Sick Hairy Leather

[jonboyb]

THis was my first coral and I hope it's just shedding. It's been perfect for 3 months and now the last 2 days it's been deflated and kinda folded up and has a "waxy" appearance. The picture below was day one and it's about 3 times this size now, but I though you might want to see it for reference. I didn't get a pic of it's current state before the lights went out. The pocilipora in the pic was removed.

 

[melosu58]

Leathers do what we call sloughing. They will be Ok and all of a sudden they just look bad like they are shedding their skin. Then in a day or two they will look better than new. It`s just something they do. I see this post was done on the 10th. How is it doing now? That almost looks like a cauliflower leather coral.

 

[jonboyb]

Unfortunately I had to leave town 2 days after it deflated and went "waxy". I've asked my wife to keep an eye on it but she just doean't know what to look for. My water paramters are all in good shape and my other corals are doing fantastic so I'm not too worried about problems, but since this little guy was my first coral, I certainly don't want to lose it...LOL. Here's a very poor picture but the leather normally covers the entire rock....at least 3 times the size it is here.

Another question....I thought cauliflower leathers were more of a finger leather. This one is big and flat when open.

 

[melosu58]

This is my cauliflower leather. They are definitely not finger type.

 

[jonboyb]

Wow...that's a beautiful leather. I wish mine looked like that. Mine actually folds completely flat instead of "cupping" like yours. You have alot of actinics on it?

 

[jonboyb]

Got homr from my trip and the lights were already off. However, it looks MUCH happier tonight. My wife said today was the first day it had "inflated" again. It took it 4-5 days, but it looks like it rebounded.

 

[melosu58]

It was just sloughing like I said. It will do it again in a week or two but just like today it will recover. And yes I do have 2 VHO super actinic bulbs. 320 watts worth.