Elegance Coral

[fishes2889]

So now that my store is amazingly getting new coral in (ive been getting it while my boss gets fish) and i have my employee discount.

We have about 3 big nice peices of Elegance coral and i just wondered if anyone had any experience with it. Lighting? Flow? etc...

Just tell me your experiences and if its worth the money.....:)

Thanks Steve

 

[chadfarmer]

only known one person to keep one for over a year

 

[Smarsh]

I agree, their survival rate in captivity is devastating. I would wait until someone figures out what is going on. It's funny that years ago this used to be one of the easiest corals to keep, now you can't keep one alive.

Sandy

 

[fishes2889]

Hmm interesting, well one of my fellow co-workers purchased one so i will see how it goes in the coming weeks.

Thanks Steve

 

[Carolina Frags]

If you really want one you need to find someone who has had it about 7 or 8 years and get a frag from it or get a frag of a frag from that original one.

 

[Hopkins]

Eligence used to be easy to keep? I've never heard of that, interesting. Maybe our water is too clean now?

There is a disease that affects them now. http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=319263

 

[Smarsh]

Coralnutz, the water too clean has come across many minds as to why this coral isn't doing so well anymore.

Borneman is studying this I believe. It is one of his favorite corals. Supposedly this disease is very contagious. It seems that when the collectors get them, they put them all in the same vats therefore infecting everything before it is shipped out.

Sandy

 

[Pufferpunk]

It's up there with keeping goiniopora.

 

[Azurel]

I had one for years 5+ back in the early 90's when I was just getting into corals. The one I had was so bright green that when you turned out the lights you could still see it glow. It was very very cool just after lights out.....I think a lot of it has to do to with where they are collecting them in deeper water so our lights have a tendency to be to bright which causes stress and you know once stress sets in on some corals that is all it takes for disease to take it the rest of the way. They are also corals that like turbid water with moderately low visibility which also reduces the light that reaches them. Yes at one time the were one of the easiest corals to keep very low demanding coral, thanks to Borneman they have pinpointed a disease that is effecting them now which as far as my reading has gone it isn't an issue in the wild but once taken out of their natural habitat it sets in and has reduced the survivability to less then 95% which isn't good. One of the LFS's here in town used to get then quite a bit but has stopped cause A. nobody was buying them and B. They would just melt in there tank......That's good and bad, good they quite buying them bad it took so many for them to finally give up......I will get one, one day when I set up a larger tank and hopefully by then there disease issue has been resolved.

p.s. The only reason it died was from a tank move that 90% of all the corals I had died to a tank crash....

 

[surfn]

azurel hit the nail on the head.

back when they were super easy to keep, they were collecting them from a very shallow area. now they are pretty much whiped out in that area (not sure if it was due to collecting, natural disaster, or something else).

they now try to collect them from deeper waters, and 99% of them die either before they get to a home aquaria, or within a month of getting into a home aquaria.

pretty sad. :(

 

[msman825]

here's some info on them, shutiny on here has a 15 year old one in gallery. http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1052981&perpage=25&pagenumber=1

 

[fishes2889]

37160
back when they were super easy to keep, they were collecting them from a very shallow area. now they are pretty much whiped out in that area (not sure if it was due to collecting, natural disaster, or something else).

they now try to collect them from deeper waters, and 99% of them die either before they get to a home aquaria, or within a month of getting into a home aquaria.

pretty sad. :(

Then why not just acclimate them to the light? It would take a month or longer to do so but i think it would be worth it. IMO

 

[reefboy]

from what ive ben told its due to substandard collection practices and most are succumbing to bacterail infections that dont showup till they reach us ive got one know that showed up in a mixed box order that ive had for two months now showing progress but ive ben babying it with mysiss but i wont order them on purpose just for this reason.

 

[twon8]

elegance come from turbid water with very little water flow; years ago this described most reef tanks

now with clean water and even decent flow they die nearly all the time.

while bacterial may certainly be a cause of death in some, elegance would really need a species tank to match their natural habitat

 

[jessiesgrrl]

I have one in my tank that is over two years old, and it actually came with the tank when I bought it from a local guy used. It used to be half tissue recession when I got her, and now she has almost grown back over the whole thing. I love her!

I keep it at the top of the water, under the 2ok light, and I feed it bits of fish, shrimp, anythign protein based and it chows it down. Because of this, I have always wondered if part of the reasoin they die in other people's tanks isn't unlike sun corals- most folks have no idea they should be feeding it directly and therefore it starves to death and melts away slowly...

I get a kick out of the folks that see the tank for the first time and have a fit about keeping the elegance. I liek to have them back to the house over time until they eventually feel bad about yelling at me. <grin>

JMHO
Laurie

 

[jessiesgrrl]

Top Left of this shot, above the acropora

Top left and a bit smaller last summer

 

[jessiesgrrl]

Sometimes it turns blue when I am doing tank maint and have to move her for a bit:

And this clown will brush in her as well, and she stays open, no issues:

 

[fishes2889]

So update on the elegance we received from our trip to the wholesaler.

One word....AWESOME

They are all happy and healthy, green as ever in the centers as well...:)