Elegance coral care and orientation 5/20/09
Hi all - thanks for this great site, it is fabulous.
< Hello ,and thank you. >
Two days ago I was talked into purchasing a "very healthy" elegance coral.  I had done a bit of research and at first all of the sites that sell corals said this is a easy to moderate coral for caring for, so it seemed perfect.
< I would say moderate. >
However, now that I dug a bit deeper I have found out all about the Elegance coral disease, etc. So, now I am wondering what I should do. I can't return the coral and don't have anyone that can care for it better than I can. So it looks like I have to do the best I can.  First: What is the proper way to orient the coral in the sand. Bob's advice on here is "horizontal" but I can't picture what that means. Does that mean cone down in the sand, mouth and tentacles flat all pointing up? The LFS told me to put the coral so that the mouth and tentacles are more angled so it doesn't defecate back into itself. A really clear picture would be great here, I can't seem to find anything and I've been searching a lot...
< It should be placed in the sand with the cone pointed down. No angle. If you have the proper amount of flow any waste should be pushed away. >
Second: I can't seem to find a straight answer on if I should feed it or not, some articles say yes once a week - is that what you recommend?
< Small meaty foods (mysis, enriched brine etc.) three or more times a week depending on size. >
Finally: any other advice on caring for this guy, or links to consistent advice, would be great.
< Elegance corals are found in areas with higher nutrient levels. So pristine water could actually be detrimental to its health. Indirect water flow is recommended. As well as regular feedings and properly maintained calcium levels. The Elegance corals sting packs a pretty good punch so be sure to give it plenty of room.
http://www.asira.org/catalaphyllia(elegancecoral)
It may also be beneficial to visit a few reef keeping forums to get first hand info from successful Elegance keepers. >
My tank is 100 gallon, I have a sump, large protein skimmer, 2x Koralia 3's for water flow. 2x 175 watt metal halide and 4x55 watt VHO (I think) actinics.
150 pounds live rock
Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate all undetectable (granted the test tube tests might not be perfect, not sure)
Ph 8.2-8.4
calcium 400-460
carbonate hardness 8-9
I have a bubble tip anemone, a few small polyp frags, hammer coral, colt coral, star polyps, and pulsing xenia 1 maroon clownfish, 5 blue chromis, and a bunch of hermit crabs and turbo snails thanks for your help, any advice is appreciated.
< You are welcome GA Jenkins >
John

Re: Elegance coral care and orientation 5/20/09
Thank you so much for the advice and the link, I really appreciate the help.
< You are very welcome! That's a great site for coral care info. GA Jenkins >
John

Elegance coral question for Bob Fenner  5/10/09
Hi Bob,
I have a pair of elegance corals.
<Mmm, Catalaphyllias are near the top in terms of physical stingy-ness...
And don't mix well often with other specimens that they're "unfamiliar with"... Have you read on WWM re...?>
I have a pink tip frag from a 19 year old colony that's been with me for about 6 months and is growing rapidly.
Currently he is the lone inhabitant of my tank with a 3.5" DSB established for almost 2 years and about 14 blades of seagrass- shoal grass I think. I picked up a frag of an Australian purple tipped elegance at MAX '09 in Costa Mesa about 5 weeks ago and has been in QT since. He is eating well and looks 'happy.'
a) I'm not sure about the length of QT required for ECS to manifest itself.
<...Elegance Coral Syndrome? See WWM re the health of this species period>
b) Will there be a problem if the pink tip elegance and purple tip elegance touch each other?
<Yes. Very likely>
They expand so much! The pink tip appears to have a stronger sting than the purple tip when food is presented.
<They should expand and contract somewhat... That one/both are doing this a great deal is symptomatic of "warring">
c) As I mentioned I have 14 blades of seagrass that have been there since Jan '09. As new ones grow, old ones die -a turn over of about 3-4 leaves a week. I was hoping for more blades of grass!!!
<What do you think are the limiting factors here? Light, some nutrient/s?>
I started using FW plant fertilizer tabs buried 2" below the DSB by the roots per Eric Borneman's advice at MAX '09, but I see no change.
<Does take time... Could be summat else>
Thank You,
Narayan
<Be chatting, Bob Fenner>

Re: Elegance coral question for Bob Fenner  5/10/09
Hi Bob,
Thank you very much for your reply.
a) The purple tip elegance coral is still in QT. The pink tip and purple tip elegance have not been in contact yet. The expansion and contraction is based on light. The pink tip reduced it's size by 50% at night. The purple tip basically withdraws completely in to its skeleton at night -from being 6" across down to about 1"!
<Mmm, vigorous... again, I would not likely "mix" the two specimens in the same system/water>
b) I don't know how long to QT the purple tip to ensure that it doesn't suffer from ECS. Is 6 weeks enough?
<See WWM re... I don't "believe" in such a syndrome... there are ways to strengthen this and other Scleractinian, Cnidarian species re too-easy mortality. These are adequately covered/archived on our site>
c) As for the shoal grass, they grow fast enough. The old leaves just die off just as fast as new growth! That's what I need to stop. Currently I get 3-4 new leaves a week, same as the death rate! So I guess I have a stable population of shoal grass leaves. They are planted in a mature 2 year old 3.5" DSB, in 12" of water under a 20K 70W metal halide bulb. They only problem I see is that since I'm also fishless, and have been so for 2 years, there are ton of different pods left over from my live rock days that now hang out on the grass blades. I wonder if they are my problem!
Thanks a lot!
Narayan
<Couldn't say... but I do think both you and I could devise an experimental method to test this hypothesis... Mmmm? Bob Fenner> 

