Elegance not doing well (pictures)

SimilanRocks · #1 12/16/2007, 03:28 PM

My elegance is not doing well since I got it from LFS a few weeks ago. LFS told me this one is from Florida and would be easier to keep than those from Indo/Pacific. It was doing fine in LFS he had it abotu 6 weeks with out any problem.

This was taken a week after I got from LFS. I put it on the sand low light. Still healthy.

It looked stress sometimes, the meat and tentacles are receding. I saw some sand stucked in the skeleton, I think that's the cause of the meat receding. I have black sand which is pretty big and rough.

Then I moved it up to the rock, still low light. It opened fine most of the time. But didn't look as healthy as before.

It seems to eat sometimes. I need to drop small pieces to the body it will close and the food is gone. Though, I have never seen it eating in action. I'm not sure if it was stress with the food and closed and threw the food out when I wasn't watching. I have never seen tentacles grab food even when it was healthy. This picture was taken yesterday after (I think) it ate. I put food in the middle.

I took this picture this morning, about 3 weeks after I got it from LFS. It doesn't look healthy any more.

Sometimes I saw hermit crawing on the skelton, and the tang sometime picking it when I feed. The black sand is still stucked in the skeleton, and the meat is still receding more and more. Please help if you have any idea.

Mental1 · #2 12/16/2007, 04:24 PM

Hopefully "Elegance Coral" will chime is but I don't think it looked healthy in the first picture. It looks in trouble there -- I don't think what you got from the LFS was what I would call healthy. The black sand is probably irritating as is the rock. If you have it in low light and it is not working -- perhaps it needs more light. What was the light it was in at the LFS? I did not know that there were elegance corals from Florida. I was under the impression that it was either Indo or Aussie ...

SimilanRocks · #3 12/16/2007, 04:57 PM

You are right the first pic is not that healthy. During first week, it some times closed like something was wrong. But the pic is the healthies I could get. And I don't see that anymore.

I think black sand is the cause. For other LPS if any thing stucked in the skeleton it would be able to remove by itself?

Ludwigia73 · #4 12/16/2007, 05:33 PM

Elegance corals are definitely NOT from Florida. I've been a diver most of my life, and never seen one. This guy not only lied to you, he sold you a coral that historically is doomed from the start. There are exceptions, of course, but there has been very high mortality rate of this coral.

Mental1 · #5 12/16/2007, 07:02 PM

Well, the high rate of mortality has been with the Indo corals -- the Aussie ones have proven to be hardier. My Aussie is doing great. Do you have a QT? Can you put it somewhere else away from the black sand? Is it pulling the sand inside? Most healthy LPS corals do not have a problem with sand on them. Although I do try and blow it out of my scoly ... Can you take it back to the LFS? If they will take it back perhaps it can be saved.

hybridgenius · #6 12/16/2007, 11:40 PM

It looks like an AUSSIE though. I'm sure it will be ok as long as you arent mashing it with heavy flow right now. Give it a swift flow that will drift it once in a few seconds and low lighting FOR NOW. Aussie ones tend to like more heavy lighting. I hope things work out.

zeppelin · #7 12/17/2007, 06:10 PM

That looks like an indo to me. Good luck with it. Give it very low light and hope for the best. As was mentioned before, there are NO Florida elegance corals. I'm sure elegance coral will chime in with some additional advice.

SimilanRocks · #8 12/17/2007, 09:10 PM

I just called the store. He said it's Aussie. The place name is Florence or something, not Florida. I'm very bad with names sorry. He said elegance comes from that place is more hardy than from Indo.

I noticed the color is fading when I put up the rock and it has very low light. I moved it to a little higher light, will see how it goes.

I think it's accpeting food too. But I don't know for sure. How do you tell if it ate? Does elegance grab food like anemone?

elegance coral · #9 12/17/2007, 09:31 PM

I'm here

I can't stand some of the people that work at LFS's. The lying #$%^%^^. If there were Elegance corals here in Florida I would not be paying for them. I would just go swimming and get my own. I agree with Zeppelin. That looks like an Indo Elegance to me. There is nothing about that coral that would suggest it is from Australia (or Florida

). Everything about it screams, I'm from the Indo Pacific. Very dark Zooxanthellae, cone shaped skeleton, shrunken tentacles, puffy polyp. It's an Indo Elegance.

Now that we got that out of the way, lets see what we can do to save this poor fella. It is in a bad spot on the rocks. There is a very then and delicate layer of tissue that overlaps the top edge of the skeleton. I would move the coral so that this area does not come into contact with the rocks. What kind of lighting do you have? Does the polyp ever swell up?

If it makes you feel any better, I have seen Elegance corals in much worse shape than yours pull through. It will be a very long time before it looks like a healthy well expanded Elegance though.

elegance coral · #10 12/17/2007, 09:40 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by SimilanRocks
I just called the store. He said it's Aussie. The place name is Florence or something, not Florida. I'm very bad with names sorry. He said elegance comes from that place is more hardy than from Indo.

I noticed the color is fading when I put up the rock and it has very low light. I moved it to a little higher light, will see how it goes.

I think it's accpeting food too. But I don't know for sure. How do you tell if it ate? Does elegance grab food like anemone?

