san antonio

[connie123]

Hello everyone! I'm new to Maast, so I hope I'm doing this right. I've been reef keeping for a few years now and fish keeping for 6, and I'm just now registering here. Oh well, better late than never! I bought a toadstool leather (the tan colored kind) a couple of weeks ago and he rarely extends out. I have moved him 3 or 4 times and he will come out for a few hours, then retracts for days. Can anyone give me any suggestions? Thanks, Connie

[matt]

Hi Connie, WELCOME! to maast. There could all sorts of reasons for your coral retracting. Light, water quality, other inhabitants, water flow, even moving it around. Impossible to say without a lot more info.

[connie123]

All my levels are perfect (tested this morning). I have a 55 gallon reef with a 220 watt power compact 10k and actinic. I have two power heads, one on each end plus my eheim flow. I have a mated pair of perculas a black and white percula. One coral beauty, and a orange tail damsel.I only have a yellow polyp rock and and a huge bta on the other end of the tank. Do you think I have too much water flow?my ph is 8.4, my salinity is 1.024, temp is 79degrees.

[greatbarrier52]

Welcome Connie! I would love to see a couple pics of your perculas.

[manny]

I've had the same problem Connie. Everyone's advice has usually been just to keep my hands out of the water and that has worked for me. For the past month or so I didn't have a skimmer and my water was just really nasty so I didn't even get close to puttin my hands in there for nuthin and my toadstool has been opened up the most I'd ever seen it open up. Also another thing is to keep alot of flow on it so it can shed more easily. And another thing is to check and make sure you don't have any snails or anything irritating it cause that'l make it close up alot too I've notice. And umm shrimp'll do the same thing and tick it off. That's about all I can think of.

[GaryP]

Welcome to MAAST. I look forward to hopefully meeting you at one of the upcoming meetings.

I have had a toadstool leather for several years and IMO they are probably the hardiest coral we have. Mine has gotten so big (over 12") that I'm afriad I'm going to have to frag it pretty soon. The other good thing about them is that they are very tolerant of lower lights. Mine has been under VHO's for a couple of years. I think the main thing, as was said earlier is to make sure they get good flow. Mine sits on the opposite end of the tank from the return but in the direct path of the flow. They don't need to be fed. Apparently what little they do eat is mainly bacteria. I wouldn't worry to much about it, just leave it alone and let it get acclimatized. Mine was the same way for a couple of weeks after I moved it fromout of town.

Gary