Elegance Coral going south 6/21/10 Hello, <Howdy> My Aussie elegance coral appears to be going south. <Gone> :( I've only had it for 1 month. The first 2 weeks it looked great. One day I noticed a Cerith snail had crawled up its tentacles and that area of the tentacles started to shrink. A couple days later I saw a Nassarius snail climb up another tentacle. <These are feeding secondarily... the Catalaphyllia in decline> From then on the elegance would close at night and barely open in the day not exposing his inside. The tentacles started to shrink and so I moved him into my frag tank <Good> so in case it died it did not pollute my display tank. He has some brown and white stuff come out of him. He doesn't eat any of the PE Mysis shrimp <... not a good choice> I try feeding him. I think he's at his last leg. Do I try to save him still or is it his end? :( <Can still be saved> I bought this Aussie elegance coral from an east coast vendor who accidentally sent it to me when I was on vacation. So this coral has been in living in a box and jumping on planes for 5 days. Believe it or not the Aussie was still alive and did not look good. The vendor held it for 1.5 months and shipped it back to me. Like mentioned above 2 weeks it was fine but past 2 weeks hasn't been good. Look like it has the brown jelly disease or just stressed out from the shipping/snails? <Likely stress plus something else... environmental...> Please see attached image. Thanks, John <Read here: http://wetwebmedia.com/elegance.htm and the linked files above... Bob Fenner>

Re: Elegance Coral going south 6/21/10 Mabuhay Bob, <Bunsong kapatid> Thanks for the response. After reading your link I'll be removing the corals in my frag tank and place some sand in there and lie the elegance coral on it's side. I'll turn the powerhead off and just leave the HOB filter running. I've read that too much light can make the tentacles shrink and make the body puff up. <This is so> I have 4x24W T5 in my tank. Is this too much light? <in how deep a system? If the water depth over the specimen is 18 plus inches it should be okay> With the bulb combination I have a 14K look to the tank. Should I create an overhang for him? <Not necessary... but I would feed this colony per the FAQs, and would treat it with a high dose, even a dip of iodide-ate> Also how do I get the water more nutrient rich? <Time going by> Will phyto feast make my water more nutrient rich? <No> I know that phyto is not needed for elegance corals but if it's way to get my tank more nutrient rich will that work? Thanks, John <Welcome. BobF> Re: Elegance Coral going south 6/22/10 Hi Bob, <SFB> Sorry to bother you again. As for the feeding I've read the FAQ's and you mention to feed minced meat. If I chopped up the PE Mysis would that be ok? <Mmm, no... better to have larger, chunkier pieces... about "mouth size"...> I also have live baby brine shrimp, Cyclop-eeze, and rods food. Would any of these also work? <... Not really, no... please keep reading> You mention to treat it with a high dose but I'm not sure what to treat it with a high dose of. Also I've never heard of iodide-ate. Is this like Povidone or Revive? <These are mixtures of Iodine... in these valence states> Salamat, John :) <And you, BobF>

How Does My Elegance Coral Look?/Catalaphyllia Health/Trachyphyllia Health/Other questions 1/26/10 Hello, <Hello John> Long time reader first time writer. I just got my first Elegance Coral after reading everything I could find about them. There seems to be many theories about them. The theory that made the most sense to me was that now days they come from deeper waters and are more sensitive to bright light. <Wasn't aware that corals could chop themselves off rock and move :-) Catalaphyllias do best in moderate lighting.> I dipped it in iodine before I put it in the tank and I turned off my power heads and lights. The only flow I have now is 1100gph from the return pump (a little less than 10x I know). I have been increasing the amount of light each day. I have 400w PC actinic and 3 150w MH lights over a 6 foot 125 gallon tank. I put the coral under the center brace for some shade. I also have left the center MH light off the whole time. There are currently no fish in the tank. The coral looks good to me so far. I got it 4 days ago on Saturday 1/24/10. <Mmm, Saturday was the 23rd.> It appears to be fully open with tentacles extended. Based on my reading it sounded to me like a sign of a sick coral was puffy body and short tentacles. My only concerns were the tentacles seemed to be thin and stringy to me, but maybe it is just because I have never seen one in person because my picture looks like the other pictures I have seen. <Your coral appears healthy.