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Leather is breaking apart????

Y

ynotme4886

I have a large leather that I have had for well over a year now. About a week or so ago it started to crack and tear like an old leather car seat left out in the sun for a few years.

Now it is starting to break apart into pieces....I have various size pieces that have fallen off in my tank at different locations.

The pieces that fall off still sprout their little thingies out of them every day. A few pieces have attached to different spots in the tank.

Before it cracked
p1917809.jpg


Cracked and closed
p1923103.jpg

p1923105.jpg


Starting to open
p1923106.jpg

p1923108.jpg


So I have about 5 pieces that have fallen off.
The questions are as follows.

Does this frag itself like a kenya tree that drops its branches and they grow new or am I going to lose the main piece when all is said and done.

Also with the pieces what can I attach them to....can I glue and plug them or what and how do I attach them to see if I can grow them out
 
Phyl

Phyl

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
It is just fragging. As long as the flesh is still firm and not mushy and the "babies" are all doing well then it will survive. Corals will sometimes do this when water quality is suffering to ensure that it survives, but if your water Q checks out and your lighting or coral position hasn't changed recently I wouldn't worry too much!
 
Y

ynotme4886

Water is fine and have been checking it more often since the issue started.

Even did a 20g water change when it started cracking and am mixing up the next batch as we speak.

The only thing I ever dose is a bit of trace elements and baking soda for alk.

Have had the same routine for the last year and havent had any issues.

My numbers are as follows

ph 8.0
nitrate 0
nitrite 0
calc 450
mag 1425
alk 3.66
ammonia 0
copper 0

The only thing that fluxes is my alk but it has never gone beneath 2.66

I use salifert for all my test kits except ph and they are all still good (none close to exp date)
 
J

Jcurry@wesketch

As others have said it's normal asexual reproduction. I had a finger leather that started doing the same thing a couple of years ago and never showed any signs of dying. In fact it's in Brian's 225 now.

To attch the frags you can use a plastic toothpick and some fishing line to tie them to a piece of rock. I usually place them so only the toothpick is touching the rock and let the frag grown down and attach by itself. But after awhile this got tedious so I just let frags sit on the sand and attach themselves to whatever was around (snail shells, rubble, etc..) and then sold them.
 
greybolt03

greybolt03

MINE has done that a few times i use the rubberband method to either a little piece of rubble rock or a disc the glue thing does not work for the leathers cause they are slimmy and it usually takes about 3-4 weeks for mine to attach......
 
Y

ynotme4886

Thanks for all the great info :D

I guess I have a bit of work to do in the morning to get all the pieces out of where they have fallen.

I wonder if small zip ties would work as well.

Will post a few picks tomorrow night of the pieces that I find and have strapped down to new rubble rock
 
W

Whitebird1

I started with leathers and have observed every one in other tanks that I could and have seen many ways to reproduce, but, never seen one reproduce by what has happened to yours. Just keeping a open mind, the one I saw that looked exactly like your pics was moved from a private reef tank to a LFS, and fell apart, the smaller pieces were just survivors that healed and started to grow into new colony's. just going by observation, keep a open mind to what could have caused it to nuke in the first place.
 
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