Have you pruned a leather coral in your tank? Did it kill your stony corals?

Have you pruned a leather coral in your tank? Did it kill your stony corals?

  • I have pruned a leather in my tank and had stony corals die with no other possible cause.

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • I have pruned a leather in my tank and nothing happened.

    Votes: 6 100.0%

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    6

damsels are not mean

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The question is simple. For those keeping "mixed" reefs, do you find that cutting leathers causes trouble?

I've always heard leather corals produce toxins to create space for themselves. This is well known and understood (scientifically). The jury seems confused however on whether these toxins actually end up being problematic in our aquariums. I want to prune a sinularia in my tank but I'm paranoid because of horror stories. Leathers crashing tanks seem to me like another one of those things that people say happens but doesn't happen ever or very rarely and under extreme circumstances. There sure are a lot in the hobby.

I've heard everything from people blaming a whole tank crash on a leather coral that looked bad one day to people cutting their leathers back next to acropora without issue. I personally have a huge sinularia basically hugging a stylo. The polyps even touch sometimes and neither coral seems to care. The stylo has almost tripled in size. There's also an acro "downstream" from the sinularia that looks great to me. I haven't changed my carbon in almost a year. At this point I'm not sure the stuff even does anything that matters. Maybe I'll put some in if I prune the coral just to be safe.
 

Nano sapiens

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In my previous 55g I used to prune a pink Sinularia regularly (it was approaching the size of a volleyball and I'd prune it heavily every 6 months or so) and I never noticed any adverse reactions from my stony corals (Montipora capricornis, Leptastrea, Blastomussa). No GAC or other filtration was present.

Toxicity levels in soft corals is species dependent and it's difficult to know just how toxic a particular specimen might be. Certain groups of soft coral tend to be regularly highly toxic (ex.: Sarcophton, Lobophytum, Lemnalia), some variably toxic (Cladiella, Paralemnalia, Sinularia, Heteroxenia, Nephthea, Efflatounaria, Cespitularia), some occasionally highly toxic (Xenia, Briareum, Dendronephthya) and those that are rarely toxic (Capnella, Anthelia).

Source reference 'Aquarium Corals' (Borneman)

In my current small volume mixed reed I don't run any mechanical or chemical filtration, so I have avoided the genera that are known to have the more toxic species. I have had Capnella and Xenia in this system that I had pruned lightly at first to judge any adverse reactions from the stony coral (there was none in my case) and then pruned heavily when needed.

I personally think it's always best to use fresh GAC when the toxicity level of a soft coral specimen is unknown.
 
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damsels are not mean

damsels are not mean

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In my previous 55g I used to prune a pink Sinularia regularly (it was approaching the size of a volleyball and I'd prune it heavily every 6 months or so) and I never noticed any adverse reactions from my stony corals (Montipora capricornis, Leptastrea, Blastomussa). No GAC or other filtration was present.

Toxicity levels in soft corals is species dependent and it's difficult to know just how toxic a particular specimen might be. Certain groups of soft coral tend to be regularly highly toxic (ex.: Sarcophton, Lobophytum, Lemnalia), some variably toxic (Cladiella, Paralemnalia, Sinularia, Heteroxenia, Nephthea, Efflatounaria, Cespitularia), some occasionally highly toxic (Xenia, Briareum, Dendronephthya) and those that are rarely toxic (Capnella, Anthelia).

Source reference 'Aquarium Corals' (Borneman)

In my current small volume mixed reed I don't run any mechanical or chemical filtration, so I have avoided the genera that are known to have the more toxic species. I have had Capnella and Xenia in this system that I had pruned lightly at first to judge any adverse reactions from the stony coral (there was none in my case) and then pruned heavily when needed.

I personally think it's always best to use fresh GAC when the toxicity level of a soft coral specimen is unknown.
Makes sense. Palytoxin in zoanthids is the same way. I think running carbon just to be sure is worth it. I don't need to prune much at the moment anyways. I'll start with a little baby branch and increase if nothing happens.
 

EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal

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Makes sense. Palytoxin in zoanthids is the same way. I think running carbon just to be sure is worth it. I don't need to prune much at the moment anyways. I'll start with a little baby branch and increase if nothing happens.
In my experience, if the coral can be easily removed for pruning/fragging, then this is best (for the tank as well as for you to be able to work more precisely). If it has to be done in the tank and only a small amount of damage needs to be caused, I would take no extra action.
If I'm cutting quite a bit in the tank (causing more damage to the coral), I do so just before a water change, and toss a bag of carbon in the sump afterwards just in case.

I don't know, but suspect the toxins released to ward off encroaching corals (terpenes), might be different from what they release when injured...
 
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damsels are not mean

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In my experience, if the coral can be easily removed for pruning/fragging, then this is best (for the tank as well as for you to be able to work more precisely). If it has to be done in the tank and only a small amount of damage needs to be caused, I would take no extra action.
If I'm cutting quite a bit in the tank (causing more damage to the coral), I do so just before a water change, and toss a bag of carbon in the sump afterwards just in case.

I don't know, but suspect the toxins released to ward off encroaching corals (terpenes), might be different from what they release when injured...
Not possible to remove it really. It's a single colony that walked around and split in two over the years fighting with other corals and it's on rocks that have all been glued together by generations of encrusting corals. I guess that means I did a good job but it makes maintenance like this harder lol.
 

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