Elegance Coral Syndrome Diagnose and Treatment with Fresh Water Dip

[SaltISlife]

Just decided to pop in this thread when searching. I bought an elegance thats huge. Bigger then everyones i see on this thread. It was in the store for 2 months. Never had any issues. I finally bought it for 250$. Its basketball sized. Huge skeleton.. very heavy too.

I did the regular coral rx dip. But due to a recent infection i got from the same local store that was killing all my lps. I decided to qt it in a 20g tabk with antibiotics. I cured my lps infection in my main 135g tank using antibiotics for 6-7 days. Doxycycline.

Since this coral came from the same store. No way im putting it directly in my tabk. Hense why i did antibiotics in a 20g. I did it for 5 days.

Within hours it inflated to a huge size. Not as big as the store as my lighting is stronger. But still big.

I will note. Dipping corals in antibiotics will do nothing.. antibiotics dont usually Directly kill. Alot stoo the bacteria frim making a protien to replicate. This is why you take antibiotics for 7-14 days depending how bad the infection is. Your body kills the bacteria off while it cant replicate. So antibiotic dips are 100% pointless.. unless its like h202 or iodine.. but neither of those get in the coral.

It needs to be long term like i did to my elegance in qt or my main tank.

Here is my elegance btw.. crossing ny fingers i nevee get whats mentioned in this thread. Also i believe this disease since you said it starts on the rim of the coral.. might be due to the outer rim touching sand beds in some tanks. I have mine in a u shaped rock on my sand bed. So the skeleton is lifted 2 inchs and no flesh is touching the sand directly except when it inflates fully

 

[kenchilada]

I remember keeping basketball-sized elegance corals in the 90's under 150W halides with a wet/dry full of bioballs. They were easy except occasional brown jelly and typical pests like flat worms, hydroids, etc. For a while (maybe early 2000's?) many hobbyists believed they required a "dirty" nutrient-rich system to survive. I got into SPS in mid-2000's and literally have not kept an LPS since, so not sure where that line of thought ended up.

Anyway... I'm curious if it is recommended to prophylactically treat newly-acquired specimens in some way (antibiotic quarantine, freshwater dip, peroxide?). Or maybe this is pointless if the pathogens are ubiquitous? Is the suggested way to introduce these to acclimate as usual and only treat if ECS is identified? Is it still important to source an Australian coral?

I'd love to keep one again if there is a practical approach other than just hoping for the best.

 

[SaltISlife]

Here is my elegance update after ny post above. Still doing really well

 

[Miklo_Miklo12]

Mine has been doing this

 

[Chefwheredyougo]

Just wanted to add, my new wild elegance was bought at about 2 inches a month ago. About a week later he showed signs of ECS. He looked pretty terrible. Flesh sloughing off and all.
I decided to try the RODI dip, but only did so for 10 minutes. Then back in the tank in a low flow flow, low light area. He continued to loose tissue over the next day, but on the 3rd day, it looked small, but much better.
It's been one week since, and now he's completely open at about 4". No pics of before, but here he is now..

Thanks for the advice @Orion!

 

[Andrew_NYC_Reef]

@OrionN @Elegance Coral

I bought a good size elegance from Reefapalooza about a month ago and it opened up and was beautiful / healthy looking for about a week. It has since been closed and I noticed the tissue receding today. Do you think it's worth trying a FWD at this point or just moving into the shade and hoping for the best?

1st picture below is the day I brought it home. 2nd picture is this afternoon.

 

[VegasReefer]

Great thread! I'm no expert, but here is what I've done to be successful with elegance corals.
First it has to be healthy, not just healthy looking. Easier said than done, but after looking at a bunch of health ones you'll get an idea. This just takes time and patience.
Second, I focus on flow over lighting when I first get a new one. I think this helps to flush the specimen before forcing it to coupe with a change in spectrum and intensity. I think the sudden change in light is stressing them out too much. Take it slow and start with low light. Pro tip, try and place part of the coral in indirect light and see how it responds.
Finally, as previously mentioned, I always keep the base of the polyp from touching anything. In a bare bottom setup. I use epoxy to make base, so that the coral doesn't rub against the bottom glass. For a substrate setup, I superglue to base to a lower rock. Again not allowing the polyp base to rub the sand, or the rock its mounted on.
Here is a pic of my elegance mounted about an inch off the substrate. Cant really tell when he's open and in snail killer mode.

