rotting leather

I purchased a leather coral at the frag fest.  I felt pretty good about it because it was already attached to a rock and was 2 inches WIDE.  This leather has shrunk and is no longer attached to the rock and when ever I blast it with my baster it spews all sorts of guck.  My ph dropped so I  pulled it out of my tank cause I could see no new life at all.  I am curious if any body else had luck with their leather they bought.  I thought this was a tough coral.  It makes me sad because I was not a member and paid 20 Bucks for a a leather frag  That I had no clue what it was to look like.  I put it in my 10 gal. and it is not firm like it used to be.

It sounds like it may be to late to save it as it has already started to waste away.  If it smells bad ( I mean really bad) then I would go ahead and chuck it as it is probably not work the risk to try and save it, because it will probably continue to waste away and jump your ammonia to unsafe levels.

You really can't cut the leather too close to the bottom, so I don't think this is the problem.

Most likely there are other factors at play.  The new cutting should go into a stable aquarium with lots of water flow almost directly on the colony.

Mark Peterson wrote: I'm sure Jake can tell us some ways to halt the decomposition.

Well not really.  Once a coral starts to decompose I recommend high water flow and cutting the decomposing section away.

I bought about 7 leather cuttings at the meeting (sarcophytons are my favorite coral), all are doing great.  I didn't have one loss.