Elegance coral ?? 12/7/2007
HI Bob!
<Sara M. here.>
In a forum, someone was saying how great a store's elegance corals were. I said, well I bought one there and it was supposedly from a good source and would not die. Took 6 months, but it did. Went against every fiber of my being to BUY it, but my corals never die on me. So I figured I would give it a shot. I did everything you are supposed to do and YES my tank always has 20 to 30 nitrates (no phosphates and my sps even grows!.... they are at the top of course) Anyhow, I was rebutted when I mentioned the coral was 7" long. The person said, oh well, the corals from Australia are smaller and are better.
<Australian Elegance corals are "better" (less prone to Elegance Coral Disease than Indo-Pacific ones (this is so, at least in more recent years).>
Correct me if I am wrong, but Australia TYPICALLY will NOT export young fish or corals, right?
<Umm, this depends on what you mean by "typically." They don't export the way the does, but they do export some corals and fish.>
I mean basically this person is trying to defend the store owner and I said, hey I don't blame the store owner. Bob, I just don't KNOW if I am being fed a line of c*ap about how they are smaller from Australia.
<Bob and I are sitting here in Kona chatting about this right now. And, sorry to say, I'm going to have to give you the classic law school student answer to every question..."um, maybe." It's certainly possible that this coral you were sold is from Australia. It's also quite possible it's not. As for relative sizes of corals from different parts of the world... this might be the case all over (not just from Australia). However, please don't assume that this person you talked to (or the store owner) is lying to you. He/she might not be lying. Or, the lie (if there is a lie) might not have started with them. They might have been lied to by the distributor, or the distributor lied to by yet someone else up the line. In any case, Bob thinks that if your elegance coral really was from Australia, it would have been very expensive!
Best,
Sara M.>
 

Re: Growth on Elegance Coral (more info) 8-11-2007 Bob Fenner <Ron> Hope Bob gets this email, just a follow up. By the way I truly appreciate all the hard work that goes into keeping this site up and available for newbies like me. This is just a follow up email about my Elegance Coral. Since last email it has grown, thickened up, getting more green tint. <Ah, good> Have not done anything different, it is still point down in live rock where it has anchored itself and still has the growth semi-around the clam shell and rock. The Clown over the last 2 weeks or so has begun hanging out in it as per pic during the day time and at night goes to sleep in a vertical position in the back left corner of the tank facing down. One other thing, the Hippo Tang seems to lay in it a lot as well, This Catalaphyllia does not seem to have ever stung anything or one. I have not handled it in over eight months and don't intend to, and at some point or other every fish in my tank has swam though it or laid on top of it. It has seemed very content and very docile. This guy seems to be happy and growing very well. <Very good> If you want a video of just how fast it closes when I feed just let me know, will probably be about 5 meg, though I might be able to distill it down. Thanks for all the wonderful help Ron :>) P.S. sent a photo of mushroom just for fun :>) <I wondered... Cheers! BobF>

Decline of An Elegance Coral?  3/30/06
Scott,
<Scott here! Sorry for the delay in the reply.>
Thank you very much for your quick response.  I was kind of wondering if the 20k bulbs might be an issue, but if they do turn out to be then I may slowly switch them out for 10k.  I have actually been more concerned about how deep the 175 watt bulbs will be able to penetrate vs. 400 watt.  What do you think?
<They'll be fine for most corals in a 24" deep tank, IMO.>
One other quick question about a Elegance coral I have.  I also have a 46 gallon bowfront tank with great water quality and everything else doing spectacular but my Elegance.  When I first got it for the first couple of weeks it opened up nicely but since then over about a months time it seems to be slowly shrinking and opening less and less.  It doesn't show any other signs of stress other then it keeps getting smaller and opens less and less.
For about a week it would blow up like a balloon during the day, which I thought was a little abnormal also.  I did read that it is good to target feed Elegance, which I wasn't doing for the first month and tried to start doing a week ago but only seemed to worsen its condition.  Also, a friend of mine has beautiful large Elegance that he never target feeds and is doing wonderful.   Any ideas or suggestions about what I could do to hopefully
improve it condition?  Is it savable or it slowly dieing?
Thanks again, your feedback very very helpful
Jason
<Well, Jason, these corals really do benefit from directed feeding. They are also susceptible to allelopathic "attacks" from other corals in your system, so they are really best suited for a monospecific display, as the only coral in residence. Feed them small foods (less than 1/4" in size) and keep the water quality high. Do make use of the vast resources here on WWM regarding the care of this coral. Good luck! Regards, Scott F.>