Yellow leather Toadstool turning brown

[mrdss]

Does anyone know why a yellow leather toadstool turns brown ? Is it too much nutrients ? Not enough nutrients ? Too much light ? Not enough light ? I am unable to figure it our nor find any concrete information in this regard.

[Goomba]

A picture may be necessary to see the problem at hand. Actual yellow fiji leathers are fairly uncommon, not even sure if they can be collected anymore with certain areas going offline.

What that means to you is if it ISN'T a real yellow it could just be that it's gaining color back from bleaching out or if it's kinda patchy like army camo it was most likely colored and it's reverting back to normal.

If it IS a real yellow leather they tend to be prone to bacterial infections that manifest as brown edges and necrosis. You can snip off the infected areas with scissors or maybe dip it but I dont know what would treat it.

[mrdss]

Do you have a yellow leather coral ?

[Goomba]

I've kept them before yes, real and fake ones. I just listed common issues with them, a picture would be more helpful to identify what you are experiencing.

[arash53]

Maybe it is shedding

Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk

[mrdss]

A picture may be necessary to see the problem at hand.




As soon as I get a chance I will DRAW you pictures.

[mrdss]

I believe my questions was fairly straight forth.Why are people who have never owned a yellow leather replying ? They read something so ............. NOW THEY THINK they know something ?


Ok, Yellow Toadstool leather corals very common for them to turn brown. I am trying to figure out what others have done either pro or con.

I am trying to nail it down to



1. Lighting
2. Height
3. Flow
4. Temperature
4. Salinity
5. High / low nutrients.


Hopefully the people with the persistent yellow and the browning yellow can provide some clues. Person with the yellow coals is doing / using. Person with the browning coral is doing /using.Out of those 5 questions either one or all have to be correct. There has to be an answer and a middle ground we are missing. There has to be. IT is something in the tank conditions causing the browning. Possibly other corals in the tank.

I watched the most beautiful. The most beautiful yellow I have ever seen with my own eyes slowly darken and become brown. Over time playing with lights etc. it began lighting up quite a bit to a tan color. I sold the toadstool when shutting down the tank. So, what is everyone doing ? We are doing .................... Toadstool turns brown. Or we are doing ...............................Toadstool turns yellow.

This information is vital to all who own a yellow leather coral since there is NO concrete information on the internet.

[mrdss]

Now the thousands of posts BABIES cry to Admin. He is making fun of me. BUNCH OF BABIES !

[whatcaneyedo]

You'll catch more flies with honey.

What is your:
1. Lighting
2. Height
3. Flow
4. Temperature
4. Salinity
5. High / low nutrients. (water chemistry ie. Ca, Alk, Mg, PO4, NO3 etc)

Any and all of these will affect the colour, growth and health of a coral.

A picture is worth a thousand words.

I've had this fiji toadstool for a few years. It looks nice but has been slow to grow. My system is well outlined in one of the links in my signature.

https://i.imgur.com/CkR0Z07b.jpg

[mrdss]

Either the picture is deceiving or there are some touches of brown in there. Not the BRIGHT Yellow that I have seen in person.



Can you please specify


1. Lighting
2. Height
3. Flow
4. Temperature
4. Salinity
5. High / low nutrients. (water chemistry ie. Ca, Alk, Mg, PO4, NO3 etc)

[DKoKoMan]

Where is the photo of your coral you are having problems with?

[Goomba]

More information would help. Is it a new coral that is slowly getting darker brown? Did it suddenly get a brown spot one day? Is it an old coral that used to be yellow for years then went brown?

There is no special conditions to make a leather yellow, it either is or isn't. Often times a newly shipped one will appear more vibrant due to stress, and when you take it home and make it happy it will darken to its natural color. Or if it was a nice color for a long time and changed, something has upset it and you need to share test results to figure it out

[whatcaneyedo]

Mine was marketed as a gold fiji however the only Sarcophyton I've personally seen that was 'yellower' was a newly imported artificially dyed specimen. I'd like to believe this practice is no longer done but I don't know for certain. Zooxanthella is brown. The pigment that coral produce as a 'sunscreen' is coloured and so the shadowed areas of the tissue of coral is typically less vibrant and more brown than the heavily exposed areas.

Anyways:
250W Phenix 14K MH DE in LumenMax
Bottom
30x and indirect
78F
1.025
Ca +400ppm
Alk 9dkh
Mg 1350ppm
PO4 and NO3 undetectable with hobby kits but slightly higher than I would like.

Either the picture is deceiving or there are some touches of brown in there. Not the BRIGHT Yellow that I have seen in person.



Can you please specify


1. Lighting
2. Height
3. Flow
4. Temperature
4. Salinity
5. High / low nutrients. (water chemistry ie. Ca, Alk, Mg, PO4, NO3 etc)

[mrdss]

Where is the photo of your coral you are having problems with?


People are able to read but unable to comprehend.

[mrdss]

More information would help. Is it a new coral that is slowly getting darker brown? Did it suddenly get a brown spot one day? Is it an old coral that used to be yellow for years then went brown?

