Elegance Coral (sticky threads)

[merfury1989]

Hi all,

I notice tonight that's there are stains of sticky thread like substances sticking between my elegance and sand.

Any idea what this is?

 

[Reefing Madness]

 

[Gretchacha]

To me they appear to be part of the elegance coral reaching to the sand. Mesenterial filaments can attack neighboring corals or other threats as well as capture and digest prey. They generally come out when the lights are off and they do not come from the mouth of the coral, but rather the bottom of the polyps. That’s what it looks like to me. Perhaps it was finding some yummy fauna in your sand.

 

[merfury1989]

To me they appear to be part of the elegance coral reaching to the sand. Mesenterial filaments can attack neighboring corals or other threats as well as capture and digest prey. They generally come out when the lights are off and they do not come from the mouth of the coral, but rather the bottom of the polyps. That’s what it looks like to me. Perhaps it was finding some yummy fauna in your sand.

Interesting, didnt know they can do that.

 

[tzabor10]

Other than that, do you like them? Are they easy to keep? Tidal Gardens always speaks highly of those corals.

 

[merfury1989]

Well it was one of my first corals, and never had issue with them until recently. Where its all shrinked (been like this for 1+ month)

 

[tzabor10]

Looks nice to

Well it was one of my first corals, and never had issue with them until recently. Where its all shrinked (been like this for 1+ month)

looks great to me. Do you have any trouble with coral warfare?

 

[merfury1989]

Looks nice to

looks great to me. Do you have any trouble with coral warfare?

The reason this looks weird to me is because, it was all Bubbly beofre this. See below:

Didnt have coral warfare, but there was one time when my Bubble tip anemone decided to come behind it (on its shell) and hanged in there for 1 day, then decided to move.

 

[Gretchacha]

The reason this looks weird to me is because, it was all Bubbly beofre this. See below:

Didnt have coral warfare, but there was one time when my Bubble tip anemone decided to come behind it (on its shell) and hanged in there for 1 day, then decided to move.

That’s adorable!!!!!!

 

[Gretchacha]

OK knowing that it got stung by the anemone, I think you should try Ciprofloxin if you haven’t already. When a large polyps stoney coral gets damaged, the flesh takes time to heal and can quickly develop in infection that lives inside the coral. It will appear all shrunken up like that. Overtime if it does not heal, that infection can spread to other corals. I had this happen to my alveopora that got stung by rock flower anemone. By the time, I finally figured out what the problem was and got my hands on some Cipro (weeks had passes), I lost quite a few pieces of alve and others due to the spreading bacteria.

Now when an LPS gets damaged and starts to shrink up, if it doesn’t recover in a few days, I treat the tank with Cipro. In fact, I’m doing it right now because the rock flower anemone decided to go for a walk and sting my acans, scolys, and alveopora along the way. I always treat it night when most coral have their polyps, retracted, and the next morning, the damaged coral, all seem to be a lot more inflated.

 

[Gretchacha]

I’m watching a tank show off video and the guy starts talking about bacterial problems with elegance corals and shows his solution.

He says this product is cheaper and safer and more effective than cipro.
It’s about halfway through the video when there is an image of a red goni around 8:00

 

[merfury1989]

Is there any alternative to these products from a known brand.

I cant find any of these in New Zealand.

 

[Ben's Pico Reefing]

I have had elegance corals for a long time. They dont like detritus and dirty water. They also prefer direct light, unshaded. There is a thing called elegance coral disease but isnt common. They send oit the string similar to picks but binds itself up and it is as if its caught in a net. Another issue I have found on two of my corals is gull crabs. Really hard to see but those thing are boogers. The only other issue I can think of is something changed. They get irritated easily from change and need time to settle from changes.

From all 3 they can balloon up, loose tentacles and shrivel up where it looks like death. If you catch it you maybe able to fix. Gull crab is hardest as you have to pull them out carefully if you can find as they blend in and pray they didnt lay eggs. Dirty tank just need to find detritus but good water changes fixes issue.

Since i believe you stated you had a long time, i would check to see if your water is off unless you changed something with tank recently.

 

[Gretchacha]

Hm, maybe you could remove the elegance to perform a series of iodine dips for7- 10 days. Just a guess, maybe read into that more. It seems it’s a bacterial irritation to me.