When to call a leather dead?

My cabbage,which was a giant,about six weeks ago went into a slough and I believe it got stuck in it.It has stayed closed and shrunk to about 1/6 of it's normal size.

Now i'm pretty experienced with leathers and used to them being finicky,but never had one die on me.(I have many other leathers in my tank doing great as well as all my other corals).

I've refused to discard it knowing they can expel thier water and close for long periods of time and the fact that i've seen no disease,decay or flesh falling apart.I've even tryed gently cleaning with a toothbrush about 2 weeks ago as I had success with a toadstool that acted similar several years ago by loosening up the dead layer of slough,couple days and the toadstool was back.

However,this isn't the case this time,still closed tight,growing a layer of film algae and now my hermits are nibbling away at it (i'm assuming dead tissue).I'm a big time softy guy and this was one of my favorite showpieces.

Any ideas?Any way to save it?

 

Pics? bump

 

Have you tried relocating it?

Can you dip it?

 

In my experience when a leather dies it completely disintegrates and goes away. I have had some do this. I have also had my cabbage shrink down to a fraction of normal size for up to a week then fill back out after a while.

I would just leave it, it will come back

 

I dip mine in hydrogen peroxide, 50/50 with tank water for a minute. They open right up in a couple days.

 

This wasn't one of mine was it? I hope everything goes well. They are pretty resilient.

 

Not at the moment,I don't,it just looks like a po'd cabbage,nothing wrong in appearence other than shunken and closed,thanks for the bump

At about 3 weeks,yes,to a higher flow spot.Did an iodine dip with wc water when I moved it Cheryl,no change.

I agree for the most part,my cabbage by far sloughs more than any other leather in my tank,no signs of disintergration,even being closed for this long wouldn't have me so worried except the hermits munching chunks now and making me think it's dead tissue they're after.

Could you elaborate on this Anemone? I've never heard of a peroxide dip for leathers. Any others willing to chime in on this?,at this point i'll try whatever it takes to attempt to save this leather.

 

Yeah Aaron,it's the beast I got from you,pretty bummed,you seen how well it was doing.

 

leathers sometimes shed a waxy film. They may remain sad and droopy for a few days during the process but it is usually a normal process. Strong water flow can help slough off the film layer.

 

as said earlier, leathers will just disinigrate when it is dead. It can occur very quickly. We made a mistake of buying a VERY LARGE, VERY EXPENSIVE nepthia from a local reefer. We placed it in a QT tank and unknown to us, it had a bacterial infection and in a week a football sized nepthia is now gone! We dip everything we get, however didnt really think we needed to with a leather. Was wrong!