Just bought this coral, any ideas as to ID ?

[ernieming]

Hi everyone,

I'm new to the hobby and have just bought this coral, from what I know, it seem like some sort of leather finger but I'm not sure on it.

there don't seem to be tentacles coming out, is this normal ?

It has had some wax coating on it a few days ago and now its shed it all off. It seem to have many tiny bumps on its stalks but I dun see tentacles.

any idea what species of coral this is and whether its normal not to see any tentacles from it ?

 

[Anonymous]

They're there, just hard to see. I suck at softie IDs, but it looks like Sinularia to me, just a guess. The red algae growing at the base is not a good sign.

 

[Anonymous]

They're there, just hard to see. I suck at softie IDs, but it looks like Sinularia to me, just a guess. The red algae growing at the base is not a good sign.

indeed

it may even be a sick colt coral

 

[Blazin__]

looks and sounds like a leather to me. just for the fact that you said that it had a waxy coating and shed it i have several leathers in my tank and they do this on a regular basis

my guess: Lobophytum sp.

 

[ernieming]

do u have any idea how to remove those red algae at the base of the coral ?

do u think its still sick so polyps won't come out ?
its structure been expanded in the day and shrunk to very small at night.

 

[John_Brandt]

ernie, the red slime (cyanobacteria) coating the lower stalks of soft corals is a common thing. I'm curious about why, but you can observe it on even very healthy looking specimens. There may be some factor that nourishes the bacteria at that point.

You can remove it by gently rubbing it off with your fingers. But it will probably grow right back.


You can also see it here on these apparently healthy soft corals shown in another thread...