I would suggest a bigger tank, when they're open fully they take up quite a bit of real estate. Didn't have pic of it when it was fully open, it extended about another inch and a half to two inches in diameter. Close up against the rocks kept it smaller than it could open. This is in my 20gal tall.
I wish there was a solution to this problem.
Hello, my name is Adriel. I think my coral is sick. I will try this treatment.Elegance Coral, Catalaphyllia jardinei, is a LPS that is very beautiful easy and is one of my favorite LPS. Since early 2000, it was well known by reefers that Elegance coral is easy to care for, unless it contracted Elegance Coral Syndrome (ECS), a universally fatal disease with no known cure.
Elegance Coral Syndrome was coined in 2006 by Eric Borneman, a pioneer reefer who unfortunately no longer involves with reefing world, to describe this infectious disease of Elegance corals. He discussed about Elegance corals and this disease in detail in January 2008 issue of Reefkeeping, an online magazine published by ReefCentral.com. A link to this article attached below.
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2008-01/eb/index.php
In this article, Eric recorded his observation of this disease as follow:
Eric also did contagious experiment and proof that this disease is indeed contagious, thus cause by infection. He also tried but fails to identify the pathogen and did not come up with any possible treatment. By 2008 virtually all imported specimens were infected with this disease and he recommended that we should no longer attempt to collect or keep Elegance corals because survival rate were dismal.
- Colony’s oral disk first start to swell
- Unexpanded fringe tentacles
- Coral secrete opaque white mucus like web
- Feeding response decline
- Tentacles no longer “sticky”
- Coral’s tissue eventually shrinks and coral dies
I don’t have as much experience as Erick, but in addition to Eric’s observation, I have the following observations:
I cannot help with draw parallel with Pinched Mantle Disease, a condition that I know very well. I like to experiment with treatment of ECS, but did not have a chance until recently. One of my friends, @alton a member here on Reef2Reef, bought an Elegance coral that ended up with ECS. As a last ditch effort to keep this coral alive, I recommended 15 minutes Fresh Water Dip (FWD). Alton’s Elegance did great and is on its way to recovered fully. I advised Alton to use 15 minutes FWD only for his Elegance coral since the soft tissue layer of Elegance coral is fragile and thin. Pre and post treatment of this Elegance coral attached below.
- Coral initially have localized evidence of disease on oral plate, which then spread to other parts.
- Coral secrete mucus as a response to infection
- Coral worsen with high light exposure and seem to improved, temporary with lower light level
- Coral looks better in AM, worsen as the photo period progress.
Pre treatment
Post treatment
Another picture a week later
Alton’s Elegance is on its way to recover fully. I will ask Alton to keep this thread update. I know that ECS have no known cure. If FWD is indeed a cure for ECS, this is a big step in helping us keep Elegance corals, a very beautiful coral, in our reef tanks.
I would like any reefers who have Elegance corals that were infected with ECS, and want to treat them with FWD, please post pre and post images of the corals, and keep update. Hopefully we can come up with a cure for, up to now, an incurable disease of a beautiful and hardy coral.
