Aussie Elegance Coral: bury in sand or just place on top?

[jhuntington12]

I have a aussie elegance and was just curious what most people do with them as far as placement on the sandbed. Should I shove the entire stony coral part into the sandbed with just the polyps above or just place it relatively on top so that it doesn't move around? Right now I have it like 1/4 of the stony part into the sand....but wanted your suggestions. Thanks!

 

[slgcmg]

Following along. Want to get one from divers den.

 

[cloak]

I just laid mine down horizontally on the sand bed. If the skeleton has any sort of curvature to it, just make sure the polyps are facing up instead of down.

 

[hypostatic]

I have mine with it's cone/skeleton shoved entirely in the sand. This is how I've read they grow naturally in the wild.

However I've also seen them placed on the inside of a PVC pipe to hold them in place, and on the rockwork in tanks

 

[jhuntington12]

I got mine from divers den as well. $110 bucks for this 5 inch Aussie. Its been doing ok, the first few days I got it, she opened up really nice and large....but now its just so so with the polyps. I don't ever see anything bothering it...the clown just hovers over there and this is the lightest flow of the tank.

I have it just resting on the top, but do you think I should push it all the way down?

 

[hypostatic]

I got mine from divers den as well. $110 bucks for this 5 inch Aussie. Its been doing ok, the first few days I got it, she opened up really nice and large....but now its just so so with the polyps. I don't ever see anything bothering it...the clown just hovers over there and this is the lightest flow of the tank.

I have it just resting on the top, but do you think I should push it all the way down?

It looks like it's in an area with too much flow. Try moving it to a lower-flow area

 

[Budman422]

http://[URL=http://s1037.photobucket.com/user/budman422/media/Bud007_zpsaf648d3c.jpg.html][/URL]this is a pic of my 5 elegances all in the sand. 4 of these were frags from a indo that a friend of mine had and one is an aussie that I have had for a year

 

[jhuntington12]

I wish mine had long tentacles like that. It literally has been in a very low flow area for the last week. Tentacles have gotten fatter, but not longer. Weird.

 

[Vinno]

I find if you feed them, about hour later the elegance and tentacles expand and they long for next day or so.

 

[jhuntington12]

I find if you feed them, about hour later the elegance and tentacles expand and they long for next day or so.

What did you feed yours? I tried from Mysis, coral frenzy pellets, brine, and even just some reef roids mix. Doesn't seem to take anything in....my Duncan on the other hand....lol, I think it would eat my finger if I left it there, haha

 

[Vinno]

I feed mine piece of chopped up pawn or fish. 2x smaller then its mouth size.

 

[blu_devl_06]

Mine turns its nose up at mysis, but loves my nerites and ceryth snails.

 

[hypostatic]

Mine turns its nose up at mysis, but loves my nerites and ceryth snails.

Mine eats anything if possibly can. I really like asterina starfish, but my elegance ate all of them =[

 

[blu_devl_06]

forgot to mention, I bury mine in the sand, about half of the stony part.

 

[lilyost4290]

Mine is buried in the sand just deep enough for it to sit up right

 

[jhuntington12]

I took your advice, pushed it about 1/3 the way into the sand and it seems to be very happy now.



Thanks for the tips. Now if I could only see it eat...it never grabs anything. lol

 

[Amoore311]

Let it settle in a bit and it will feed for sure. It didn't look very good at all in your first pictures. This most recent one is what a healthy elegance should look like though.

My Aussie would eat anything/everything I put in the tank aside from Nori. Pellets included.

 

[hypostatic]

get some mysis or brine shrimp. turn off the mumps and feed the mysis/brine right onto the mouth. it should slowly close up and eat

 

[jhuntington12]

Another quick update:

Seems to just keep getting bigger and bigger. I turn all the pumps off, feed it some Mysis for a few days till they started to stick, and now she seems to love it...and flourish.

 

[hypostatic]

Nice! Yeah, these guys grow surprisingly fast when they're happy and well fed.