Sinularia dura (Cabbage Leather Coral) - Oct. '05 Coral of the Month

Sinularia dura

Type: Soft
Origin: Indonesia

Aquarium Needs -

Lighting: Happy with good light.
Water Quality: Good to high.
Current: Medium to high flow.
Supplemental Feeding: Not necessary if keeping up on water changes, but like a lot of softies, it digs iodine, strontium, that sort of thing.
Growth Rate: Slow to medium.
Frag Difficulty: Easy!


Personal Observations -

Hey it's Octoberfest - go out and buy one of these corals for your softie tank. ;D

The cabbage coral is pretty typical of leather corals - it likes to be placed near the top getting soaked in light, it is not really fussy about where your calcium and alk are at, but it does appreciate good water quality and seems to dig iodine occasionally and water changes.

As with others such as my old toadstool leather, it will from time to time shed skin so don't freak if it doesn't open up for a couple days.

You can frag leathers with a pair of scissors and then use a little super glue to get it on a rock where it will encrust once it has recovered. It does have a pretty long recovery time after fragging in my experience. Mine took a couple weeks.

Some don't mix with SPS too well, although mine doesn't seem to mind Bird's Nest too much. In hindsight I think it's best to keep with corals of it's own kind. A good rule of thumb for any tank as chemical warfare can stunt or kill some corals. I am thinking of setting up a nano and moving it in there with some shrooms and such.

When the tank isn't stirred up, it will extend and soak up the light. It is another good tell-tale if something is askew as it will become very smooth when irritated.

All and all a pretty easy coral that can be a nice addition to your tank.


PLEASE SHARE YOUR EXPERIENCES WITH THIS CORAL.
Especially if you have a better pic than mine.

 

I agree, it is a great coral. I got one from www.coraldynamics.com about 3 months ago and it is doing awesome...PLUS it is aquacultured!!