Leather corals are a group of soft coral which includes the genus Sarcophyton, Lobophytum and Sinularia. Leather corals are easy to care for and a great addition to any tank, and within these groups, there are several species of leather corals which come in a variety of colors, shapes, and sizes.
These hardy corals are known as leather corals because they have a hard “leathery” body and branches. The three leather coral genera are most commonly known as Toadstool leather (Sarcophyton), Devil’s Hand leather (Lobophytum) and finger leathers (Sinularia).
Toadstool leathers (Sarcophyton) and Devil’s Hand leathers (Lobophytum) are more closely related to each other than Sinularia since they have ‘dimorphic’ polyps. This means the leathers have two sets of polyps, one large prominent polyp which extends from the crown or ‘capitulum’, and very small polyps that stay embedded in the crown of the coral. Sarcophyton especially can have long flowing polyps while the polyps of Lobophtyum and Sinularia will appear smaller or may not even be visible.
Both Sarcophyton and Lobophytum can be very similar in appearance, especially as a small frag. You can tell the two apart by looking closer at the edges of the coral and at the finger shaped lobes. The Sarcophyton will still have the underside of the coral where the edges have folded upwards, where as the Lobophytum will have more solid fingers coming from the edges and more importantly, fingers growing from the inside of the coral’s capitulur.
Sinularia is a very widespread, common and diverse genus of soft coral however it does not have the dimorphic polyps like Sarcophyton or Lobophytum. Sinularia has small polyps on the surface of its branches and can actually create a solid base around the bottom of the coral. Sinularia is actually the only reef building soft coral