> The tentacles appear to be sticky, but the coral does not eat. When I give it a chunk of krill it holds on to it for a bit and lets go. <This coral needs to adjust, likely will not accept food at this stage of acclimation.> I am thinking about putting something over the center brace to defuse the light from the center MH light when I turn it back on. <Why, I'd consider your lighting moderate on this size tank.> I was a little confused how to position it, but I think I got it right. Bob said on their backs, but I was not sure what its back was. I think that meant cone point facing down with heads pointed up to the light. <Logical.> The cone was not exactly symmetrical and it had a long stringy line sort curved back towards the head. I am sure you have seen this. Anyway I think I might have to tilt the coral the right a bit to get the head on the left off the sand and build the sand bed a little deeper to bury the whole skeleton. Anyway, the reason I am writing is I want you (probably Bob) to take a look at my coral and make sure it is healthy and let me know if there is anything else I should do. <<I agree w/ what James has stated here. RMF>> When should I turn the flow (2 Hydor 4s) and the center MH light back on? <I'd do so now.> Should I worry about feeding it? <No, under proper lighting, <<Wrong. B>> corals produce most of their needed food from photosynthesis. Allow adaption time before attempting to feed. Do read here and related articles/FAQ's http://www.wetwebmedia.com/elegance.htm> Are the tentacles too thin? <A little, but this should improve once lighting and moderate water flow return.> While I have you, can you look at my brain? <Unfortunately, I know little or nothing about neurosurgery.> Sometimes it looks real puffy and tall and sometimes its sort of flat a spread out more. Sometimes I notice it has its feeding tentacles out during the day. What does all of this mean? <It's alive, and appears to be doing well under your care.> Also could you ID it. It was supposed to be an open brain, but I don't think it is. <<? Where is it? RMF>> <I do suggest you Google/ID yourself. Not a difficult specie to ID. I'll start you off here. http://www.wetwebmedia.com/trachyphlliidae.htm> I feed it Krill about once or twice a week. I moved it a week or so ago from the center of the tank to make room for the Elegance Coral. I have had the brain for about 6 months. I did a lot of reading and I just overwhelmed, confused, and paranoid. <Appears you are doing just fine, relax and enjoy.> Can you also look at my SPS frags and tell my what the white on the tips means and how to treat? <Means they are growing.> I think I might of had the frag rack too high in the tank and have since moved it down. <Nope.> Also some snails were knocking them into each other. Note all of these pictures were taken at night not too long after lights out. <Gotcha.> Thanks, <You're welcome. James (Salty Dog)> John

Polyp bail out or coral just bailing out of life? Catalaphyllia hlth. - 10/24/09 Dear Crew, First of all I would like to reiterate HOW HELPFUL your site is. You have no idea how many times I visit your site on a daily basis! THANK YOU SO MUCH. OK. Now to the point of this email. I have to confess that I committed a foolish act, which was to purchase an Elegans coral. I had read that in these times Elegans corals are not surviving in reef aquaria. <Some do, some don't> However, in looking through a supplier that I respect a lot (LiveAquaria), I saw a beautiful specimen in their WYGIWYS section which originated from Australia, <Both the dealer and country are excellent sources> and which was portrayed as being more hardy. So, I fell to the temptation and I bought it...... As I should have suspected, the coral started to decline very quickly, despite following many pieces of advice from the web. The coral began forming these pink threads that I learned were likely mesenteric filaments formed in response to distress, the tentacles begun to resorb, etc. Upon advice from LiveAquaria, which at this point refunded my money (but not my sad feeling for committing this act), I also gave the coral an Iodine dip. <Good idea> After the Iodine dip, the coral became "cleaner" and although in very bad shape, it started to inflate a bit and no longer produced the mesenteric filaments. Still, every day I can see that it is going down and is not likely to survive. <Is it under... "Catalaphyllia" conditions?