Two Things

[Karlbob]

My wife spotted these on a piece of live rock at a local store, along with a mushroom coral. We bought their rock, and now we're wondering what these things are. When we put them into the aquarium, the smaller one swiveled to face into the current.

Does anyone know what they are, and how I can keep them alive?

The tank is 20 gallons, with 15 lbs. of live rock, one hermit crab, a hang-on power filter and a 175 gph powerhead.

 

[SnowManSnow]

leather coral...

the one on the top looks like a finger leather.... (sinulari) spelling?

the bottom looks more like a cabbage leather

b

 

[c-town]

it's leather coral. the top looks like a toadstool and the bottom one cabbage or devil's hand

 

[Karlbob]

Thanks for the IDs. It's nice to know that our live-rock freebies are something that people buy individually.

I don't know how well it comes through in the pictures, but their coloration is almost identical. My wife and I suspected that they were larger and smaller examples of the same species, rather than two separate types of coral.

I jury-rigged two fluorescent fixtures over them, and replaced one of the generic aquarium tubes with a combination fluorescent/actinic bulb. A 10 watt household lighting-style compact fluorescent brings me up to 40 watts for a 20-gallon tank. Since I can't afford to spend hundreds of dollars on lighting right now, it will have to do.

 

[cindre2000]

Leathers can be very hard to ID, but it is a leather.