I got one of these beauties two days ago and put him in my tank - all water parameters are normal, nitrates at 20 - the polyps were not extended, which I expected because it had been handled and moved around quite a bit.

It's been in my tank, the polyps still not extended, it seems a bit droopy, and there's a white shedding coming from it - all normal for an acclimating soft coral from what I've read. The shredding being natural growth process.


Anyway, this morning I was looking at it and noticed a BROWN spot on it. It's my only coral, so I didn't quarantine it - because there was no risk of infecting other corals. I'm worried that this could be a sign of necrosis, and if it is, what do I do about it?

Once again, water is nearly perfect, everybody else in the tank seems happy.

Soft corals will sulk for days, weeks even. However, if you could post a photo of the coral and the spot then this will help any diagnosis should it need any.

There you go.... quite possibly the best picture i've ever taken of my aquarium, i'll have to remember how I got that much detail - shame it's a picture of something potentially saddening

Yellow fiji leathers are probably THE most sensitive leathers around as far as handling them. They don't recover very well from being touched, and can have irreversable damage caused by the oils in our skin and trauma caused by the pressure of being held in our hands. Sorry to say it is one of the few leathers that is one that you almost have to do research on before you buy it, because it is so much unlike any other leather or most other corals for that matter. Most do not do well in captivity because of their sensitivity to even very minor trauma. I've seen one that you coud tell exactly how it was grabbed by the caretaker, where the fingers grabbed the leather you could see brown spots in the shapes of finger prints.

so in short I'm screwed and it's going to die completely?

or is there hope of revival, is there something that can be done, etc etc.


All you did was tell me stuff I knew while also saying I didn't do my research - not necessarily true, I knew it was sensitive to movement and touch, didn't know the severity of that sensitivity.

Make sure that you have it in a medium flow water, and that any of the tissue it is sluffing off is getting taken away by water current. Make sure that water params are optimal. Good luck

HI Raven...I've been keeping a Yellow Fiji leather now for six months with good results. You can see a nice view of it here on this sideshot:



What superman said is true. My Fiji yellow is very senstive and I use it as a barometer for my water quality. I sometimes don't even have to check my nitrates...if my leather is closed, something is up. It is doing well on top of my reef which puts it a little more than halfway up under moderate flow. The spaghetti leather next to it actually stung in several areas...I had to prune it.

Your leather definitely looks sick, although, it is not entirely gone. You should do a full list here of all your testable params so we can make some reqs. The bad thing is if it dies, it can foul the water. What I would do is do some water changes. Fragging it might help....if this is something you would take on (it's not hard, we could help you here). SH

i dont mean to jump in but SH what type of coral is that big white one right in the front. i have a really small one growing in my tank that looks similar. mine is somewhere around 1cm or so right now.

It's OK...it's a spaghetti finger or rasta leather (sinularia). Grows quickly but is really beautiful to watch in the current. SH

HOw is the fiji leahter?

If its still deteriorating then perhaps you should consider fragging it? Might seem a bit drastic but it could well save it.

oh it died a long time ago...probably 2 days after my last picture it was so bad I just had to pull it out of the tank because it had degraded so much...