caring for a finger leather

[Anonymous]

i'm not trying to be combative here

:lol: could have fooled me. There is a lot of info out there regarding the chemicals that leathers exude as being more toxic than the average "coral warfare".
It's not anecdotal, it's well documented, go google and see.

http://www.reefs.org/library/aquarium_n ... 697_3.html

...
As it turns out, some genera of soft corals are inherently more toxic than others, with a degree of variability between species. Sarcophytons are categorized as those considered immediately and most toxic.

In fact, Sarcophytons are producers of over fifty different chemical compounds, many of them unknown and of uncertain chemical makeup. By far the largest number of compounds belong to a class of chemicals know as terpenes. These were compounds previously thought to exist only in terrestrial plants as predatory deterrents.

http://www.aquariumfish.com/aquariumfis ... 90&search=

...
It has been well known that many soft corals contain numerous toxic compounds, such as terpenoids and sarcophine (isolated from Sarcophyton glaucum, a commonly imported leather coral). These chemicals have been shown to be very efficient in deterring predators, but recent evidence suggests that they are also released into surrounding waters as a mechanism for maintaining living space. Toxic terpenes have been isolated from seawater surrounding several soft corals, including the common aquarium finger or tree coral, Sinularia spp. The use of chemicals to inhibit the growth of one species by another is called allelopathy and is quite common in terrestrial ecosystems.

But hey, it's just anecdotal evidence, eh? :lol:

 

[Anonymous]

oy

i'm not saying that allelopathy is an anecdotal phenomenon-nowhere in my posts have i implied as such

i'm not saying that leathers are NOT allelopathic

i'm saying that ALL corals are allelopathic, more or less, and the only thing needed to deal with the phenomenon is appropriate husbandry practice

i'm saying that not all observed coral deaths are from allelopathy, and that most conclusions of coral death being due to allepothay by hobbyists are done so with absolutely NO scientific proof or data

i'm saying that plenty of people keep leathers with other mixed corals with NO problems whatsoever.