Re: Elegance Coral   2/2/13 Bob, How do you get them to take food? I have feed mine twice now. Mysis <Need meatier, larger fare>  yesterday when lights were on and tonight when lights are off. I used a Turkey baster both times and read a lot of articles about them being swelled up, short tentacles, but still lost on feeding. I got him in the sand horizontal , with very little flow going his way. I do not want to pollute my tank with wasted food. There are only two inquires under Elegance feeding on WWM. <Really? Just checked and you're right... Not to worry, this species is a voracious feeder when it's ready, healthy. Have patience. Bob Fenner>  I read lots of articles, but not what i am looking for. Please help Re: Elegance Coral   2/3/13 Bob, thank you I feel much better. Have a good day.  <Thank you Jim. Did you see/read my olde article on keeping the species: http://www.wetwebmedia.com/elegance.htm Harder to keep specimens from Indo. nowayears. Bob Fenner> Re: Elegance Coral    2/3/13 Bob, Yes I did. I did not try to feed him yesterday, but will try again today. I will let you know what happens. Thanks, Jim P.S. Go Ravens! <Heeee! I take it this Corvus reference has to do w/ spectator sports. Cheers, B> Re: Elegance Coral   2/3/13 My lights just came on and the coral is swollen with white snot on it. I read a post back in 2006 somebody wrote in and you said it could affect other corals. Should I remove and take it back to my lfs and throw it at them? This is why I only by <buy> from live aquaria and not my lfs. Jim <Likely too late to be moving... I'd leave in place. B> Re: Elegance Coral    2/4/13 Ok thank Bob. Fish are so much easier. This is why I have a 180 Fowlr and not a 180 reef. 29Gall biocube is fun for getting back into reef. I should of read more about the elegance before I bought it. Happy diving!! <Cheers, BobF>

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.>

Decline of An Elegance Coral?  3/30/06 Scott, <Scott here! Sorry for the delay in the reply.> Thank you very much for your quick response.  I was kind of wondering if the 20k bulbs might be an issue, but if they do turn out to be then I may slowly switch them out for 10k.  I have actually been more concerned about how deep the 175 watt bulbs will be able to penetrate vs. 400 watt.  What do you think? <They'll be fine for most corals in a 24" deep tank, IMO.> One other quick question about a Elegance coral I have.  I also have a 46 gallon bowfront tank with great water quality and everything else doing spectacular but my Elegance.  When I first got it for the first couple of weeks it opened up nicely but since then over about a months time it seems to be slowly shrinking and opening less and less.  It doesn't show any other signs of stress other then it keeps getting smaller and opens less and less. For about a week it would blow up like a balloon during the day, which I thought was a little abnormal also.  I did read that it is good to target feed Elegance, which I wasn't doing for the first month and tried to start doing a week ago but only seemed to worsen its condition.  Also, a friend of mine has beautiful large Elegance that he never target feeds and is doing wonderful.   Any ideas or suggestions about what I could do to hopefully improve it condition?  Is it savable or it slowly dying? Thanks again, your feedback very very helpful Jason <Well, Jason, these corals really do benefit from directed feeding. They are also susceptible to allelopathic "attacks" from other corals in your system, so they are really best suited for a monospecific display, as the only coral in residence. Feed them small foods (less than 1/4" in size) and keep the water quality high. Do make use of the vast resources here on WWM regarding the care of this coral. Good luck! Regards, Scott F.>

Corals/Elegance Coral ... beh., gen.   3/16/06 Bob, <James today.  Bob is bored to death in Hawaii> <<Heeee! Am not. RMF>> Yesterday we purchased a green w/purple tips elegance coral from the LFS. It was healthy looking in the LFS tank, with tentacles all open/out, mouth small. I spent a good hour yesterday acclimating it to the new tank. Our tank is an established several year old 150gal, MH 250/actinic 40, with good water flow, good parameters ; nitrate low, ph=8.3, Ca 410, temp =82. This morning the coral tentacles are retracted. We are keeping it in a low-lit <Do like moderate light.> portion of the tank, on the bottom where there is less flow and will do a water change and feed it.  <I wouldn't feed until it is acclimated well.>   I have a few days before the LFS will say, sorry bud...you bought it, too late. Do you have any advice on what to look for or do in the next 48hrs to get our new specimen to open up and be happy? Has this coral gotten so hard to care for that I should send it back today?  <I'd make sure you place it on a soft/fine substrate.  Rougher substrate can/will irritate the fleshy underside of the coral.  Also read here for additional info.  http://www.wetwebmedia.com/elegance.htm   James (Salty Dog)> Jim in Va

