First Corals, Leather NOT OPENING!

Hey! Just picked up a few corals from a friend. These are my first corals. My 49 gallon tank has been up and running for about 6 months now and no problems at all with fish. He gave me a few little polyp chunks, a frogspawn frag and a pretty decent sized leather of some kind. They have been in the tank about 12 hours now and my lights have been on for about 2 hours this morning. The two smaller polyp chunks have began to open up and are about 50-60% open. The leather however shows only the tips of a few polyps starting to poke through. I drip acclimated the corals for about 15 minutes last night before i put them in. Just wondering in other peoples experiences how long it takes for a leather to open up in a new aquarium. Thanks!

 

I have had a few frags that didn't open for days. I have corals in my tank that seem to close up for a couple of days also. If the color looks ok, and some of the polyps are starting to show, just give it time. If the coral starts bleaching (turning white) you might have a problem then. IMO

 

+1 on above
they can take a couple of days sometimes longer IME
I have had leathers that must have been close to skin shedding time when I purchased them , stay closed for about 1 week , shed the skin and then come back to being as beautiful as they where when I purchased them

Steve

 

That's been my experience with leathers. It always seems to take them a few days to get adjusted. It could be molting as well and mine have stayed down for around 2 weeks at times.

 

Ok well i guess i'll just wait a few days to see what happens. I had to create a bit of a disturbance earlier due to the fact that i've had enough of my two damsels that were causing havock with all my other fish. Those suckers are fast and did not want to be caught. They are now turning into molded plastic encased specimins at my schools fisheries department. Unfotunately now everything is closed back up including the frogspawn that was flowing nicely yesterday. I guess i'll just leave everything alone for a few days and see what happens.

 

I wouldn't worry. I have a large toadstool leather and mine didn't open at all for the entire first week. The second week it would open from time to time, but never fully extended. It was really sensitive to fish activity around it and would retract anytime they came around. By the third week it was fully acclimated and began to open, close and shed on a pretty regular schedule. Mine does shed quite often and will not open for almost the entire day when this is happening. Also, seems to do better with medium to high flow on it. Not sure if that's true for all, but works for mine. Good luck with yours.

 

Hehe, nothing personal, but I always get a kick out of newbies who get so worried about corals not opening up within a couple hours. Trust me I used to be the same exact way. I'm just sayin, one day you're gonna look back on this thread and laugh (I have on some of my old threads).

 

Thanks for the reassurance! As this is my first try at corral so it just makes me nervous when they aren't looking like i know there supposed to, right away. I've checked my water several times and every time i do everything is perfect. Patience patience... :

 

Yes, leather corals usually do take a few days to acclimate and open up in a new tank. They also occasionally [FONT=&quot]corals will sometimes stay closed for several days or shed a waxy film layer as part of their growing process. [/FONT]