Sarcophyton allelopathy

[fandaga]

I noticed my neon green toadstool polyps not extending after placing a weeping willow toadstool near it recently. In fact, they both stopped extending polyps and would continuously shed. I was very surprised to read that they release toxic terpenoids to inhibit the growth of nearby corals. My LFS actually has multiple toadstools next to each other for sale that have great polyp extension. Any idea why the LFS isn’t seeing allelopathy or what I can do to minimize this effect in my tank besides simply isolating these corals from nearby ones? I’m currently running carbon and have the leathers in relatively high flow.

 

[RyanN]

I really can't answer your question but I'm not sure that's the cause of the polyps not opening. I have at least 4 different toadstools in my tank and all their polyps are open and they're pretty much all touching. I used to run carbon but didn't notice a difference so I stopped. My LPS corals in this tank do grow really slow so I think the toadstools are affecting them.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

I used to have several types of leathers touching each, I don't know for a fact but I always thought or assumed the toxins don't hurt other leathers. I have seen leather corals toxin affects on lps corals, the toxins work very slowly and it takes months for it to have effect. So doubt the issue is caused by toxins.... but I'm not sure there is any issue really, leathers get moody sometimes and can stay moody for days or even weeks.

 

[Tahoe61]

Initially years ago I was concerned about an actual problem. Since that time I have never noticed an issue with corals housed with Sacrophyton.
Any issue there might be can probably be addressed using carbon and routine water changes.

 

[fandaga]

It’s pretty weird to me. When I separated my toadstools, they started opening again. Also, it seems like there is a lot of anecdotal evidence that this effect is real.