Does this toadstool look healthy?

[t-dizzle]

Yipee! I got my very first corals today!

Now I can start worrying...

My very first one is a 3" toadstool leather (Sarcophyton?) I got from the LFS. After a good long acclimation, I placed it on the sand at the front of my aquarium where it seems to get a gentle flow. To my great relief, it started sprouting polyps almost immediately.

Would someone with more experience tell me whether this leather coral looks happy and healthy? Also, I'd appreciate any tips on growing this little coral all nice and fat!

Thanks!
T./

[L and L]

Congrats. This was one of my first corals as well... and I still have it. Bought it around 5" dia. and 4 years later it's around 20" dia. Looks good.

Sarcophyton sp. (toadstool leather) take nutrients straight through the seawater, are very hardy and can be grown under a variety of different lights.

From time to time, they will shed their skin. Don't worry about it. It's natural process.

A cool thing about this coral is that you can cut a piece off it (or cut the bottom of the base) and grow a entirely new coral.

The polyps will go in and out. When fully retracted, it looks like a baseball glove (very smooth). I'll bump it when I'm cleaning the glass and it will retract... but, come back out in a hour or so.

I have a false percula clownfish hosting this coral. It swims all around it in the polyps. I took a picture of it a few days ago... I'll post here soon.

Here's a macro shot of mine.



I would highly recommend you buy a Coral book. I like Aquarium Corals by Eric Borneman plus a few others... but, this is a good first book. Others I would recommend are:

The Reef Aquarium Volume 1 - Delbeek and Sprung
The Reef Aquarium Volume 2 - Delbeek and Sprung
Algae - Julian Sprung
Natural Reef Aquariums - John Tullock
The Conscientious Marine Aquarist - Robert Fenner

You say that you have the toadstool in sand. Is it connected to a live rock ... that is in the sand?

As far as getting good growth out of it... just get your reef tank w/ consistent water parameters. What exactly is your setup?

When I first added to my aquarium, it bleached (ie expelled it's zooxanthellae) and it looked like this.


But it came back to health in a few months. These are very hardy corals.

[L and L]

bleh. No need to describe your setup. It's right there under your sig. doh!

Water parameters consistency is the key. Salifert test kits are what I use (hrmmm or use to use... I don't test that often now). But, starting out I tested my water parameters around once a week.

[t-dizzle]

Layne,

Thanks for all the great info! Your toadstool has much nicer polyp extension than mine. I think my water params are pretty good (temp 78, ammonia and nitrite undetectable, nitrate 2.5, phosphate 0.015, pH 8.1, SG 1.025, alkalinity 8.3 dKH) and it's under 130 watts of PC lighting (daylight/actinic). How long before I can expect mine to have fully extended polyps like yours?

T./

[L and L]

You're water parameters look good and everything you have sounds good.

As far as polyps extension... hmmm, there are some +30 known species of Sarcophytons. I'm not sure if there are short polyp ones or long ones. Did you see it at the LFS will longer polyp extension (assuming that's where you got it from)?

Most likely it's just getting use to your tank and will get totally comfortable in a few weeks.

I finally got a full tank shot.



The sarcophyton on the right is a cutting that I took off the centerpiece parent. Pardon the "scratch marks" on the pic. I forgot to clean my outside glass. Had small kids over past weekend and they love to touch the glass (i'm not going to tell them they can't do that

[t-dizzle]

Layne,

Awesome toadstool! I hope my little sarco gets that big! As far as its appearance at the LFS goes, it looked exactly as it does in my tank, but I'm not taking anything for granted.

T./

[davocean]

Once it acclimates I bet it will sprout polyps farther out