> Yesterday, it started to produce these bubbles (sorry my camera is not working) of about 1/4 inch. Upon closer inspection with my magnifying glass, I realized that the bubbles (which are milky transparent) contained about 10-20 little pink "dots". To my surprise, the little dots appeared to be moving inside the bubble. I immediately went to the web to investigate, and although I did not see a picture, there were some indications that I might be witnessing a case of "polyp bail out", and that the dots within the bubbles might be little planulae. Does this makes sense to you? <Mmm... I think I follow what you're trying to explain> ...and if it does, I guess this would be the last attempt of my Elegans to clone itself before dying. If this is the case, what are the chances for the planulae to survive in the aquarium? <Low> Is there anything I can do to help them? <Move this specimen to more propitious circumstances... a "dirty" tank/sump, with less light likely...> I am afraid your answer will probably be "NO", but I HAD to ask. All the best, and thank you again, Vivian <And re-read on WWM re the species: http://wetwebmedia.com/elegance.htm and the linked files above. Bob Fenner> Re: polyp bail out or coral just bailing out of life? - 10/25/09 Dear Bob, thank you for your response. I have now been able to take pictures, which I am enclosing. My question is: (1) do you think that this is a case of polyp bail out? <Mmm, can't tell, but this Elegance is definitely doing poorly> (2) do you think that the moving dots are planulae? <planulae... maybe> Now answering your questions: > <Is it under... "Catalaphyllia" conditions?> I had already read your very insightful article on Catalaphyllia, and thus I had placed the coral semi-buried in a sandy bottom, within a "cave" that I made that would protect it from strong light and water currents. However, I do realize that this might not be enough in a heavily skimmed environment with not many nutrients floating about. <Correct> > <Move this specimen to more propitious circumstances... a "dirty" tank/sump, with less light likely...> That is a great idea. I will move it to the refugium, even if now might be too late. <Getting there... BobF> Thanks, Vivian

Elegance coral question for Bob Fenner 5/10/09
Hi Bob,
I have a pair of elegance corals.
<Mmm, Catalaphyllias are near the top in terms of physical stingy-ness...
And don't mix well often with other specimens that they're "unfamiliar with"... Have you read on WWM re...?>
I have a pink tip frag from a 19 year old colony that's been with me for about 6 months and is growing rapidly.
Currently he is the lone inhabitant of my tank with a 3.5" DSB established for almost 2 years and about 14 blades of seagrass- shoal grass I think. I picked up a frag of an Australian purple tipped elegance at MAX '09 in Costa Mesa about 5 weeks ago and has been in QT since. He is eating well and looks 'happy.'
a) I'm not sure about the length of QT required for ECS to manifest itself.
<...Elegance Coral Syndrome? See WWM re the health of this species period>
b) Will there be a problem if the pink tip elegance and purple tip elegance touch each other?
<Yes. Very likely>
They expand so much! The pink tip appears to have a stronger sting than the purple tip when food is presented.
<They should expand and contract somewhat... That one/both are doing this a great deal is symptomatic of "warring">
c) As I mentioned I have 14 blades of seagrass that have been there since Jan '09. As new ones grow, old ones die -a turn over of about 3-4 leaves a week. I was hoping for more blades of grass!!!
<What do you think are the limiting factors here? Light, some nutrient/s?>
I started using FW plant fertilizer tabs buried 2" below the DSB by the roots per Eric Borneman's advice at MAX '09, but I see no change.
<Does take time... Could be summat else>
Thank You,
Narayan
<Be chatting, Bob Fenner>
Re: Elegance coral question for Bob Fenner 5/10/09
Hi Bob,
Thank you very much for your reply.
a) The purple tip elegance coral is still in QT. The pink tip and purple tip elegance have not been in contact yet. The expansion and contraction is based on light. The pink tip reduced it's size by 50% at night. The purple tip basically withdraws completely in to its skeleton at night -from being 6" across down to about 1"!
<Mmm, vigorous... again, I would not likely "mix" the two specimens in the same system/water>
b) I don't know how long to QT the purple tip to ensure that it doesn't suffer from ECS. Is 6 weeks enough?
