Coral of the Week: Elegance Coral (Catalaphyllia jardinei)
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emerald525
Valuable Member
Here's a picture of mine. It is one of my favorite corals in the tank. I got it from a fellow reefer in trade who is a very knowledgable guy as he used to own a fish store. He told me the Aussie variety of Elegance tend to be more hearty compared to the Indo. I don't know if that's true but this is an Aussie and I have had it for over a year. The clowns do not host it and the maxi minis are more dangerous to the fish than this. It does pack quite a sting and any other coral that has fallen into it has gotten stung. I had to move the favia you see in the forefront because it was getting too close as these can expand quite a bit during the day.
robert
Valuable Member
These are one of my favorite corals.
Back in the day they were considered an easy coral, but now they don't fare well. There are numerous theories - some say the indos harbor a pathogen and that the aussies are ok - but I can say that most don't make it a month and I've seen ausies in a tank with indos catch whatever it is an die just as quickly.
If you can pick one up from a fellow reefer who has had it for a while - that is your best bet. If you do decide to buy one from your lfs - find out its origin and have them hold it for two weeks. If after two weeks you see stubby stunted tentacles and a bloated oral disk - its sick and will not survive.
Every LFS knows this - if they have a "survivor" you can bet you're going to pay top dollar. If you're getting it at a anything like reasonable price, they're trying to sell it before it dies in their tank.
Sorry to be a bummer and to come off so cynical on this. I wish someone could figure this one out, but I watch these corals at every LFS I visit and I can see the disease in ten for every one I see that looks clean - and that one it seems always ends up in the shops display.
Back in the day they were considered an easy coral, but now they don't fare well. There are numerous theories - some say the indos harbor a pathogen and that the aussies are ok - but I can say that most don't make it a month and I've seen ausies in a tank with indos catch whatever it is an die just as quickly.
If you can pick one up from a fellow reefer who has had it for a while - that is your best bet. If you do decide to buy one from your lfs - find out its origin and have them hold it for two weeks. If after two weeks you see stubby stunted tentacles and a bloated oral disk - its sick and will not survive.
Every LFS knows this - if they have a "survivor" you can bet you're going to pay top dollar. If you're getting it at a anything like reasonable price, they're trying to sell it before it dies in their tank.
Sorry to be a bummer and to come off so cynical on this. I wish someone could figure this one out, but I watch these corals at every LFS I visit and I can see the disease in ten for every one I see that looks clean - and that one it seems always ends up in the shops display.
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tampasnooker
Active Member
IME, it is a pathogen that affects them. Once a system is infected, it is unlikely that a healthy specimen will leave again. It is stubborn and every system I've seen - store, wholesale and personal that has had indo elegances will never keep one alive due to the infection/bug. I have a friend who is an importer and has never had indo - only aussie. He cuts them a week or so after acclimating and has nearly no mortality. I had one frag for over a year before selling it and have not lost one. I can also verify that all the frags I sold from this source are doing well since most are in our customer's tanks.
I agree that they should not be placed on rockwork - unless you can make it a pinacle - abrasions will kill them. My understanding is that wild habitat is seagrass beds where they get strong but filtered light and skeletons can settle into the muck and sand. They are hungry corals so feeding them will discourage predation. As for clowns hosting - sometimes the surrogate wins... I just lost a pair of picassos to their host giant hairy mushroom after about 5 years. I guess it got hungry.
Here is mine, I have two a pink tip and a yellow tip.
Only have photos of the pink tip, will have to get photos of yellow tomorrow. The pink tip is huge, the clown in the photo is rather large 3-4 inches. Mine ate a cleaner shrimp that tried to steal its food. I had to move the large one to the frag tank today because I think the clowns were irritating it and it was not fully opening.
Only have photos of the pink tip, will have to get photos of yellow tomorrow. The pink tip is huge, the clown in the photo is rather large 3-4 inches. Mine ate a cleaner shrimp that tried to steal its food. I had to move the large one to the frag tank today because I think the clowns were irritating it and it was not fully opening.
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dallas reefer
Active Member
The blue tip- a month or so.
Other 2 I 'had' was around a year. I would guess. I got busy with work... (Good thing) ...and those were the first 2 corals to bite it. (Sad thing)
those were beautiful too.
Other 2 I 'had' was around a year. I would guess. I got busy with work... (Good thing) ...and those were the first 2 corals to bite it. (Sad thing)
those were beautiful too.
They eat relatively large pieces of food, I feed mine pee or larger size of pieces of gulf shimp. They do not respond to brine shrimp etc very well in my experience.
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