How many Elegance Corals have you tried?

[Greg Hiller]

I've killed three. Two from shops, one tiny baby from a hobbyist, but apparently they had not had the mother colony for long, and it died too.

These were once supposed to be easy, now no one can keep a newly imported one alive. Some have ones that are many years old and doing fine.

 

[nichols]

I had one from 1986 until 1994 when I broke down my tanks and sold out due to buying a home and having a baby both at the same time. I kept one in my 75 about 1 1/2 years ago. It lasted about 4 months and then receded till it died.

 

[Armando]

two. and i'm done.

 

[gurumasta]

i had one about a year and was growing and healthy. sold it to another member when i broke down my tank and dont know the current update.

 

[JeremyR]

Have had the current animal for about 5 years, it was owned by a hobbyist a couple before that. It's in 3 parts now, it has partially decalcified on a couple of occasions, and the "babies" have refused to grow skeleton, but have been alive seperately for a good year now.

We choose not to sell this coral, it just doesn't live anymore.

 

[Andy O]

I had one that lasted for about 4 months. I noticed that it did best when the water wasn't as clean.

 

[nitrofish]

from what I have heard the older elagence corals came from shallow waters and survived well, but they where over collected and are basicly all gone (or close to it) now there are only the harder to keep deeper water elegence that have don't survive well .

 

[Firefish]

The trick is to convince your clown to host in it...
I had this one in TN

 

[skyedolphan]

I will agree that maybe a trick is to have the clowns host but I had minefor 4 yrs before the clowns and it did well have had the clowns in it for almost 2 yrs and it is bigger than ever and seems to grow faster

so yes have had 1 for almost 6 yrs ( willbe in NOvember) at this time I am trying to decide if I need to set up another species only tank for for the elegance and the squamosa as I am outta room in my main tank and my elegance is startingto have war with anything that is near it

 

[Greg Hiller]

Dawn,

Very cool, I look forward to seeing it. I doubt I'll ever have one unless somebody breaks down a tank and sells a really old one.

 

[Greg Hiller]

So far from the poll. 10 dead, 4 alive, 2 additional that might live. Not so good.

 

[agent6473]

Greg,
I have an interesting account of an elegance. I bought it a few months ago and it looked fairly healthy, but not as meaty as some of the "healthy ones I've seen. The skeleton is a large flat cone about 6" wide at the largest point, but the flesh never extends that much. I read to place the flat cone with the flesh facing towards the glass of the tank and let the bottom side of the flesh rest on the sand. It was not in this orientation in the shop. I did this and the animal seemed to do well for a month. Then one day it looked like it was dying. The flesh was totally closed and looked like it was receding into the skeleton. Some sand got in the skeleton on one side of the cone and that flesh died off. Then, mirarculously, the coral seemed to make somewhat of a recovery. The flesh on the other end came back and looked like it did before, but then faded into a dead spot of bare skeleton at the other end. I try to keep the sand out of that dead spot, but the tissue does not seem to regrow there, and I can't tell if it's receding more or staying the same. The coral has been in this condition for at least 2 months. I feed the coral mysis, cyclopeeze, etc in hopes that it'll recover, but it still doesn't look as meaty as the other elegance I've seen pictures of. Throughout the day it will look varying degrees of healthy. This is by far the most confusing coral behavior I've seen in my tank, and I have no idea what I should do for this coral besides leave it where it is and see where the reef gods take it. Do you have any suggestions? I paid a pretty penney for this coral and would like to see it recover, and it isn't as stunning as it should be with some exposed skeleton on one end.

Chris

 

[Andy O]

For those of you who have had success what level have you placed it in your tank as well as how is it situated (flat, on side, etc). Thanks.

 

[Greg Hiller]

>Do you have any suggestions? <

Ha...I'm not the one to ask. I'm the one that killed three! I even tried Julian's antibiotic treatment on one....still died.

 

[agent6473]

When yours died, Greg, describe the demise of the coral. Was it similar to mine, or was it the entire coral at the same time? How long did they last in your system?

 

[Greg Hiller]

The death of all of mine were the same as the standard syndrome of this coral. After a few days, maybe a week, they stop expanding as much. Expand less and less each day, then start to look like the tissue is pulling away from the skeleton near the edges. After about 3-6 weeks the thing is clearly toast. The last time I purchased a wild collected colony from a shop I put it into a tank that had not had a skimmer on it in quite some time (the theory is that our tanks are too clean these days, I've NO idea whether it's true or not). After it started to decline I tried an antibiotic treatment on it. I started the treatment pretty early, before it was very far gone. Looked good after treatment, but still declined and died. The treatment had once before worked for me for a Lobophyllia, which has continued to do well for many years (just fragged one of the heads because it had grown so much). Anyhow, treatment was a 24 hour bath in...I think it was Neomycin that I used. 100% change, then another bath for 24 hours then back in the tank. The bath was in a bucket in my sump with an airstone for water movement (no light). FWIW!

 

[zemuron114]

nitro fish is right that the new ones are coming from deeper waters.
Elegance are like goni's or alveoporas in that they like dirty water with nitrates and crap. Thats why goni's do well if they are directly fed 1-3 times a week. Also, since the collectors are going deeper the boat time when they are just sitting in bins is much much longer, which i think is a big part of it. They are cramming hundreds of these into small bins to get volume and dont care about what happens to them. I wont buy a new one, only if someone is breaking down and have had it past a year.

I really think the only reason why they dont live long anymore is the poor collection practices that the collectors use. I bet you could collect one yourself and it would thrive. Its to bad, cuz they are one of my favorite corals

 

[ReeferMedic]

i had one about a year and was growing and healthy. sold it to another member when i broke down my tank and dont know the current update.

It's still doing great Derek. Here it is a couple of weeks ago.

 

[ReeferMedic]

For those of you who have had success what level have you placed it in your tank as well as how is it situated (flat, on side, etc). Thanks.

Mine was on the bottom off to the side of a 250 14k de mh in Derek's tank if, I remember correctly. I have it placed the same under a 250 10k mh de and it's doing very well. I do have a decent amout of nutrients in the water though. I'm definately pushing the boundries a bit with all the fish I have in my system. So, I guess at the present moment, I'm 1 for 1.

 

[starrfish]

Just killed my first one a couple of weeks ago ....never again.