 

[HeatherA]

Mine came back and it looks bigger than ever. Perhaps it doesn’t have ECS yet.
unfortunately, I simply don’t think that it will last long in my tank, and as much as it pains me to lose it, I am likely going to trade it back to the LFS, so someone of much more experience can keep it alive for a very long time.

Did you do the fwd? I’m going through this now with mine.

 

[HeatherA]

Looking for any suggestions for my elegance coral. My tank is balanced and the coral had been thriving for the first two months that I had it. It swelled for a day and then it closed up for several days and now appears to be degrading around the edges. It was dipped in revive coral clean today which helped. Not sure if it will survive a fwd in this condition

 

[HeatherA]

Pics that did not post with my first post

 

[Sharkbait19]

Did you do the fwd? I’m going through this now with mine.

I actually got so stressed out about it that I returned it to the lfs. They assured me that it didn’t have ecs but I just felt more comfortable giving it to someone that would be more suited for the coral. I was still early in my reefing and wasn’t ready for it. Shame because it’s the most beautiful coral I ever had.
As for your coral, I’m no expert but I’d say it is worth a try to do a fw dip. If it’s already degrading you have nothing to lose.

 

[GzO]

How many of y'all still have your elegance after FWD? Heres mine as of yesterday. First noticed it was expelling brown stuff a few days ago, followed by spitting out a mushroom 2 days later, then more brown stuff, now
whitish web-like stuff 3 days after spitting out mushroom. Dip or no dip?

 

[GzO]

How many of y'all still have your elegance after FWD? Heres mine as of yesterday. First noticed it was expelling brown stuff a few days ago, followed by spitting out a mushroom 2 days later, then more brown stuff, now
whitish web-like stuff 3 days after spitting out mushroom. Dip or no dip?

Update, FWD, 15 Min, looks fuzzy now

 

[GzO]

Moved from 20 to 10 gallon Sunday morning, in breeder container. Still has stuff around mouthes. Picture from earlier today. There is some slight tissue recession from skeleton rim. Not visible in photo, but there were some bubbles forming outer edges of flesh, got about half inch in size. Didn't see if they popped or deflated. Wasn't as open when it was laying down, opened up a little like in photo after standing it up.

 

[Anturaju93]

Hi. Any updates about elegance? Sadly I also have problems with one of my elegance corals. The one on the felt.

I'm afraid to FWD the coral but I tried iodine dip yesterday.
My parameters are:
PH 8
Alk 10
NO3 15
PO4 0
CA 450
Salinity 1025
Temp 78
Tank is 6 weeks old and all other corals are doing well.
Did somebody managed to recover/save their elegance coral with dipping or shading?

 

[GzO]

Hi. Any updates about elegance? Sadly I also have problems with one of my elegance corals. The one on the felt.

I'm afraid to FWD the coral but I tried iodine dip yesterday.
My parameters are:
PH 8
Alk 10
NO3 15
PO4 0
CA 450
Salinity 1025
Temp 78
Tank is 6 weeks old and all other corals are doing well.
Did somebody managed to recover/save their elegance coral with dipping or shading?

I believe there are some success stories out there, mine was not. Probably be best to describe what you've seen happen to it for others to better understand the situation or what could be the cause. It could be as simple as it's digesting a meal or a more complex issue that can't be determined by the information that has been provided.

 

[Chefwheredyougo]

FW dip, shade, and low flow saved mine. For others, nothing helped.

 

[BranchingHammer]

Any update on this?

 

[NoahLikesFish]

is there a reliable way to identiy ECS, i want to get 1 for my 20 gallon tall evventually stocked with nano fish. i will be using a ai prime 16 sol on the 12" flex mount a freesea 1050 or 1650 gph pump (idk whats better) & 17 lbs of gulf live rock. i will probaby run a fluval mini skimmer too. will this equipment be sufficent?

 

[Sharkbait19]

IME an elegance gets way to big for a 20, they are just huge - though getting a frag helps.
Keep it in a somewhat shady area with medium flow, similar to a euphilia but less light. Do your best to locate a captive grown, Australian elegance - best chance of not getting sick. Really not much is known about ECS, but reducing stress is the best way to avoid it.