elegance coral

[jamal]

is anyone keeping this coral in their tank successfully? if so, for how long and under what conditions?

[Jager]

i have one that is continuing to make new mouths and grow, started with 5-6 now working on 9. about 4 months old, ybenormal has my other one which has one extremely large polyp and mouth.

 

bendalet has an extremely large on in his tank.

 

can you be more specific in waht you want to know about conditions wise? mine is under t5 tek lighting, in the middle of the highest flow area of my tank and half is shaded a bit under a rock.

[SDBDRZ]

I am currently keeping 2 elegance corals. I have kept them in the past as well.

 

Conditions: I keep them in the substrate and avoid turbulent direct flow on them. In the past I have kept them successfully in a large refugium.

[jamal]

well i read that they are difficult to keep and generally ver fragile but i would like to keep one and i saw a beautiful one at f&f the other day which got me thinking about keeping one. so i guess i mean water params general livestock and especially thing that may be out of the ordinary and experiences/philosophies on how to keep one successfully

[SDBDRZ]

In the wild they are found in grassy/muddy, high nutrient waters with a lot of light and not a lot of flow. For the most part they are alone without other corals encroaching on them.

 

The ones I have are in my SPS tank and I have tried to shield them from as much flow as possible. I dont have a DSB but I have about 1" of crushed coral so I try to build up a little spot for them.

 

I will be moving them out of this tank in the next month or 2 to a lower flow tank with a fine sand bed. I think the reason most elegance dont do well in captivity is because our SPS tanks are not even remotely close to their wild environment. (high flow, low nutrient, packed with other corals, etc)

[jamal]

yea i read an article on wet web media saying the same thing. so in an sps tank i should avoid getting one? i have a dsb but i do have several corals though i can place it on the sand in an area of low flow. if i provide for those things but have low nutrients can i be successful. i dont want to buy one just to try it.

[YBeNormal]

Julian Sprung discussed elegance coral during his presentation at the spring meeting, mentioning that they seem be more fragile than in the past. He noticed one of his declining and noticed a unique boring protozoa when he examined the coral under a microscope. His theory was that this may be one cause of the high mortality rate.

 

Mine is doing fine but I've only had it a few months. Many people are able to keep them for 6 months or more before they suddenly die for no apparent reason while others have had theirs for several years.

 

I'm much older than I used to be and the mind is beginning to fade so I hope someone will jump in with corrections or additional information.

[jamal]

thanx bob thats what i hear. i really want one but i have heard so much mixed info. some say feed it some say dont feed it. some say i have had it for a year or more others cant keep it past 6 mths. i cant say its like a moorish idol or a meyers butterfly where they are such specialized or finnicky eaters because they will eat but if an internal attack is occuring it may have always been present and struck when the coral was weaker for whatever reason. i would like to hear others and just make a decision and hope i guess

[dzekunoi]

I think you can find tons of info on Elegance husbandry on MD forum - Eric Boneman did some research on it.

[bigJPDC]

I'd put quotes around that - Eric did some 'research'. Over on RC Eric's 'project' email thread gets tossed into every elegance question and it's a good read now when you take recent events into account.

 

There were two elegances at F&F lately, only one the last time I was there and they did look good. I got mine from there on 12/15. It started like this:

 

 

Then eventually moved to this:

 

 

And now stays in this kind of condition:

 

 

I target feed it every day and it does eat, I'm just not sure if the polyps will ever extend. It seems to extend more on days when I dose iodine but I am very hopeful. After I get my nano established for a few months, I may relocate it so I can give it more attention.

 

jp

[jamal]

yes i was at f&f on monday and saw the elegance coral there and was very tempted but i have heard mixed reports of hardiness and suitability. also some guys on RC from the UK talked about how they have aqua/maricultured e corals coming there which are much hardier and that austrailian collected e corals are also hardier so perhaps i will speak to sean about this

[bigJPDC]

you mean the 'clowns' that post the same 3 pictures of their elegances over and over again and claim the US is killing the reefs? Ya, OK. The coral forums seem to bring out the trolls there for some reason.

 

I don't like the asthetic look of the ones that Sean has right now, but I know he wouldn't sell them if he didn't think they were good to go. I'd go over your tank specs and parameters with him before buying.

[jamal]

yea i just called there and they were saying that it has been in the store and healthy for 2 months but they have been keeping the nutrients high. i have alot of sps coral that may not enjoy this situation and i wonder if i can feed it or provide for all other needs except this and be successful?

[bigJPDC]

=) Sean could keep anything alive, so I'd think about how it would fit overall into your system. I am FWLR and LPS, so mostly just let the food fly and float around. I am actually looking forward to moving it to my nano, in case it is something environmental.

 

jp

[jamal]

i will be doing a fowlr at some point so perhaps in there if i keep fish that dont eat lps but i am to afraid it will die to try it in my tank

[Tom C.]

What is the species of the elegant coral? I wanna do some research on it. Thanks.

[bigJPDC]

You mean this? Catalaphyllia jardinei

[geofloors]

I have an elegance coral I have had for at least 7 years now. I have always kept it in an sps tank with high light and high flow. As a matter of fact if the current changes it will not extend as much as when the current is strong. The skeleton on mine is about 12" long and the tissue expands to about 24". I do target feed with table shrimp that I chop up. Since I have had this coral it has grown about 8" taller. I am actually considering removing it from the tank to cut off the bottom of the skeleton. It does take up alot of room in my 280g.

 

 

 

George

[bigJPDC]

gorgeous. I am amazed at how many variations there are of this coral.

I have nothing to lose, I am going to move mine over to where it has more flow and will watch for a couple days.

 

jp

[lanman]

You know Geo - for a coral that is HARD to keep alive, yours looks might healthy. Perhaps you should frag it and get some more pieces out into the world. A reliable aquacultured elegance would be quite a boon to the hobby.

 

bob

[SDBDRZ]

George has the magic touch. Gotta be something in that Baltimore water

[jamal]

well george if you ever frag it i may have to attempt it as i imagine it would be somewhat more hardy than wild caught

[Jager]

elegance dont frag well usually. they are one of the hardest corals to sucessfully frag sinec they dont recover well if you accidently cut a mouth or break the skeleton wrong.

 

but they are pretty, ive had 3 varieties of color in mine. the bright green neon, the pink neon with green tentecles and purple tiops and this orange/brown ive got now

[lanman]

elegance dont frag well usually. they are one of the hardest corals to sucessfully frag sinec they dont recover well if you accidently cut a mouth or break the skeleton wrong.

 

but they are pretty, ive had 3 varieties of color in mine. the bright green neon, the pink neon with green tentecles and purple tiops and this orange/brown ive got now

 

And it sure doesn't look like it wants to frag itself It looks very happy.

 

bob

[geofloors]

Thanks guys but fragging it will be too risky. I'd rather keep it whole and have it live then frag it and have it die. I don't like fragging "WALL" type corals.

 

 

George