elegance

[spyderreef]

I have been nursing an elegance coral since August. I've posted a couple of times and I've done a lot of searches looking for clues as to any special requirements that they might have. Right now I have it placed in my refugium, that has very little macro algae in it. I turned it into a tank just for this coral. It's was under 2 175 MH in my main tank but it seems to be doing better under 2 55 watt PC in the 29 gal. The lights are on 8 hours a day. The coral will open and close but it doesn't have much left for tenticles. Being that it is in what was my refugium for my 125 it has a lot of amphipods. I do not try and feed it anything meaty but I do feed my whole tank with a dry phytoplankton.
I know a few of you have these beautiful corals and I am looking for your tank parameters especially iodine and magnesium. I hope someone can help me with the information that I am looking for. Thanks.

 

[nm reef]

I wish you the best of luck. I've seen some great ones being kept but my experience with them has been bad. The only one I attempted to keep gradually faded away. Some folks have had success but not me. I'd like to have the right formula myself!

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nmreef@cox.net

 

[bdhough]

I remember helping you. You may want to get your hands on some more macro algae to place in that tank. It will facilitate pod reproduction or place some live rock in there for that purpose. You MUST feed this thing to help keep it alive. If even once a week stick some shrimp on him so he can suck them up. I have heard of macros that will grow ok turning the lights on and off which they are i do not remember. Just my thoughts.....

 

[spyderreef]

bdhough,
I very much appreciated your help. It was because of your advice I left it where it was. I bought new lighting for this tank in hopes that it would help. If it doesn't work I can always use the light. I will try feeding it. I have a large number of pods and they crawl all over it. Does it have the ability to eat them? I have some pieces of live rock in the tank and some macro algae (feather), just not a lot. I still feel that I am missing a key piece with the water.

 

[bdhough]

I'm pretty sure it does have the ability to eat it. Most corals have some sort of stickiness to them. I wish i knew how it worked in the wild.... There is more micro eating i believe. Where the coral absorbs water into its skin which it in turn digests because it is full of floating eggs, plankton, waste, etc.... Pods in yoru system are reproducing and will get caught up in the current and become nutrients for a hungry fish or a coral that catches it. The large chunks of food i'm guessing simulate a stray shrimp or fish who gets stung to death on the elegance and then gets swallowed whole.....Like i said though im not sure how it works exactly in the wild....

 

[spyderreef]

It seems as though one of the reasons that we have such difficulty growing elegance is the lack of knowledge of where and how they are harvested. I would think that a better understanding of this would be helpful in their care. Why is it so difficult to find out. I have very little knowledge on harvesting practices and probably put too much faith in the people that do. How can I find out more information? Buy purchasing these corals am I encouraging raping of our reefs?

 

[bdhough]

Well one thing you can try and figure out is how they reproduce. They seem to be free form corals and thus the harvesting of them is just a matter of picking them off the bottom of the ocean. Its very hard on any life form to be boxed up out of your natural environment and change tanks several times before coming into your tanks. Thus y so much life dies in transit to LFS and your home. I told you in the past they like the lagoonal/seaweed beds which are saturated with nutrients. You name it its in the water in those areas so i think that if you can replicate that as much as possible you have the best chances, thus y the elegance is in the refuge.... I think one thing people fail to take into account is the natural location of corals and the sheer amount of micro and macro life floating around out there. Thus y its recommended that some corals not be placed into a tank until the six month or year mark so the tank can establish that life.