What’s up with my leather coral?

Sharkbait19 · Sep 22, 2020

Hi,
For about a month I’ve had a leather coral who had been doing very well. Two days ago, I cleaned my tank, and while siphoning dirt out of the sand, accidentally knocked over the coral. I simply propped it back up, and later on it opened slightly. Then the next morning I turned on the lights, yet it remained closed all day. I figured, eh, tomorrow it will get better, but today, it’s still shrunken, grey, and closed up. Is it dying or stressed? What could be the cause of this sudden issue?

Paleozoic_reefer · Sep 22, 2020

Leathers do that sometimes, especially if disturbed. No worries. It'll grow a waxy coating, and then shed it, and go back to normal.

vetteguy53081 · Sep 22, 2020

Leathers are moody. Speaking of sand, they are easily irritated and sand would make them unhappy which may be the case here.
Elevate it a little placing on a rock off the sand and provide it moderate light and water flow

Sharkbait19 · Sep 22, 2020

Thanks! I plan to move the leather coral to a rock once I get a star polyp. I want any spreading corals like the Xenia and green star to be away from the rocks. The leather coral is only where it is because I couldn’t initially find a place in the rock work that I liked or where the fish wouldn’t knock over the coral. I’ll play around with it more though in the coming weeks. Thanks for the advice!