Yes Elegance corals feed just like anemones do. However most of them will not eat something that just falls on their polyp. Unless they are very healthy and hungry. They really need to sting the food with their tentacles and then they will move it to their mouth. We really need to know what your lighting is. Do you have a full tank shot showing where the Elegance is?

redFishblue · #11 12/17/2007, 10:50 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by SimilanRocks
I just called the store. He said it's Aussie. The place name is Florence or something, not Florida.

You might be thinking of Flores Island which is in Indonesia.

SimilanRocks · #12 12/18/2007, 12:52 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by redFishblue
You might be thinking of Flores Island which is in Indonesia.

Yes I believe it is. He said it's some where in the border between Indonesia and Australia. Now you see I'm really bad with names

SimilanRocks · #13 12/18/2007, 01:10 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by elegance coral
I'm here
If it makes you feel any better, I have seen Elegance corals in much worse shape than yours pull through. It will be a very long time before it looks like a healthy well expanded Elegance though.

EC. yep that makes me feel better. Good to know there is some hope.

My lighting is 8x54W T5. 3 actinics, 3 blue+, 1 procolor, 1 aquablue. The tank is 6' long, 18" deep. The sand bed still have some medium light. The low light spots are the 1' on each side where 4' T5 fixture doesn't cover. The elegance in the pictures above was on the rock next to the black acrylic. I thought acrylic is safe. But noticed the light was too low from the faded color. I will try to get some more picture where I moved it.

SimilanRocks · #14 12/18/2007, 02:23 AM

I moved it to so it won't touch the rock.

I tried to remove some rotten tissue, noticed the body is receeding more that I could remove the black sand. And I found this worm in the elegance.

I'm pretty sure it's not the normal bristleworm. Do you think it's the kind that eats coral??

jason412 · #15 12/18/2007, 08:57 AM

My best guess would be that its an opportunistic worm. So its in the elegance to take advantage of the damaged tissue for an easy meal.

elegance coral · #16 12/18/2007, 09:31 AM

The worm was most likely feeding on decomposing tissue. I would seriously start thinking about an iodine dip. Maybe even dosing iodine to the aquarium.

One of the organisms that infect these corals invade their zooxanthellae. This will show up as areas that have faded or are void of zooxanthellae. Usually starting on the oral disk and progressing out towards the tentacles. I believe this is why your coral seems to be fading. You can see the affects of this in this coral.

A normal healthy Elegance will fade when adapting to light that is brighter than what it is accustom to. This is due to the fact that in brighter light it takes fewer zooxanthellae to perform the same amount of work. If light is reduced the coral will become darker as the zooxanthellae population grows. It takes more zooxanthellae to perform the same amount of work in a darker environment.

JM68 · #17 12/18/2007, 09:54 AM

elegance coral, i don't want to hijack the thread, but what are some features of an aussie elegance. i just bought one from my lfs and my friend who does the ordering said it was an aussie and i trust him, but is there a way to be sure. i can post some pictures later in the day if that would help to id it.

elegance coral · #18 12/18/2007, 10:12 AM

I will post some pics in the other thread you just started. You can also click on my little red house.

hybridgenius · #19 12/18/2007, 01:26 PM

Oh yea ya right... it is an indo. Sorry, I forgot to even notice the puffy polyps.

SimilanRocks · #20 12/18/2007, 05:48 PM

I was thinking of iodine dipping too. I was getting unknown disease on other LPSs lately. But I don't want to stress the elegance too much. I will see how it goes for a week after moving to the new rock.

The cause of fading for me seemed to be too low light. The pic #2 was first few days when I moved it to that place. In pic #4, the left side that had more light seemed to keep color, the other side is fading. I agreed that higher light can cause bleaching just like SPS. And too low (very very low) will cause zooxanthellae to die off too.

andrewkw · #21 12/18/2007, 07:46 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by JM68
elegance coral, i don't want to hijack the thread, but what are some features of an aussie elegance. i just bought one from my lfs and my friend who does the ordering said it was an aussie and i trust him, but is there a way to be sure. i can post some pictures later in the day if that would help to id it.

Look at the box where it came from and that will tell you.

You should check if any of your fish are picking at the elegance. Mine has been doing poorly as well and I discovered my purple tang was eating it! I saw him pull a piece of flesh right off and ate it.

SimilanRocks · #22 12/22/2007, 11:44 PM

Update after moving to new place..

I see less damaged tissue. The faded color side seems to develop dark color at the tips. Another problem I found is the mimic tang is picking for the damaged tissue. How do you stop fish from picking at it?

poopsko24 · #23 12/31/2007, 05:34 PM

throw it in the garbage

zeppelin · #24 12/31/2007, 07:06 PM

That cone shaped skeleton is indicative that is an indo elegance and not an Aussie, like the store told you. The aussie elegance has more of a 'wall' look, like a wall hammer skeleton. They dont have that coned shape, generally. Sadly, that is pretty typical of a captive indo after a few weeks/months. You may be able to get a plastic strainer of some kind that would cover the elegance on the sand bed. This would get it less flow, less light, and the tang wouldn't be able to get at it. All good things. Just an idea. It looks pretty bad off though, IMO.