elegant coral??????

[mr. maroon clown]

I want one of these corals but after reading the posts by Eric Borneman i'm wondering about the life of this coral will it live or die? anyone with some thoughts?

[Anthony Calfo]

They creature itself is inherently a reasonably to very (hardy coral (with focussed care)... but I agree on the de-emphasis of aquarists keeping them at this time. There are any number/combinations of influences on the coral like localized overcollection, poor shipping/handling, unsanitary holding - carriage of disease (?).

Add to that the fact that most aquarists sadly (!) do not employ proper quarantine practices (please QT all things wet for 4-8 weeks!!!)... the reality is that too many of these corals die prematurely.

It is not a responsible use of the living resource when so.

And for the specimens that are collected at greater depth (many below 60 feet!)... to put them under the commonly (abused) excessive lighting schemes (big MH systems) is just irresponsible IMO.

Yes... you can keep an elegant healthy/well for many years... but the odds are against you presently. Do enjoy any of a number of other beautiful corals instead... if/until you fully understand and appreciate what it takes to keep one mate (QT, light acclimation, near daily feedings of the correct food type/size, etc).

kindly, Anthony

[mr. maroon clown]

anthony thanks for the reply but one question in the quartine tank what do i need to add to the water if anything at all? and what do you like to feed an elegance. back in 1993 i had 3 elegance corals i was a total beginner at the reef scene my water was always screwed up somehow but those three elegence were some hardy animals they put up with my errors the first year they grew pretty good and then i had to move so i sold my 55 gal reef which i would have done that here i'am back at it again.

[mr. maroon clown]

opps wish i would have not sold my tank

[Anthony Calfo]

Catalaphyllia was "hardier" it seems in the early years as specimens were collected from hard substrates and at light levels that were more compatible with lighting systems of the day (moderate on both counts). Add to that the tendency for American hobbyists to overfeed (fishes) and overstock and that provided good nutrients for success and growth with this coral.

Nowadays with deep collected specimens and abused (high/excess) light... its a bad mix.

Feeding mysid sized bits of meaty food or smaller is recommended. Much has been writ about coral feeding my friend. Do see the excellent articles by Eric Borneman archived in reefkeeping.com back issues... as well as a keyword search of our RC archives. A lot of info indeed.

As for QT... same again, mate. A fab recent article in RK by Steve Pro on QT in general/fishes... as well as other abroad (even invert specific articles like on wetwebmedia.com).

QT though is about a quiet, calm place to settle in, acclimate to captive lighting and get fed very well in a concentrated (smaller) vessel of water before getting thrown into the (chemically) competitive crowd of the display tank. Screen for pests and predators too of course during the 4-8 week QT

kindly, Anthony

[mr. maroon clown]

sounds good anthony is that you 15 yr old elegance coral?

[Screamer]

I have been keeping 3 elegance corals now for about 3 months, all under different lighting and current conditions:

1. Moderate flow at the bottom (slightly shaded section) of a 90 gal with 150 MH lighting(x2) and 2 96 w PC's.
2. Mid to high flow about mid range in the same tank with no shading.
3. Mid to high flow in a 20 gal plumed into my reef system, lighting is aqualight with (2) 65 watt PC's. (i think 65 watt)

Elegance 1 is looking ok, it is kind of brown and one section of the coral is a little receded. (has been that way for 2 weeks) But it still opens to about 80-90% of what it did when it was first placed in tank.
Elegance 2 looks a little better, no recession it is still a little more brown than it should be and is opening about 90% of what is did when it was first placed in tank.
Elegance 3 is beautiful, it extends like a huge florescent green blanket, and the polyps are extended fully. (it really is a gorgeous sight)

I do not direct feed any of them, but they do catch floating food from time to time. I feed frozen mysis and brine shrimp every day, along with a little cyclo-peze. (sometimes i leave out the brine and feed some flakes) Every other day i mix 2 cap fulls of DT's with the aquariums regular feeding. The elegance corals seem to expand a little bigger when the DT's is added, but when i tried to direct feed the 3 corals the first day they reacted by expanding more than usual and after that they did not react at all.(no more than normal expansion, it was kind of odd)

If you are looking to keep this coral IMO you have to be on top of everything since(as Anthony stated) the newer imported specimens do not seem to fair as well as specimens collected 4 or 5 years ago. Water quality has to be on the money, and you are going to have to experiment with the corals position, and even doing that there is still a good chance that the coral might just crash and burn.

You might get lucky and get an elegance they will live forever, but from what i have seen in the past few years the coral will prob die slowly in the enclosed reef aquarium.

I am in no way trying to tell you not to get one, (the more input we get from reef keepers about the elegance, the better there chances of survival in the enclosed reef) but there are a lot of corals that will fair better and are just as beautiful.

Hope my experience helps you some :rollface:

[mr. maroon clown]

thanks alot for the tips very informative