anyone have an elegance coral??

ithorian_r

ithorian_r

Member
anyone have an elegance (elegant or ridge) coral?? i was interested in purchasing one. the info i have on them says they require med lighting and med water flow?? are they difficult to keep? thanks!
 
dogstar

dogstar

Active Member
They are probly one of the MOST difficult corals to keep. Even for the pros.... IMO dont get one.
 
mudplayerx

mudplayerx

Active Member
They are difficult to keep and most of them are doomed to failure before you even buy them. You see, if an elegance coral gets a tear in its flesh (even a tiny one), then it will slowly rot away starting at the wound. Most collectors and pet stores injure them before you even buy them.
 
schneidts

schneidts

Active Member
I'd go even further and add that they do not need to be torn or physically damaged to deteriorate or rot away. There are many theories as to why the Elegance coral (Catalaphyllia jardinei) dies in the home aquarium ranging from bacterial, viral, and fungal infections, the depth of the area of collection...it goes on. They are not a coral that should be kept in the home aquarium or even collected, unless their collection is for the purpose of diagnosis. Hopefully soon we will start to see some results from recent studies.
 
laddy

laddy

Active Member
All I know is what you guys have restated, but when I see them at a LFS I politely inform them of in-home history..........they shouldn't even be in the trade, from what I've read.
 
reefnut

reefnut

Active Member
It's strange but once they were easy to keep... for what ever reason they have became very difficult. I had a HUGE one once... beautiful coral!! Unfortunately it became victim to a inexperienced hobbyist, in acclimating it to my MHs it died in short order.
As said, in most cases they are doomed before you buy them... it has to be something in the way they are collect and/or transported but currently they should be on the DO NOT BUY LIST and DO NOT COLLECT LIST!!!!
 
schneidts

schneidts

Active Member
From what I've read, though it's not fact, some Elegance are diseased before collection. There is definitely much more to learn about what causes this.
 
vi3tb0i

vi3tb0i

Active Member
check your local fish store they might have those kind of mushroom corals if they dont order some on the internet.
 
schneidts

schneidts

Active Member
Originally Posted by ReefNut
Thought I would share my once elegance... to this day I regret my actions with this coral
. It was previously kept for about 4 years in a fellow hobbyist's tank. I got his entire system for my first reef... it's very rare anymore to find such a large healthy piece

https://www.saltwaterfish.com/vb/show...12&postcount=3
OMG what a beautiful piece that was...sorry to hear about that. It is very rare to see one like that. So, it became stressed from light acclimation, then died?
 
mdog30001

mdog30001

Member
Srry to hear about the tragedy. i just switched to mh's to and my brain coral started to stress out really bad, he even looked like he was starting to bleach. I noticed it right away and left the lights off for a day, and now have them on for 6 hours aday. He's a lot better now. Hopefully i can start leaving the lights on more without having the same thing happen to me that happened to u.
 
dogstar

dogstar

Active Member
From the little research I have done on the elegance is that they are mostly found in grassy muddy areas like river deltas and bays and in deeper water off and around reefs where ofcorse theres lower light levels and less water flow and higher nutriants.
And back befor the hobbiest knew to have high light and high currents and perfect water parims. in order to keep the true reef corals the elegants did fine but in the perfect simulated reef tanks they just dont make it for long. It is a shame because thay sure are one of the nices LPS there is IMO.
 
ithorian_r

ithorian_r

Member
yeah i think the elegance corals are the most interesting, beautiful LPS there is...too bad they dont fare well in captivity
 
sweetdawn

sweetdawn

Active Member
wow that monster was beautiful. I had one when i was first starting out didnt know they were hard to keep at the time. also didnt know that if the tenacle things are short that is a bad thing it only lasted a couple of months in my tank
 
L

lungfish

Guest
I've had my elegance coral for about 3 years now and it had been doing well until about a month ago when we had a long power outage. I have never fed it either, which some recommend. The tank is getting back up to speed now, so hopefully it will come back.
Only managed to lose 2 fish during the power outage, thanks to the big man in the sky.
 
reefnut

reefnut

Active Member
Originally Posted by schneidts
So, it became stressed from light acclimation, then died?
I'm assuming I didn't acclimate it slow enough so it couldn't adapt and died. As stated above they are more of a medium light coral. Under strong VHOs it was doing really well.
 
1journeyman

1journeyman

Active Member
Interesting info... the "pocket guide to inverts" says that they were hardy a few years ago but have been on the decline in the past couple of years. (I've got one in my tank that a friend got me from a guy who was moving... he had it under high K MH's and it seemed to thrive. Looks good in mine so far... was crossing my fingers after reading about it... am even more scared now...) It is breathtakingly beautiful. Not sure I could handle watching it deteriorate.
 
E

eaglefan

Guest
I suggest you don't buy one. Had one everything in the tank spec wise was great and it still didn't last more than two weeks. Just my two cents but it might save you some cash
 
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