Aussie Elegance Coral not opening HELP

TheSWHobbyist

New member
The other day (February 22, 2014) I bought an Australian elegance coral and it has not opened yet, the store owner did mention that it might take a few days for it to get used to the water and then open but I am worried that I may have hurt it. When I brought it home I let it float in a bag for 15-20 minutes and then I put it in the sand (the skeleton is about 2 1/2" long and I placed it about 1" in the sand). After I placing it in the sand I noticed that it was covered in flatworms (literally 20-30) so I looked up how to remove them and I read that you are supposed to siphon them out, so I did, I siphoned the coral, but nothing happened so I called the store owner who is very helpful and nice and he told me to take it out and shake it in a little bag of water and the worms should fall off. So I did that, and pretty much all of the worms fell off, But I did shake it ALOT and I'm worried that I may have hurt it because the tentacles look flat and are drooping to the side, still closed. I also read that it is bad to move the elegance coral a lot and that you should place it in a spot and not touch it again. But of course I didn't know that so I moved it several times to get it in a 'good' spot. There isn't a lot of water movement in the spot that I put if but I'm not sure how much is a little movement for this coral.

Here are some pictures:
photo 3.jpg

photo 1.jpg

photo 2.jpg

So after shaking and moving it, is there anything that I can do to make sure that it doesn't die. This is my second coral, my first was a hammer coral and it looks like it is doing great, it looks bigger now then it was at the store! I have 4 fish (1 Banggai Cardinalfish, 1 Yellow Tang, 2 Clownfish) My specific gravity is about 1.026, my temperature is 78F, I have a Marineland "Reef Capable LED Lighting System" White and Blue 1W LED, and 3340 Lumens, and I have a 75gal saltwater aquarium.

Please help, I'm not sure what to do to help this coral.
 
leave it sit and don't move it around. you want a little flow just don't blast it. you have really stressed this coral. what color are the flatworms that was on it.
 
First off are they really flat worms. At this point you have really stressed the coral out leave it alone it may take days or weeks to open at this point
 
Good news, the coral did open and looks pretty good for all I know, its tentacles are long and chubby, is this a good sign that its healthy?

Aussie Elegance Coral (Open first time).jpg
photo.jpg
Do you think that this is a healthy Elegance Coral?? Does everything seem right?

I think that it wasn't opening before was because the light was too strong, cause after I moved it further under the rock and in the shadier part it opened.
The flatworms were brown. I looked them up and they look pretty similar.
 
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