my new elegance

[RyanBrucks]

Hey guys,

I've had a 20G tank for about 2 months, and its been cycled for the past 4 weeks. I've seen alot of pods and coraline algae growing on my live rock, so I figured it was safe to add something.


I purchased this elegance from my LFS (fish world NC) last night. seems to be doing well so far. This shot is with actinic light only. Doesn't really do it justice as the entire photo looks too blue, the green colors pop alot more in person.

I think it is just standard Catalaphyllia jardinei, can anybody confirm that from the photos?


Here it is with both the 10,000k PC and actinic bulbs on. You can get a little better idea of the coloration but I couldn't quite get my camera to capture the colors still.

Anyways, when I bought the coral, the books I looked up elegance in referred to them as very hardy and easy to take care of. It wasn't until I started researching them online that I discovered how many people have had problems keeping them alive for extended periods of time.

So far mine seems good. Fully extended after only a few hours. At first I didn't have any flow besides that provided by a marineland HOB filter. I added a small powerhead today and its just enough to make the tentacles sway like grass, and the coral also released alot of waste once the flow increased a bit (i caught most of it with a net).

Should I be concerned about the long term health of this guy, or is the fact tha it opened up so fast a promising sign?

FYI, long term this 20G tank is going to be my QT tank, but I am just using it to get set up for now until my 200G tank arrives in jan/feb 08. I'll obviously take the argonite and LR out.

Thanks,
Ryan

[szwab]

many times they will look fine for a while then for whatever reason take a downhill turn.

[jason412]

Did the place you purchased it from happen to mention if it was collected in Indonesia or Australia by chance? From what I hear the aussie elegances are much more hardier.

[RyanBrucks]

no there was no mention of location, and I didn't know to ask between the two types.

I will definitely call them back tomorrow and see if I can't find out.


Right now my 20G tank has 2x65W PC lighting. One bulb is actinic, and the other is 10000k.

I think this is fine, but I'm worried my full reef setup could be a problem.

My 200g tank will have 3x250MH and 2x140 VHO actinic, so I am a bit concerned about future lighting. If I can, I'll try to build some very tall rock pillars that provide shade from most of the MH bulbs, and stilll let down some of the VHO actinics. I can already tell that the elegance loves the actinic, as it really expands when they come out.

My actinic went off a few hours ago, and the elegance shrunk back down. It didn't totally withdraw into the skeleton, but its noticably smaller and the tentacles aren't nearly as long.

[elegance coral]

Originally posted by RyanBrucks

I think it is just standard Catalaphyllia jardinei, can anybody confirm that from the photos?

They are all Catalaphyllia Jardinei. There is only one species.

If I were a betting man I would say Indo Elegance. I'm sorry to say it but that Elegance is not well. The odds of it recovering in a very young 20gl tank are not good either. I'm sorry, but I believe this coral will begin going down hill pretty quick. I hope you can prove me wrong, but I don't see it happening. If it makes it 30 days I will be shocked. You will have to stay on top of the water quality just to give it a fighting chance. Good luck.

[RyanBrucks]

Well it's been since sunday, and here is the coral now:



Opened up alot more and the tentacles seem more full on average. We also got it to eat some salmon today. I'm going to try some fresh shrimp next.

I haven't been leaving the koralia powerhead on all the time, I randomly plug it in and unplug it, but I think I will put it on a timer, since I think the powerhead being on permenantly seems to shrivel up the tentacles closest to the flow after a while, but if I give it some breaks it seems to be best of both worlds (blows waste off, and doesn't over stress tentacles).


what do you think?

[Mental1]

If you search for a thread called Elegance Coral Theory in the forum, you can read a lot of good information to hrlp you with this coral. Darrell, who replied above (Elegance Coral) has worked for along time with thee corals. I followed his advice and my coral is doing great. They can be very sensitive though -- read the thread -- it's long -- but it is packed with good info.

[elegance coral]

Originally posted by RyanBrucks
Well it's been since sunday, and here is the coral now:



Opened up alot more and the tentacles seem more full on average. We also got it to eat some salmon today. I'm going to try some fresh shrimp next.

