcophyton and I just grabbed a good pair of scissors and sliced the new growth off. I later tied it to a rock, and it now lives in the twenty gallon tank, and is growing nicely. Sarcos are very hardy corals (hardier than most fish in my opinion) and can withstand heavy fragging (the exception of course is S. elegans). Yours may simply be dropping off some tissue to both colonize new areas and to prepare to take on another, more ruffled shape. Mine looked to be splitting in half for a while, but the "crack" simply became another ruffle.

 

[thefirethief]

Huh, don't see this often for sure. What are the other fish in the tank? And you mentioned the split off parts are surviving with good PE? Is that still the case or do they wither away and die eventually?

Its a 30Gal and I've got 3 Bangaii Cardinals, a firefish, mandarin dragonet and a few hermit crabs. The bits that have fallen off have got good polyp extension throughout daylight hours and this has been the case since the first bit fell off about 2 weeks ago. As Lynden says, this might just be a natural colonization process?

I had this happen to my largest Sarcophyton and I just grabbed a good pair of scissors and sliced the new growth off. I later tied it to a rock, and it now lives in the twenty gallon tank, and is growing nicely. Sarcos are very hardy corals (hardier than most fish in my opinion) and can withstand heavy fragging (the exception of course is S. elegans). Yours may simply be dropping off some tissue to both colonize new areas and to prepare to take on another, more ruffled shape. Mine looked to be splitting in half for a while, but the "crack" simply became another ruffle.

That's good to hear, the mother coral does still seem to be healthy, I only noticed the cracks at night time when the polyps weren't out. I might just leave it to do its own thing, if the frags 'take root' anywhere in the tank it'll look quite natural.

 

[SkiFletch]

I like this plan