<See WWM re... I don't "believe" in such a syndrome... there are ways to strengthen this and other Scleractinian, Cnidarian species re too-easy mortality. These are adequately covered/archived on our site>
c) As for the shoal grass, they grow fast enough. The old leaves just die off just as fast as new growth! That's what I need to stop. Currently I get 3-4 new leaves a week, same as the death rate! So I guess I have a stable population of shoal grass leaves. They are planted in a mature 2 year old 3.5" DSB, in 12" of water under a 20K 70W metal halide bulb. They only problem I see is that since I'm also fishless, and have been so for 2 years, there are ton of different pods left over from my live rock days that now hang out on the grass blades. I wonder if they are my problem!
Thanks a lot!
Narayan
<Couldn't say... but I do think both you and I could devise an experimental method to test this hypothesis... Mmmm? Bob Fenner>
Re: Elegance coral question for Bob Fenner 5/11/09
Hi Bob!
I'm just recovering from Multiple Tank Syndrome... I guess I need a separate setup to house the two elegance corals properly as I like them both and want to keep them both... This will also allow me to try a different species of seagrass in the other tank as a bonus!!
<Ahh! Have you seen my Waikiki Aq. pix of their biotope for this species? Posted on... WWM>
Okay! Where do I start debugging my problem! My goal is to have a tank with a DSB covered in seagrass with a lone elegance coral in the middle -I'm okay if the coral is half hidden by the seagrass... Here's the setup.
- 16" cube tank with a 14 gallon sump.
<Really too small a volume>
Estimated water volume is around
22 gallons.
- 70W 20K MH. The coral and grass are under <12" of water. The coral is directly under the bulb. The grass is 4" from the center of the bulb, along the axis of the bulb as the light intensity along the axis of the bulb is not that different from just under the bulb...
- Fishless & Skimmer less. The tank used to house 17 lbs of live rock and a Duncan coral for 1.5 years as the DSB was maturing. The coral grew from 1 polyp to 40+ polyps in that time period.
- About 3-5 lbs of live rock in the sump.
- 3.5" DSB -Grain size about 0.5mm.
- Top off (2 cups a day) contains Calcium Hydroxide.
- Specific gravity is set at 1.025 -1.026.
- Temp is between 77.5F and 78.5F as the heater cycles.
- Moderate to low flow as the Elegance seems to be happiest with that...
- I feed the coral Mysis or Arctic pods once a week.
- The tank gets 20 drops of Reef Nutrition Phytoplankton once a week for all the pods and one lone Featherduster worm.
Thanks a lot for your time!
Narayan
<Please (re?)read the Catalaphyllia mat.s archived on WWM. B>

I'm afraid that I've damaged my Elegance Coral 3/12/09 Caryophylliidae/Health <Hello Karen> I came home from work this afternoon and found my Elegance Coral somewhat shriveled, then swollen. When the tissue receded a bit, I saw what appeared to be a very tiny (approx ¼ inch or smaller) Cerith Snail attached to the tissue. I assumed (yes, I know what that makes me) that the snail was bothering the coral, hence the swelling and receding. I tried to blow the snail off with a turkey baster, and when it would not budge, I picked up the coral and attempted to knock it off with my finger. When it still refused to move, I pulled on the end, and to my absolute amazement, a large (well over an inch long and approx ½ inch in diameter) came out. I did not see a live snail in the shell, so I'm again assuming that the poor coral was having a snack and I interrupted. I've not seen anything about the Elegance Corals eating snails, although I know they eat meaty foods. Is there anything in particular that I should do at this point, and is it likely that I've damaged the coral beyond recovery? It's now very closed and unhappy looking. <This coral has very sensitive tissue and I'm guessing some damage occurred. Only time will tell here, but I'd say chances for recovery are good. May want to read here, related articles/FAQ's. http://www.wetwebmedia.com/elegance.htm > Thanks so much for your help. <You're welcome. James (Salty Dog)> Karen

