Sarcophyton sp (Toadstool Mushroom Leather Coral)

Source: liveaquaria.com

QUICK STATS

• Care Level: Easy
  
• Temperament: Peaceful
  
• Lighting: Moderate to High
  
• Waterflow: Medium
  
• Placement: All
  
• Water Conditions: 72-78° F, dKH 8-12, pH 8.1-8.4, sg 1.023-1.025
  
• Color Form: Tan
  
• Origin: Fiji, Indo-Pacific, Maldives
  
• Family: Alcyoniidae
  
• Insert Date: 19 February 2011

The Toadstool Mushroom Leather Coral is referred to as Sarcophyton Coral, Mushroom, Leather, or Trough Corals. They are found in various shades of brown, tan or green, with white or gold polyps. It is difficult to identify many species because they all have the similar appearance of a mushroom or toadstool, each with a distinct stalk and capitulum (cap). As they grow older, they develop a folded appearance.
The Toadstool Mushroom Leather Corals are relatively peaceful, but adequate space should be provided between them and other corals in the reef aquarium. Some can produce toxins which are harmful to other reef inhabitants. The brown Sarcophyton Leather Corals from Idonesia and Tonga are easy to maintain in the reef aquarium and make an excellent coral for the beginning through expert reef aquarist. Toadstool Mushroom Leather Corals require medium to high lighting combined with medium to strong water movement. For continued good health, they will also require the addition of iodine, strontium, and other trace elements to the water.

Culturing by the experienced hobbyist is often accomplished by cutting off a portion of the Coral's crown and attaching that piece to live rock or placing it in the sandy bottom of the reef aquarium.

The symbiotic algae zooxanthellae hosted within its body provides the majority of its nutritional needs from the light driven process of photosynthesis. It will also benefit from additional food such as micro-plankton, baby brine shrimp, or foods designed for filter feeding invertebrates.

During one of my visits saturday is one that really caught my eye, it’s a giant toadstool leather coral. Unfortunately we found it was even too big for the RSM. But it looked so much like the one we had, so I’m still thinking of a solution. Maybe cut it off a bit, since it’s foot is damaged because of a piece of rock that broke off during transport.
The rock also had many smaller Toadstools, which are ideal for sale/trade later.

March 16 I started fragmenting the giant Toadstool in the frag tank. The plan is to cut off the crown so it gets a bit lower and put it on a different rock. Then remove all the small Toadstools from the rock as loose fragments and finally cut whatever is left of the trunk in small pieces and hope that grows new Toadstools as well.


First I made some preparations. I needed a place to put the fragments from the branch, a bowl or something and needed to put something over it to make sure they wouldn’t float. Then there was the crown, I needed a way to keep it in its place where I wanted it to attach. Also I needed something to cut the Toadstool with and after that break the rock around the small Toadstools.

For cutting the crown of the Toadstool I used a sharp knife. I started with a scalpel but the blade was too small for the thick trunk of the Toadstool. I tried to make the cut as quickly as possible.

I already prepared a rock where I wanted the Toadstool to attach on. I used a PVC tube which I cut in half. I made two holes in the bottom to put rubber bands through to attach the tube to the rock and put both halves together also using a rubber band. The reason for cutting the tube in half was that when the mushroom attached I wouldn’t have a way to get the tube off and now I just cut the rubber band and the tube can open up.


After that I used the same knife to cut the trunk in pieces. I kept the pieces rather large, also some slices I also cut in half again, while other I kept in whole.

I put all the pieces in a glass desert bowl and cut a sort of sponge for showering in pieces to put over the bowl. On the bottom of the bowl I had some rock pieces for the Fragments to attach to.


Two whole fragments I put in the small container I used for my Kenya Trees a couple of times already. They are closer to the light and have more current this way.

I already had to rescue other corals from the Toadstool that was blown out of its tube. I decided to get a sharp plastic stick and put it through its foot. The stick I attached to the rock using a rubber band. Hopefully now the Toadstool will attach to the rock within a week or 2.

Together with many corals the mushroom died