Should I move this leather coral?

laguest · 10/03/2017, 06:04 PM

This is my 1st leather coral. I put it in 4 days ago in this spot, now that it is fully open and looking good it is very close to the rock to its left, like within ¼ of an inch.

Should I move it so it does not brush against the rock?
Thanks

der_wille_zur_macht · 10/03/2017, 06:05 PM

It'll let you know if it's unhappy about any contact with rock. Personally, I would not worry unless I saw signs of distress.

Those corals will bud like crazy. I've had them drop buds where they rubbed against rockwork. This may end up being a good thing for you.

Uncle99 · 10/05/2017, 12:10 PM

Agreed, these are hardy corals, less the touch, better the coral, especially when it looks good with polyps extended.

Dropped one once on the floor. Still alive today!

slay · 10/05/2017, 02:01 PM

After moving (back - my 180 was custom built in the early 2000s) to a 180 from the 75 that got me back into the reefing hobby (I was never out of SW, just had a fish only/predator phase), I decided to create out of my 75g what I'd call a 'near' instant gratification tank, based on my experience - and I went on the cheap side. No, not GSP and Xenia, but other softies and lots of leathers! I refitted the 75 as a holding tank for my then in progress 180 to just another tank on my "reef" system and kept a few corals I didn't want in my 180 (namely a bright green sinularia).

So, it's still a work in progress that really needs to fill out, but I thought hmmm, maybe I could make a wonderful display 75 that stars different quick growing soft corals - something that takes a year to fill out and entire tank instead of five or more.

The point of this story is, for this thread's purposes, that leathers and softies are so adaptable and so forgiving that they won't care about growing into some measly rocks - they'll grow onto, over and past those rocks!

They will grow like crazy in whatever way suits them best, but at the same time they will give very little care to their surroundings. I agree with the guy with the German name and a lot of posts (LOL!), maybe my leathers and softies have actually multiplied best when they have faced such a situation. In fact, I find that my green Sinularia seems to spread best this way, so to control it, I buy the $1-2 a pound reef rubble live rock and then let it move onto that. Once those colonies grow out, I sell them for $25 store credit at my LFS. I'm actually quite a reluctant fragger, but still I'm not a stranger to bringing in corals for LFS credit. I've had lots of corals propagate this way.

10/03/2017, 06:05 PM	#2
der_wille_zur_macht Team RC Member Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: NY Posts: 17,749	It'll let you know if it's unhappy about any contact with rock. Personally, I would not worry unless I saw signs of distress. Those corals will bud like crazy. I've had them drop buds where they rubbed against rockwork. This may end up being a good thing for you. __________________ Inconveniencing marine life since 1992 "It is my personal belief that reef aquaria should be thriving communities of biodiversity, representative of their wild counterparts, and not merely collections of pretty specimens growing on tidy clean rock shelves covered in purple coralline algae." (Eric Borneman)

10/05/2017, 02:01 PM	#4
slay Registered Member Join Date: Dec 2002 Posts: 118	After moving (back - my 180 was custom built in the early 2000s) to a 180 from the 75 that got me back into the reefing hobby (I was never out of SW, just had a fish only/predator phase), I decided to create out of my 75g what I'd call a 'near' instant gratification tank, based on my experience - and I went on the cheap side. No, not GSP and Xenia, but other softies and lots of leathers! I refitted the 75 as a holding tank for my then in progress 180 to just another tank on my "reef" system and kept a few corals I didn't want in my 180 (namely a bright green sinularia). So, it's still a work in progress that really needs to fill out, but I thought hmmm, maybe I could make a wonderful display 75 that stars different quick growing soft corals - something that takes a year to fill out and entire tank instead of five or more. The point of this story is, for this thread's purposes, that leathers and softies are so adaptable and so forgiving that they won't care about growing into some measly rocks - they'll grow onto, over and past those rocks! They will grow like crazy in whatever way suits them best, but at the same time they will give very little care to their surroundings. I agree with the guy with the German name and a lot of posts (LOL!), maybe my leathers and softies have actually multiplied best when they have faced such a situation. In fact, I find that my green Sinularia seems to spread best this way, so to control it, I buy the $1-2 a pound reef rubble live rock and then let it move onto that. Once those colonies grow out, I sell them for $25 store credit at my LFS. I'm actually quite a reluctant fragger, but still I'm not a stranger to bringing in corals for LFS credit. I've had lots of corals propagate this way. __________________ 180 mixed soft/lps/sps reef, 75 sump. Radeon XR30w G3 Pros,MP40qdx2, Vectra return, Reeflink, SRO-3000 skimmer, UV/calcium reactor/carbon/gfo. 480 predator, two cat sharks. 18" lionfish & friends. Last edited by slay; 10/05/2017 at 02:14 PM.

10/05/2017, 12:10 PM	#3
Uncle99 Crab Free Zone Join Date: Sep 2017 Location: Ontario, Canada Posts: 2,906	Agreed, these are hardy corals, less the touch, better the coral, especially when it looks good with polyps extended. Dropped one once on the floor. Still alive today!