elegance not opening

[WINDHAM-REEF]

bought this one 2 weeks ago and was looking great at lfs i saw it there for 2 weeks and noticed it opening nice for them. large metallic green with purple tips. have moved it 3 times in 2 weeks with no luck. could it be the lighting it looked like he had it in a atinic lighting tank i have 2 400 watt mh but the animal is 26 inch away resting on its side. any help would be great.

thanks

anthony

p.s. it does expand at one end but not fully

[seaspook]

i am no expert but i will tell you about mime.

same thing happened to me, slowly went down hill for the first 2 or 3 weeks thought it was a goner. It held on for a while but was not the same. Then `after about 4 or 5 months it turned around, started expanding and has put on a lot of new growth. My observations; They like actinic light. mine are 20'' down onder 600 watts of vho. They like a lot of current. They need to be fed. shrimp and live snails are great.

good luck

[bluereefs]

Elegance dont like loot of curent,try find some calm pieces of aquarium for him,my elegance is not sensitive about light,on the floor or under 250 hqi no problem for him.And watch phosphate,in my opinion phosphate is elegance killer number 1.

[bluereefs]

This is my almost 4 years old catalahilia,he have 2 new bud on right side under tentacle

[Dakini]

Nice elegance, Bluesreef!

I've had our elegance now just three months, (no expert here) and I'd have to agree with seaspook's observation that they like to be fed. I feed ours homemade fish food and it gets a fair amount of our snails.

I did observe our blue-legged hermit crabs trying to steal food from it, some slight damage to its tentacles. Much better expansion once the crabs were evicted :D .

Good luck with you elegance, it has to be my favorite coral in the tank!

Here's our elegance, broke off a larger specimen early 2001.

[bluereefs]

Thanks Dakini,your elegance is also very nice,how you remove smaller elegance from biger?my have two new bud with sceleton under the tentacle and I dont know what is better ,to cut or wait mother nature to do that?
I also agree about food but I heavy feed my fish so everybody get food that way.

[Dakini]

The elegance I received was dropped off the mother colony, no cutting involved. I do not own the "mother", so I can't give you anymore specifics than that. Here's a shot of it just new in the tank. (about 3 months ago)

If this is what yours is doing Anthony, there is hope!

[cloak]

Your elegance could just be reacting to being moved.

Mine seems to do better placed on it's side in the sand with a very slow flow across it. It's under 440 watts VHO in a 60 gallon tank.
I try to feed it three times a week but don't always get around to it. Krill and prime reef mostly.

Hope it comes around for you. Really a beautifull coral....:)