Elegance coral detaching from skeleton?

[mr.lordacan]

Morning all, a couple days ago I purchased an elegance coral. In the ride home I noticed the top of its skeleton was showing, but nothing extreme and it seemed happy at the store. Fast forward, it’s seemed happy throughout the day and has been inflated, but this morning I can’t help but feel its polyps are further detaching from its skeleton? It’s in a low-moderate flow area with low light. Could anyone chime in to confirm this is what’s happening based on the photos and is there anything I can do to save it? Also, can elegance continue on outside of their skeleton? I’ve read 1-2 threads that they will continue eating/living without their skeleton, but didn’t see anyone post updates on the status of their elegance.

 

[LIreefguy]

i can't tell from picture, but it that jelly like substance around that elegance. if so, it's probably already too far gone and i would throw it out. elegance are a tough coral to keep. i always dip all of mine before adding to my tank with chemiclean and cipro mix. bacterial infections are very common in them.

 

[mr.lordacan]

i can't tell from picture, but it that jelly like substance around that elegance. if so, it's probably already too far gone and i would throw it out. elegance are a tough coral to keep. i always dip all of mine before adding to my tank with chemiclean and cipro mix. bacterial infections are very common in them.

I’ll try and post a better pic under white light when I get home. I believe the jelly you’re referring to is the flesh? It’s my first elegance, so maybe I didn’t pick up on it being jelly at the store - but I’d hope they wouldn’t sell it if so.

 

[LIreefguy]

If you aren’t sure. Use a turkey baster and slowly blow on it. If stuff starts flying off that’s a very bad thing

 

[mr.lordacan]

If you aren’t sure. Use a turkey baster and slowly blow on it. If stuff starts flying off that’s a very bad thing

I’ll give it a go with the Turkey blaster. Here’s a photo with white lights on

 

[dedragon]

tbh, i think lireefguy is right, I think that elegance is too far gone

 

[mr.lordacan]

Okay, thanks. Really stings… I just bought this coral 2 days ago. I wish I’d caught this while at the store.

 

[vetteguy53081]

This will be unfortunate as it may be elegance coral syndrome (ECS). If your coral has this disease, you’ll see swelling around the oral disc and unopened polyps or a white mucus coating. My suspect is flow issue. You don’t want the flow to be too hard or too soft but rather keeping the tentacles flowing like leaves in a light wind. Too little flow and your elegance coral will not thrive as with too much flow which you risk tearing the polyps which are delicate.
Also, proper flow brings nutrients to the polyps assuring they remain fed plus you’ll see the typical sweeping movement as they drift in the current.
This one started as baseball size:

 

[mr.lordacan]

This will be unfortunate as it may be elegance coral syndrome (ECS). If your coral has this disease, you’ll see swelling around the oral disc and unopened polyps or a white mucus coating. My suspect is flow issue. You don’t want the flow to be too hard or too soft but rather keeping the tentacles flowing like leaves in a light wind. Too little flow and your elegance coral will not thrive as with too much flow which you risk tearing the polyps which are delicate.
Also, proper flow brings nutrients to the polyps assuring they remain fed plus you’ll see the typical sweeping movement as they drift in the current.
This one started as baseball size:

Out of curiosity, is this flow too low?

 

[LIreefguy]

I can’t open video. But too much flow is flesh pulling
Like vette said you want light flow like a nice country breeze

it’s possible it was receding in their tank Also and still opening so you couldn’t see it , then with the stress of transit and new water conditions it just hasn’t opened. Unless you see flesh peeling I wouldn’t throw it out just yet but my feeling is this one isn’t going to make it

 

[vetteguy53081]

Out of curiosity, is this flow too low?

Just a little. Leaves blowing in wind example would be more of the flow OR about 5-10% more than shown in video.
Idea is to deliver food to the coral and keep debris off of it. A perfect food is Chopped Krill

 

[dedragon]

optimally flow can be increased slightly as vetteguy said

 

[mr.lordacan]

optimally flow can be increased slightly as vetteguy said

Thanks to everyone for the help. It doesn’t look like this one’s gonna pull through. I’m attaching three photos. Photo 1 is my first day with the coral. Photo 2 was 3 hours ago, and photo 3 is just now. You can see some skeleton in photo 1 (2 days ago) but the couple hours between photo 2 and 3 are pretty significant and it seems like this corals going downhill fast

 

[dedragon]

i wouldnt attempt feeding this guy just yet, vette is yours also have a snail graveyard underneath? heres mine still banished to the back corner lol...they get huge

 

[dedragon]

it seems like this corals going downhill fast

unfortunately it appear like that is the case, i would probably cipro treatment if you had it on hand but it looks pretty far gone

 

[hardcoralsash]

hey everyone i’m having a lot of trouble with my elegance too, it looks like this and i don’t know if i should throw it out. any advice helps. thanks so much

 

[mr.lordacan]

No, but I’ll be picking some up for the future to be safe

unfortunately it appear like that is the case, i would probably cipro treatment if you had it on hand but it looks pretty far gone

 

[hardcoralsash]

hey everyone i’m having a lot of trouble with my elegance too, it looks like this and i don’t know if i should throw it out. any advice helps. thanks so much

@vetteguy53081

 

[vetteguy53081]

hey everyone i’m having a lot of trouble with my elegance too, it looks like this and i don’t know if i should throw it out. any advice helps. thanks so much

Assure nitrate and phosphate are not elevated and lighting to your elegance is moderate. BUT . . . . . This puffiness is generally not a good sign although it may be temporary. Mentioned above, these corals are susceptible to ECS which is Elegance Coral Syndrome which only elegance coral seem to acquire. In many cases ECS is the beginning of decline as you will see it get an inflated oral disk or deflated tentacles and their mouths remaining open.
Keep an eye on it and if this persists, you can give it a 3 minute dip in freshwater the same temperature as display tank with iodine in which it often recovers.
It doesnt look terrible, so I wouldnt worry yet

 

[hardcoralsash]

@vetteguy53081 its gotten wayyyyy bigger over the day. gonna try the dip first thing tomorrow. i feel so bad for it.. he used to look like the first pic, second pic is him right now. looks like he’s literally going to explode…