Is my Yellow Fiji Leather ok?

[romeofoeve]

i got this yellow fiji coral on friday, then took off to yosemite for the weekend and when i got home monday noticed that the rock it was on was tumbled. when i turned it over one portion of the top looked like it had torn, and it was brown. now (tuesday night) i got home from work and noticed that the brown has spread. should this be a concern? is somethign eating it? does the temp have anythign to do with it?
The left pic is without flash, the right with flash.

 

[gregm779]

If it is spreading you probably want to cut it off, yellow leathers get bacterial infection very easily and it can kill the whole piece, best way is to get some scissors and cut it off as cleanly as possible.

 

[romeofoeve]

so u think its bacteria? is it ok to use an x-acto knife? should i do it under water, or in a bowl outside the tank? and lastly, will the damaged part regenerate?

 

[gregm779]

It's from being in the sand or being stung. I've done it in the tank but it does release a toxin so it may harm corals, taking the leather out of the water may also tick it off so that's up to you. You can use an exacto just make sure you make a clean cut.

 

[schadiest1]

like greg said, make a clean cut, it will heal better that way. i would suggest removing the coral from the water. if you tick the coral off, oh well. better not to pollute your tank right? if the cut off pc. doesn't get infected to badly, it should regenerate w/out a problem. make sure you keep some flow on the mother pc. to prevent further infection while it's healing.

 

[romeofoeve]

ok, i cut it and placed it under flow. and i did a water change to make everything nice and clean. now all i need to do is be a mother and nurture my sick baby. man this hobby is so consuming!!

 

[romeofoeve]

so i got home tonight and made sure to leave the lights in my room off as to not disturn the nocturnal creatures. i was checking up on the leather with a red light and i noticed that the small polyps or whatever they are had come out. this is a good sign right?

 

[gregm779]

sounds good to me

 

[romeofoeve]

Its Doing Great! i dont see any brown anywhere on the head, and the polys are coming out. Phew, i was worried for a while there! The photo Does no justice to its color.

 

[gregm779]

Good, here's a pic of mine it's a little over a foot from front to back.