There is no special conditions to make a leather yellow, it either is or isn't. Often times a newly shipped one will appear more vibrant due to stress, and when you take it home and make it happy it will darken to its natural color. Or if it was a nice color for a long time and changed, something has upset it and you need to share test results to figure it out


Again able to read but not comprehend.

[mrdss]

Mine was marketed as a gold fiji however the only Sarcophyton I've personally seen that was 'yellower' was a newly imported artificially dyed specimen. I'd like to believe this practice is no longer done but I don't know for certain. Zooxanthella is brown. The pigment that coral produce as a 'sunscreen' is coloured and so the shadowed areas of the tissue of coral is typically less vibrant and more brown than the heavily exposed areas.

Anyways:
250W Phenix 14K MH DE in LumenMax
Bottom
30x and indirect
78F
1.025
Ca +400ppm
Alk 9dkh
Mg 1350ppm
PO4 and NO3 undetectable with hobby kits but slightly higher than I would like.




Have you tried positioning it higher or middle and noticed a difference ? Tried different lighting ? Have you noticed anything that makes the Toadstool either lighter or darker ? You have the yellow in the middle so there is no doubt what it is. But the polpys are a tan color almost a light brown.



I will give you some more info. on my TRUE VIBRANT yellow toadstool. I was at a store and saw the most white toadstool that I have even seen. There were about 4 of them. I inquired if they were bleached and was told no. I was told they had been in the store about a month and had remained that color. I took the coral home and was disappointed that after a few weeks the while polyps were darkening up.

In less then a month the WHITE toadstool became the most BEAUTIFUL VIVID yellow that I have ever seen in person and with my own eyes.

As the weeks went on I noticed the yellow browning slightly only to get darker as the days went by. I eventually started playing with lighting and position and was starting to get the tan color back. I sold my aquarium and livestock shortly after.

I have talked to the person that bought the toadstool and it never got that yellow back but only a tan color. He gave me a small frag but it just disintegrated after a few short days.

Yellow toadstools are not hardy what so ever and will die if you look at it the wrong way.


In your picture the darkest areas that was what I was getting back the tan color before I sold everything off.

[Goomba]

I think it's pretty obvious the store you bought it from was misinformed or lied to you.

You saw it totally white in a store, brought it home, it got darker after some time, then after more time got even darker. That is a perfectly typical experience with a bleached coral, white in store>>yellow later at home>>brown later on.

The picture posted is what you can expect from a fiji yellow toadstool, if you see them brighter it is because they are stressed out and either in the process of bleaching or recovering from bleaching. You cant force them to stay that color, they will always drift one direction or the other depending on if they are happy or not. It is also possible you've seen dyed ones, the local coral collectors used to dye them yellow so people would buy all the brown ones when they ran out of nice ones to find.

Your expectations of a leather coral are too high. There is no such thing as a permanently fluorescent yellow toadstool.

[mrdss]

White to yellow is normal ? So you are saying there are no true yellow leathers ? What I had was not a bleached looking yellow but pure true yellow.

[Goomba]

There are yellow leathers, just not "lemon" yellow that you might be expecting. I found some images to help explain:

Bleached out yellow leather, what you'd see in a store
https://i.imgur.com/vtP0VRk.jpg

Transitioning to normal color, but looks really nice and bright yellow
https://i.imgur.com/Oy1uGqW.jpg

Natural color that you should expect in the end, right on the mariculture racks in the ocean
https://i.imgur.com/Ha59L5t.jpg

There will be slightly nicer ones, and blue leds or actinic bulbs MAY help the yellow pop a bit, but they should all end up about the same

[mrdss]

The pictures helped immensely. So, no one is able to maintain that nice bright yellow ? They ALL eventually turn to the mustard yellow color ?

[smokinreefer]

Yes, thanks for the pictures!!! They actually are quite helpful.

It sounds like maybe you need to look for another one of these nice white toadstools that you were lucky enough to find. Since under your care it'll turn into a true yellow toadstool. And then when it's back to its true yellow form, do some testing and logging of parameters. If it eventually darkens up again, do some more testing and logging and compare them from the earlier results.

I'm thinking that maybe a way to sustain the bright yellow would be a low nutrient high light environment?

[Goomba]

Yes for the most part they are a "mustard yellow". However there can still be nicer ones. Think about some Grey Poupon dijon mustard, kinda plain brownish yellow. Then think of Heinz brand, a sharper mustard yellow. Just keep it in a clean, natural state and it will eventually show it's true colors whether they are nice or not.

The only way to save a browned out coral is if it's currently in a system with too high of nutrients and you then correct that problem, it can "brighten" up a bit. Chronic low nutrients may lighten it as well but that is going to set up other hurdles for you to jump. However if the system it's in has optimal parameters then that's just the color it is, sometimes you have to get lucky.

[mrdss]

Finding another one is highly unlikely. I don't think the store realized they were yellow leathers since they looked almost bleach white.



I'm sure if the store realized it was a yellow leather they would not have sold me a large piece for only $30.00 tax included. If I knew then what I know now I would have bought the 4-5 pieces that were there.


Come to think of it I did see some semi white pieces just a few weeks ago. They were not the same white.