Elegance Coral Bacterial Infection -- 02/19/09 Hi, <Hello Josh, Minh at your service.> I have had an Elegance Coral for almost two months. It acclimated very quickly and did really well until about a week ago when I noticed that the tentacles wouldn't expand as far. They became shorter and shorter each day. Then it would do weird things like keep its tentacles short but the whole body part of it would swell up pretty big. I can pretty much say I am convinced it is suffering from the common bacterial infection that these are notable for since I am seeing what appears to be necrotic tissue on it now. <I'm sorry but the symptoms you've described are in line with the disease brought up by Eric Borneman as Elegance Coral Disease (ECS: http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2008-01/eb/index.php). There are sporadic anecdotal reports of treatment using various anti-biotic dips and quarantine methods. However, after having kept elegance corals for many years and have received several ill specimens to study, I've yet to reproduce consistent repeatable results from these treatment methods.> I've read in other forums on here about Nitrofurazone or Doxycycline as a very good treatment for these corals. I just can't find anything on where to buy this stuff and of course then how to properly dose them. Is there anything else readily available at a LFS that would be as good or almost as good? <Nitrofurazone is an antibacterial medication often used to treat disease in freshwater and marine fish particularly for topical skin infections. Julian Sprung first introduced Nitrofurazone/Doxycycline elegance treatment many years ago with reported success in many cases. There are various other antibacterial dip treatments such as a botanical remedy called Melafix that was suggested to me by the main coral handler from LiveAquaria. He has had great success in treating wild caught elegance with a Melafix dip (~5ml in a 1 gallon container for 5-10 minutes) immediately upon arrival. You will find that the common thread amongst these treatments is the importance of catching the bacterial infection at the onset of contamination and repeating the treatment. Once the common set of symptoms is visible, it can be very difficult to defeat. However, I would suggest for you to at least give it a shot. Nitrofurazone is sold by Aquatronics under the trademark "Furacyn" and Melafix is sold by API. Both should be available at your local fish store in the fish/disease treatment section. Best of luck.> Thanks in advance! Josh <You're welcome. Cheers, Minh Huynh.>

Elegance Coral, hlth. -07/18/08 Hi Crew, You all do an amazing job of imparting your knowledge, experience and wisdom. <Thank you> I hope you can help me. I've done a lot of reading <Hmm, no offense, but not quite enough reading. What you describe is classic "elegance coral disease." Please see here: http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2008-01/eb/index.php > on this but unless you see it live it's hard to interpret. I bought an Elegance Coral two weeks ago. It really caught my eye at my LFS, it was fully expanded, looked very healthy and beautiful. He had it in his tank for 5 days. I did not quarantine it but did take the time to acclimate it over 1 1/2 hours using a drip. It looked great for a week, looking the same as it did in the LFS and eating. This week it has looked very unhappy, not expanding and sloughing off what appears to some stringy mucous or gunk from around the tentacles. It seems very swollen with its mouths open and the tentacles are completely retracted, they appear to be about 1/8" long. Today I noticed that the skeleton seems to have a fuzzy white coating almost like a mould of some sort. From the descriptions I have researched I don't think that it is brown jelly infection; or is it? Should I count my losses at this point? <Maybe, or maybe not. I'd encourage you to do more reading/investigating. It might likely be too late, but there might be something to be gained from a little experimentation (a learning experience at least).> I have 2 torch corals, a donut coral, a cat eye coral, two open brain corals, a Tonga coral, a Kenya tree and a waving hands coral (sorry for not having the scientific names) and two crocea clams. I have 5 blue green Chromis, two ocellaris clowns, a purple Firefish and a citron goby, two fire shrimp and several turbo snails and hermits. Everything is doing very well, they are healthy, eating expanding, etc. 65 gallon tank with 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites, > .5 nitrates, SG 1.025, temp 80°, phosphate 0, pH 8.0-8.4 and KH of 7-8, oxygen 6, calcium 430. The tank is 4 almost 5 months old. Please help, I don't want to infect the rest of my tank. <The "good" news is that elegance coral disease is not known to be contagious to non-elegance corals. However, it does seem highly contagious among other elegance corals. So if you have any other elegance corals in this tank I would quarantine the sick one asap and run as much carbon as possible, do big water changes, etc.> Desperately waiting, Robert. <Good luck, Sara M.>

New/old elegance coral info 10/25/07 Hey Bob, have you seen this yet? http://www.elegancecoral.org/Page_4.html <Mmm, no... but the title seems familiar...> It's a longer read, but I do think it's worth it. I was thinking it might be worth trying to get on WWM in some form. Sara <Will add as a link here. BobF>--