Toadstool Damaged--HELP!

uberlink

Active Member
My new toadstool leather somehow fell over from its spot on the live rock yesterday, so I righted it and put it back in place. Today the right side of poor Toad is all beat up and shedding. Just now I used a powerhead to gently blow some of the shedding tissue off of him, and the poor guy has a hole clear through him.
Any suggestions? How resilient are these things? Any chance he'll heal? Is there anything I can give him? Should I send him back to swf for a replacement? Help!
This was also posted on some of the other forums.

 
J

jupoc911

Guest
it may heal. you can frag around the hole and defintly save the main part of your coral and the other peice.
 

uberlink

Active Member
So would I just use a sharp knife to slice off the damaged part, and then fasten the frags to other pieces of live rock in the tank?
Would the cut-off portion be likely to grow back so that the original specimin is roughly round again? (Not a huge deal, but just curious.)
 
J

jupoc911

Guest
ive never fragged one so i cant be sure. i do know that eventually it will get folds and look more like a leather rather than a cut up one.
 

kjord97

Member
Yes leathers you can cut and dice and it wil grow back. Been doing alot of research on fraggin and have found that leathers are very easy. Just make sure you use clean very sharp knife, should be like cutting butter. The leather should grow back to orignal round shape. Take the pieces and place them on other rocks, where they will not get disturbed, and they will grow to. You just have to remember, YOU CAN FRAG ALOT OF STUFF, NOT EVERYTIME WILL IT WORK. It is all a game of chance. Have fun and good luck.
 

uberlink

Active Member
Sounds like a party to me.
Would a super-sharp kitchen knife work? (Of course, if my wife catches me performing surgery on Toad with one of the good knives we got for our wedding, it may be the last thing I ever do...maybe I'll get an exacto.)
 

ninjamini

Active Member
Today my leather was laying on the floor of the tank. The base is no longer thick enough to hold itself up. My first thing to do in the morning is to cut that up. I bought some rubber bands & bridal vail material. I just hope that I have enough small rock frags in the tank to attach them all. Its a big leather. I don't really know what I'm doing
but it it works I will have alot of leathers to trade. :joy:
uberlink, I hope yours goes well.
 

uberlink

Active Member
I just carved Toad up to create Toad the Elder and a couple of Toad Juniors. The original was all flopped over when I got home and had a good deal of necrotic tissue around the hole. I cut off about half of its head with a razor blade, cut away all the nasty tissue from that piece, and then diced it into a few chunks. I rubber banded one chunk to the top of a large piece of live rock, and I stuffed another into a hole on the side of a live rock.
Toad the Elder does not look especially good, and if he continues to slough off lots of tissue, then I'll likely lop off the whole head and move him to the back of the tank until he (hopefully) grows back in.
Right now, he does not look good.
Any idea how long before the original starts to fill in a bit?
 

ninjamini

Active Member
Glad to hear it went well for you.
I just hacked mine into pieces as well. It had attached itself to not only its rock but to also the biggest rock in the tank. It is also the one that the clowns call home. First I tried to get it free with a razor. Its amazing how bold the clown was compared to my big hand. I had to remove the big rock and thus disassemble my whole tank. Now everything looks sad. Of course ounce I got the 2 rocks and my leather over to the staging area it let go of the big rock. The head was cut into 1/4s. Each part getting a small part of the stump. And then there was part of the base left on the rock. Its amazing how little the stump was. No wonder it could not hold up the whole thing. I took the 4 pieces and needed them onto small rocks and put them into the tank. Now we will see how it does. Honestly I will be just amazed it I end up with 4 or 5 leathers.
Only time will tell. Time...isn't that what is always required in this hobby. Time and money.
 

uberlink

Active Member
Toad the Elder is looking fairly good this morning. He's starting to extend his tentacles/polyps/whatever-you-call-them and just generally looks fairly healthy. He's not sloughling off tissue anymore. The only issue is that the back of him is basically missing, but that's not a giant deal.
One of the juniors that I stuffed into a hole in my live rock seems well...it's also extending some tentacles. The piece that I rubber-banded onto another chunk of live rock looks alright, but for some reason I doubt he'll take. Oh, and there was a third Toad Junior, as well. The base had rooted onto two separate pieces of live rock (95% on one, 5% on the other), and I cut the smaller one away and planted him elsewhere in the tank.
If even Toad the Elder survives all this, I'll be happy. If I get an extra Toad or two out of the deal, I'll be ecstatic!
Keep us up to date on your progress.
BTW: My clowns were a pain in the neck throughout the process. I can't believe how bold those little guys are!
 
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