Help Identifying Petco Leather Rescue

[tstar]

We visit our local Petco every week because they get an aquatic shipment in every Friday. Now, this isn’t a bashing thread… I think the associates there do the best that they can. I was told that they have no control over what comes into the store…

A month ago we got a green polyp Toadstool from them. It wasn’t too happy but since acclimating to our system it's doing well. Nine days ago we pop in and this one bank of tanks is just white with bubbles as the sump was low on water and this leather was covered in algae and bubbles!! So we bought it and took it home, cleaned the algae off and placed it low in the tank to acclimate. We’ve named it Patrick;

After three days;

One week later and flexing his muscles;

So Patrick seems to be doing good. I’ve never seen a purple skinned leather coral though. Here are some shots of two that we have… Yes, a Petco tale of two leathers if you will;

I don’t really know what type of leather it is… Finger? It's pretty dark compared to the toadstool, it's purple skinned no doubt.



Tim

 

[tstar]

I think the top down shot shows the differences between the two the best...

Tim

 

[bryanfuel]

Looks like a toadstool to me.

 

[MixedFruitBasket]

YEah, agreed, toadstool or more precisely a crown leather.

 

[tstar]

Ahhh ... A Crown Leather, cool. I know our first one is for sure a neon green polyp Toadstool. So the new one is a purple skinned, green polyp Crown Leather, or do they all have purple skin??

Thank you very much!!!!

Tim

 

[MixedFruitBasket]

Ahhh ... A Crown Leather, cool. I know our first one is for sure a neon green polyp Toadstool. So the new one is a purple skinned, green polyp Crown Leather, or do they all have purple skin??

Thank you very much!!!!

Tim

They come in various colors. I have a brown one and a pink one.

 

[Jon Fishman]

edit. Nope

 

[MixedFruitBasket]

They come in various colors. I have a brown one and a pink one.

Possibility it could be a sinulara species. Like a finger coral. When I went and looked at the photos again the one branch (the biggest one) has polyps all the way around where the others are flat like a sarcophyton species (toad stool, crown leather, umbrella leather) would be. The polyp density also looks like sarcophyton species too.

 

[MixedFruitBasket]

I'll look at my crown leather in the morning and see if it has polyps on the back side of the "branch".

 

[tstar]

I see what you're talking about, I did some more research and I don't see the additional polyps on the skin that the one type has...

The large finger does have a faint "flat" area that widen towards the base. It isn't very big or prominent though...

I can try to get better pics if it would help, just let me know what you need...

Tim

 

[tstar]

By the way... Thanks for taking the time to help!

Tim

 

[tstar]

On the third picture of the "muscle flex" series you can just make out the back flat side that has no polyps at the top of the middle finger...

Tim

 

[MixedFruitBasket]

I see what you're talking about, I did some more research and I don't see the additional polyps on the skin that the one type has...

The large finger does have a faint "flat" area that widen towards the base. It isn't very big or prominent though...

I can try to get better pics if it would help, just let me know what you need...

Tim

Your pictures are fine. If it is a crown leather/toadstool I think it would be this variety or something similar: https://www.corals.com/product/crown-leather-australia/
Otherwise it could be a sinulara this variety: https://www.fishnreef.com/leathers-soft-corals/devils-hand-leather-tan-polyps.html

But you can see, the devils hand sinulara species (some call crown type sarcophyton devils hands if there are prominent fingers) has very sparse polyps. Not sure if this applies to all of the sinulara type or not. I've see photos of Lobos, Kyluxm species, that also have a similar arrangement and their polyps appear more abundant. Let it get some size on it. I'm sure it will be easier to identify when it gets bigger.

 

[MixedFruitBasket]

On the third picture of the "muscle flex" series you can just make out the back flat side that has no polyps at the top of the middle finger...

Tim

Yes, which is why I first call crown leather i.e. toadstool as others already suggested.

 

[Katrina71]

None of my leathers flip birds. Lol

 

[Woodneers]

Man i about grabbed one of these the other day at petco myself. They had several pieces surely to die as it was a disaster in there. Wife was shopping so i had several hours to observe..... one tank full of small banghai cardinals had stagnant water for at least 3 hours. they had a few rock flower anemones as well. everything looked terrible and my QT tank is currently down or I would have grabbed a bunch and rescued them.

 

[tstar]

None of my leathers flip birds. Lol

LOL I've been waiting for someone to key in on that...

No one commented on the it's name of Patrick though, from Sponge Bob Square Pants...

Tim

 

[Katrina71]

It does look like Patrick!

 

[tstar]

Man i about grabbed one of these the other day at petco myself. They had several pieces surely to die as it was a disaster in there. Wife was shopping so i had several hours to observe..... one tank full of small banghai cardinals had stagnant water for at least 3 hours. they had a few rock flower anemones as well. everything looked terrible and my QT tank is currently down or I would have grabbed a bunch and rescued them.

I know! Luckly we have a new tank and lots of room... It's tough leaving something to die in these stores. But I have to say that their tanks are clean as far as bad hitchhikers go.

I did talk them down to 7 bucks too! It really did look pretty bad...

Tim

 

[sfin52]

It looks like my devil's hand. With one large finger cut off with a some base attached
Just a few of mine to compare to