Bloated Elegance

[Kewalo Basin]

Hi,

My elegance has been doing well in the tank for a while now. Last week I got a goby and he has been going crazy moving sand all over the place. One day I came home and he had covered half the elegance in sand.

When I move the elegance, or there is a distuptive stir of sand in its vacinity it usually slimes up. But this time it's slimy and seems to be inflated like a balloon. Maybe it's never opened this big before, but its got a really bloated look.

Water and temp conditions are steady. Only variable is shifting sands from goby, and an increased amout of sand floating in the water due to fine sand content and goby constantly sifting.

What's the elegance doing? Being inflated... and the slime.

Normal elegance pic:
http://www.buckaloose.com/elegance.jpg

Tonight:
http://www.buckaloose.com/bloated.jpg

thanks!

[Reefmaniac1]

Typical of most Elegance corals these days. They all seem to do well for a few weeks and then bam! The oral disk swells and the coral dies.

Check out the thread "Elegance coral project" under Responsible Reefkeeping. And, stay away from Elegance corals...

[clavery]

I bought one about a month ago, looked great at the store, then brought it home and it promptly died - looked like RTN. they are so beautiful that I really want one, but if they're not doing too well in captivity, then I guess I'll just admire pics.

Too bad...

[O'Coralman]

I too bought a good looking at the LFS, elegance....looked good and ate fine for 2-3 months. It is now swelling up and getting short tentacles. lighting has been pc to MH. I hear taps:(

[kennethl]

bummer...

hope I'm wrong but its smoked...

There is a huge project underway to address exactly whats happening to your Elegance. you can see pics to compare against.

check it out here... http://archive.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=310425

and

http://archive.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=319259