I haven't been leaving the koralia powerhead on all the time, I randomly plug it in and unplug it, but I think I will put it on a timer, since I think the powerhead being on permenantly seems to shrivel up the tentacles closest to the flow after a while, but if I give it some breaks it seems to be best of both worlds (blows waste off, and doesn't over stress tentacles).


what do you think?

I think you may be on your way to proving me wrong. I sure hope so. The fact that it still has the strength to feed is a very good sign.

[RyanBrucks]

last week I made my first mistake.

I accidentally left the daylight bulb timer in the 'on' position and found out my mistake about 1.5 hours past the usual 5 hour photoperiod.

the elegance was already swollen like a series of bubbles, with withered tentacles. I immediately turned off both lights. I was shocked that a mere 1.5 hours was too much extra light for this coral, but it was a good lesson regarding just how sensitive the elegance species is to light variation.

The next day I kept the daylight bulb off, but left the actinic on and the coral remained withdrawn the entire day. The day after that I turned on the daylight bulb for only 2 hours and the coral came back out fully.

It's been about a week since my stupid mistake, and it’s now back up to the same photoperiod as before and - miraculously - its looking better than ever. Three days ago I fed a few small chunks of fresh shrimp to it. I used chopsticks to dangle the food near the outer tentacles and as soon as they touched the shrimp, it was wharfed down in about 10 seconds. Each mouth got a small piece.


Ryan

[RyanBrucks]

Well it's been nearly 2 months now, and the elegance is still doing well.

I did notice that the far left of it started to show early signs of bleaching. This looked to be where it was furthest from my PC daylight bulb, which was confirmed by my lux meter. it was only bleaching on the far left where lux values were less than 50% of the values at the center of the elegance.

my solution was to build a 6x6x6 acrylic tank that I filled with argonite sand, and placed the elegance inside the sand, essentially lifting it 6 inches closer to the light. Also positioned more to the center of the bulb. That was about 4 days ago and he already shows signs of getting more color.


This is him eating some squid. So far I've tried scallops, shrimp and squid and he eats them all right up.


That phot is also right where the semi-bleaching occured. it was way more obvious a few dasy ago.


I need up UP the PH and calcium of my water though. pH is around 7.9 and calcium is low at 320. I couldn't fine pickling lime anywhere locally so I ordered some online. When I get it I'll just start topping off with kalkwasser.

[Mental1]

Perhaps Elegance Coral will chime in again -- but I was under the impression that color loss with these guys was from too much light.

[RyanBrucks]

I've looked into that, and they can bleach for either reason, like all corals can.

It is probably more common for them to bleach from too much lighting than too little, given the kind of lighting used in this hobby (metal halides in shallow tanks etc).

But the lighting in my holding tank is only 1x65W PC 6700k bulb and 1x65W PC actinic bulb. I believe the LFS I got it from was using 250w MH, placed about 3ft above the water (tank about the same depth as mine).

In the old position at the bottom of my temporary-holding-tank, the elegance was getting ~3500 lux in the middle, and only about ~1900 lux on the side that started to bleach. Seems like common sense that the problem was lack of light. Anways, after raising him up a bit, all signs of bleaching have started to go, so I'd be VERY surprised if it was bleaching from too much light before.

oddly enough, the bleaching is easiest to see when all tank lighting is off and the room lighting is on. I can clearly see the color coming back now.

[elegance coral]

When these corals "bleach" or regulate the population of zooxanthellae in their tissues due to light, be it bright light or dim light. The whole coral will change colors or it will shows up as a gradual shift from dark areas to lighter areas on the coral. Like an airbrush artist that feathers yellow into orange. There is no definite line that separates the two colors. When these corals are exposed to the microbes responsible for the infection that many of these corals come down with, the loss of zooxanthellae will show up in patches with very definite areas with zooxanthellae and those without. This is what I see in the pic of your coral. On the right side of the pic you can see the underside of the polyp where these dark and light patches are clearly visible. The tentacles also show these symptoms. These are two pics of my corals that are showing the same symptoms as yours. I also have corals that have filled in these gaps in zooxanthellae and now have a more uniform color.





