Elegance receeding
 

I've had this elegance coral since 8/07. I bought it from a fellow reefer whom had it for 6 months before and who thought it was collected in Australia. I noticed it receeding today and was looking for some advice.

It's in the bottom corner of a 350 gallon 30" deep tank with Ushio 14k DE and T5 bulbs. The bulbs are at the end of their life and I am waiting on a back order which should be here next week. It has looked very good up until the last night and today. I do not feed it but the tank gets fed heavily with plenty of mixed frozen foods including: mysis, bloodworms, krill, cyclops.

I noticed yesterday after the main lights went off that it seemed to have shrunk more than usual and today it remained that way all day.

The only thing that's changed is Sunday night I cleaned the sump. The main tank was shut down, the sump was drained scraped, rinsed with sw, dried and refilled. About 90 gallons of water replaced, twice as much as usual.

Here is what it has looked like since I've had it:

[IMG]http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k167/chefbazz/Corals/Elegance_day_1.jpg[/IMG]

Here's what it looked like tonight before lights out:

[IMG]http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k167/chefbazz/Corals/IMG_9344.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k167/chefbazz/Corals/IMG_9346.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k167/chefbazz/Corals/IMG_9345.jpg[/IMG]

I'm going to read the elegance theory thread now but any help would be greatly appreciated. This is my favorite coral.

Thanks

I had a closer look this evening after the main lights went off. You can see that red mushroom, bottom left. The coal retracted into it's skeleton much more than usual, no tentacles showing at all. I noticed that the area just above the mushroom was white, if not any flesh at all, not sure. Could it be the chemical warfare from the mushie that's causing this? I know they're nasty little critters that make my fingers swell and numb if I don't wear gloves when handling them.

what are all those brown spots?

I don't know. They are kinda goldy colored and I didn't realize it until I looked at the original picture that it was different.

Well, my first impression from looking at your "after" pics was that there are flatworms all over your elegance. Atleast that's what it looks like to me. Now usually they are just an annoyance to us as owners, but perhaps they are bothering the coral. You might want to take a closer look. If they are flatworms, you might want to buy some flatworm exit.

I have some. Can you see them with the naked eye? If I pulled it out and looked at it with a magnifying glass would I be able to see them? Would they affect anything else in the tank as I don't see anything else in distress?

I'd hate to treat it for something it didn't have and stress it more.

I've never seen a flatworm infestation that bad ! dip that coral in a contaiiner of saltwater with 5 drops of flatworm exit, for about 15 min. then swish them off, you'll have to treat youre system too, but do a search on how to do it. they release toxin, so you'll have to use alot of carbon after treatment.

Man that sucks. I can tell you that it's not the normal Elegance coral problem. I agree with the others. It looks like some strange species of flat worm. Let us know if the flat worm exit works. Good luck.

You guys nailed it thanks. I had never seen flatworms before and the infestation happened over a period of time and I never really noticed. The coral was absolutely covered!

I moved the mushroom last night thinking that's what was causing the distress. It looked a bit better about an hour after the lights came on but wasn't good by any means. You can see where the mushroom was burning it.

As I had never seen flatworms before and couldn't find anything that looked like that after search I waited until a buddy of mine got off work to have a look. He agreed. He also said I had red bugs on a tri-color! The darned things are too small for me to see. That's it no more just dipping, everything gets dipped and qt'd for at least a week before it gets into the display from now on. It could have been worse though.

An hour after lights on:

[IMG]http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k167/chefbazz/Corals/IMG_9347.jpg[/IMG]

Dipping, that's a 2 gallon bucket with 5 drops of flatworm exit as recommended:

[IMG]http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k167/chefbazz/Corals/IMG_9350.jpg[/IMG]

15 minutes later...:

[IMG]http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k167/chefbazz/Corals/IMG_9352.jpg[/IMG]

I swished it in another bucket of tank water and put it in the prop section for now, easier to get to. I'll see how it is tomorrow. I want to make sure as when the coral retracted there where a lot of worms down in the body of the coral. I'll be treating the entire tank next week for the flatworms as well as the redbugs.

I'll let you know how it goes.

Thanks again

G'day Barry,

Man that sucks. I hope I never have that problem. It's something to certainly watch out for in the future.

Looking at the colours of yours, and the shape of the shell in the dip, I'd say it is an Aussie. It definately has the same shape and colours as mine, so when the infestation is over, it should recover nicely. Are you trying to feed it, after the dips, may help in keeping up its strength.

Cheers

Chris

Hey Chris,

Yeah I was planning on giving it a snack tomorrow if it looks well enough.

Funny thing is, looking back it happened slowly over a period of time. I had noticed the spots but didn't really think anything about it.

I need you to ship me over some of those gorgeous rainbow acans. How much do the run over there or do they all get shipped overseas?

Looks like flatworms...

Uh, yeah...we got that.

LOL. it's funny actually. Not what happened to your coral, but how I identified it. I was looking at the pics saying "Damn he has a bad infestation of flatworms". Then I started reading the replies and no one mentioned it. I thought it was kinda wierd. It just seemed so damn obvious to me. I've had them before so I guess I knew what to look for. But like I said, I've never seen them really bother a coral like that before. I hope that's what it was. Usually I believe that they feed on things that might already be having problems. So they might not be the cause, but a side effect of the coral getting worse. I just hope I'm wrong. Good luck with the coral. I was just at my LFS the other day talking about elegance's. I was saying how I don't understand why they are all of a sudden dying left and right on people. I remember having one in a 10 gallon about 15 years ago. That thing did so well for me. It was outgrowing the tank so I had to give it away. Odd.

if you have a lot of flatworms in the display, try to remove as many by hand as possible by using a turkey baster and net. if you rely on flatworm exit to kill off a large amount they can release toxins when dying and harm other livestock. also, regarding treating the red bugs, I'd wait a week or so to avoid overstressing.

[QUOTE][i]<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11574166#post11574166 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Elliott [/i]
[B]if you have a lot of flatworms in the display, try to remove as many by hand as possible by using a turkey baster and net. if you rely on flatworm exit to kill off a large amount they can release toxins when dying and harm other livestock. also, regarding treating the red bugs, I'd wait a week or so to avoid overstressing. [/B][/QUOTE]

Thanks Doc. I knew about the flatworms releasing toxin, the problem is, They're quite small and I don't see them anywhere else. Is that possible, they were only on the elegance?

Good advice on the redbug treatment too.

they are hard to see and often under rocks etc. so when you treat the tank have a net ready to scoop them out as they float to the surface, treat the entire system, sump, grow out tank and anything connected to the display water.

If I was you I would turn off your pumps and turkey baster around your rocks. If there are some between the crevices and such, if you blast them with the baster they should come flying out. That way you can net them. They'll usually live in areas where there isn't as much flow. So in the rocks is kind of a natural place for them(or on your sand bed).