Elegance coral and regrowth 9/29/03 Hey Guys!!!  Let me start by saying THANK YOU for such a great website and such great information.  I think I can say for all of us out here that your website is INVALUABLE!!  I am pretty new to this hobby, about 4 months, and I couldn't have accomplished what I have without you guys. <thanks kindly... do share your wisdom in kind> OK, Here's what I have for you today.  I have a Catalaphyllia jardinei (?sp?) <Catalaphyllia jardinei> that my girlfriend bought me for a present.  Unfortunately it is starting to slowly waste away.   <if you've had it for more than a few weeks... could be nutrition. They need fed almost daily... at least several times weekly with finely minced meaty foods> It is secreting a lot of mucus and the brown jelly stuff. <Ughh... a necrotic infection. This like all new livestock should have been quarantined. The brown jelly is highly contagious to other corals>   Per your website and everything else I have read, I put it in my hospital tank and gave it an Iodide bath, Cause Iodine is toxic right?   <Ahhh... used properly, it is anti-septic/medicinal so-to-speak> I also supplement with SeaChem's Reef Plus, and Reef complete so it is getting some Vitamin C also.  I have read some people will cycle antibiotics also.  Is this worth a shot and if so, which one or ones should I use?  And is there anything I can do to save my precious present? <tetracycline has been used in bare-bottoms QT tanks with some success at mfg dose strength> Also, if it starts to recover, will it regrow over the spaces where the skeleton is showing through or not?  I sure hope so. <it can indeed in time> She is the one with the pink tentacles with the purple tips.  I had her at the bottom of my 40 gallon breeder in lower light with low water flow also.  I heard from your website this is the best placement.   <agreed... although not too low of flow. 10X tank turnover is the minimum> Oh, she was also placed on her back with tentacles toward the light too.  This is correct right? <correcto> My tank parameters are: pH 8.5,sg 1.025, temp 79F, calcium 450, Nitrates 0, Nitrites 0, and ammonia 0, phosphates .02.  You guys have taught me well!!!  (I hope so anyway!  Hahahha!)    <all good... although the Calcium does not need to be that high... wane lower is Alk is flat> I change 5% of the water twice a week also.  I think this really helps with my 40 gallon breeder.   Agreed, my friend> It's so easy and fast too!!!!  Thanks for all your help guys.  I know you guys get this question a lot, but everything that I read, and I read all of the responses and questions, didn't really hit on my question.  Thanks again guys.  Will be in touch. Oh yeah, I am attaching a picture so you guys can see what your knowledge has helped me to create. <thanks kindly... could not open the zip file though. Please send pics as web-sized jpegs. Thanks kindly, Anthony>

ELEGANCE CORAL Question, my elegance coral has started closing up after the addition of magnesium. I read on WWM about the Elegance's natural surroundings, and my tank has plenty of organic plant matter. Is it doomed? I did an iodine dip according to John Warner (Warner Marine) and the poor guy looks a little better. <Not doomed. I would try adding a bit of iodide solution and feeding your specimen a "cocktail shrimp" (yum, sans sauce). And ring me back in a couple of days. Bob Fenner> Thanks, Todd Gabriel
Re: ELEGANCE CORAL Sounds good. Thanks for the advice. How do I make sure the cocktail shrimp does not float away? <It won't... place with plastic, wood tongs, maybe chop sticks if you're handy... the animal will "grab it". Bob Fenner> By the way, is that a regular size cocktail shrimp for my 3 inch diameter elegance coral? <Yes, a big shrimp if it's a good sized (let's say six inch or more across) it should be fine... otherwise, half for you, half for the Coral. Bob F> Thanks, Thanks, Todd