When these corals reach this stage in the infection, I believe the worst is behind them. They stop discharging large amounts of slime and zooxanthellae and their polyp expansion improves. It will take a long time, but I believe you have proven me wrong in my first expectations of this coral. Looks like it should recover nicely. Good Job!

[Mental1]

Congrats Ryan -- and thanks for posting your odyssey. Each time someone posts about their elegance, I learn more and more.

[RyanBrucks]

Thanks. I will continue to post more pictures soon. it will be especially interesting when I finally get my 220G display and the 5" DSB. Its 30" deep (24 accounting for sandbed), and has 3x250W MH and 2x140 VHO. I can't wait to finally get this elegance (and 2 clowns also) out of this nasty little quarantine tank and into a nice new tank

I will probably construct a holding jig to hold layers of screen to light acclimate the elegance. I'll use lux meter to try and roughly match the current lighting at first and slowly remove layers (~4500 lux or so IIRC, I'll confirm soon). I should be able to find a somewhat calm flow area for him with my aquascaping. Gonna definitely need feeding tons if I'm to be expected to feed this guy at 2' deep every few days.

I seem to be getting the impression that smaller, more frequent meals are far better for the elegance. If I try and feed anything large (half inch or so) it usually only eats half or so of it, sometimes rejecting some of the food.

Does anybody know what the elegance's most common natural food is? I've had a hard time finding info. People suggest all kinds of things, but in NSWW (natural sw world) how large of a fish is an elegance capturing on average? How much of its food is floating morsels from nearby fish feeding frenzies rather than live prey?

Ryan

[lbaskball45]

so are you keeping your elegance on the sandbed? Ive had bad luck with the sandbed for some reason although most recommend it. The only elegance that I was able to keep for 9months was on a rock and not on the sandbed.

[RyanBrucks]

currently, yes. and I plan to do so in the display.

I provided details in an above post, but right now my elegance is on a 'sandbed pedestal' so to speak. it's a 6x6x6" acrylic box filled with argonite sitting on the bottom of my tank. same as a sandbed but gets it closer to my weak PC lighting. I was careful to sand all the edges around the top, since I know from personal experience that routed acrylic is incredibly sharp; it can shave near invisible slices of skin off your fingers (and perhaps even an elegance).

exactly what problems did you have with the sandbed, and where did you move your elegance to. what improved after moving it? were any other factors changed as a result of the relocation?

[szwab]

you may also want to check out this months reef keeping magazine. 1st article is on the elegance.

I have 2 frags of 2 different morphs of aussie elegance. I've had one for about 4 months the other since early December.

[RyanBrucks]

ah, thanks for mentioning that, I totally missed the article

It's sad to see the species with such dire survival rates, and such high collection quotas. I will freely admit that when I purchased the elegance, I was unaware of the threat to it, and its poor survival rates. I had just just read several aquarium books (delbeek and sprung, calfo etc), and the general gist was that 'collection from aquarium trade is bad, but isn't nearly as bad as other threats'. Seems like that blanket statement isn't enough anymore, we need to be looking at the species and the numbers.

If what Eric suggested about over-collection in indonesia is true, then we still don't have a really proper idea what environment these corals prefer/flourish in. I hope somebody can do a similar study by observing wild elegance in Australia.

I know the disease for elegance is a huge issue, but its a shame that the article didn't really get into other elegance issues, like what their natural diet consists of or what water parameters they are sensitive to, optimal feeding schedules etc...

According to what Eric said, my elegance is safe from ECS for now. But many people here mentioned that a coral will spontaneously develop ECS symptoms a year after collection. Seems to contradict Erics findings, unless a sick elegance was added to the system. Perhaps many of these corals that die after living for a while are not ECS (if there truly IS an ECS , but simply a sign that the aquarium isn't matching the natural environment well enough to ensure long term survival?

"This seems unlikely because no long-term captive elegance corals have been reported to contract ECS, and ECS generally occurs very soon (within days to weeks) after placement into an aquarium."


Also, I recall months ago reading things like "eric bornerman has found a protazoan responsible for ECS", but in the article it seems like he wasn't really able to pin the death onto anything definitively.

Elegance Coral, what did you think of the article?

The plot thickens!