elegance coral pic

[Jhsellers2]

As like many I had a impulse buy. If I knew what I do now I never would of bought it. I hope I can keep it alive. I don't want to be one of the ones that supports the trade of these to kill it, but too late for that. I just want it to survive I'm still trying to find out from the lfs where it originated from. I sure hope its not the indo one. Anyways I never posted a pic so I hope it works. I've had this in my tank since last wed so I guess 4 days now, I've been trying to feed it small pieces of salmon witch it seems to spit up a few hrs later but its store bought and I'm guessing it has preservatives in it maybe that's why it spit it up i just got some silver sides to cut up and try that. my tang is a 55 with a hang on ref. fluval 4 filter for media and a remora c skimmer and a hydror korilla 3 lighting has 2 250 hqi Phoenix 14 k and4 65w attinc.

 

[Jhsellers2]

in one of the pics you can see that the lips are puckered like its kissing not sure if thats a tell tail of anything but hoping mr elegance coral can chime in when free, i know your sick of people going through this and trust me im learning my lesson to research first. also i did put it as low as i could and to the side for less light the bulbs are about 1.5 months old. also i took another korilla out to lesson the flow in there.

 

[iwishtofish]

Certainly a beautiful coral!

 

[BfishLpond78]

I would try small pieces of shrimp instead of salmon. My elegance loves the shrimp...make sure its small pieces. Make sure it's in a low flow area. My has blown up since feeding it shrimp and lowering the flow. Not as pretty as yours but I love it....

Sent from my ADR6350 using Tapatalk

 

[steyely]

I did the exact same thing so I'm here to offer my advice as well. The 2 main factors I've noticed with this coral is lighting and flow. The more you find out about them, the more you'll realize how today's super clean, intensely lit reef tanks are not good conditions for them at all. I've had an elegance for about 8 months and it seems to prefer low light and just enough flow to gently sway its tentacles. Mine did best when I had both my pumps on opposite cycles and 32watt t8's (one actinic, one daylight). I later upgraded to a t5/led/hqi odyssea setup and it's just now at about 70% expansion with only 1 54watt t5 daylight and actinic on. Mine is very sensitive to light. I actually had to put 3 layers of screen door material along with a piece of white paper over the area of my t5 lighting above the elegance to get it somewhat happy. I don't target feed mine (fish/shrimp will grab it) but I do notice when I feed its tentacles will close up around what I'm assuming are small bits of food.

As an example of how light temperamental mine is, here's a couple before and after pictures taken of my tank when I did my lighting upgrade. The elegance is in on the right side.
Before

After

The pictures were taken several months ago. I had the coral for about 5 at the time. Currently, it reaches about 80-85% of it's original extension even after 3 months under the screens and paper. Though it does seem to be growing and healthy, it does not extend out like it used to. My guess is maybe due to the increased lighting it doesnt need to open up as much, but who knows.

The elegance hosts 2 clowns that it doesn't seem to mind at all, and I have a banded coral shrimp that enjoys trying to walk all over it during feeding time (I'm diligent in chasing the shrimp off asap when I do notice.) There is also a user on the forums named ElegenceCoral who's offered up a lot of information here that I have bookmarked when I was reading up about it.

Since purchasing the coral, my tank lighting and powerhead positiong/flow now revolves around it. That's what I get for impulse buying, lesson learned, though it is my favorite! BTW I used to live in Charlotte. Great city- I loved the whitewater center and Moosehead has the best damn hot wings I've ever had.

Good luck with the coral, I really hope it works out for you.

 

[Jhsellers2]

Thanks for all the tips. I have previously started feeding it tiny pieces of silversides and as far as I know has been keeping it down. Yes I'm having a time with the flow always trying to get it just right and I think I finally found the sweet spot. Also I got in touch with the lfs that sold me the piece and he said it was an Aussie so if he didn't lie that will better my chances. I hear the white water center is awesome I have yet to go there. I'm from key west but in charlotte now. By the way your tank looks awesome and hope I can keep my elegace as long as yours.hoping if it makes it that long it will last so time will tell

 

[tburke]

Nice! Elegance are great, so underrated....

 

[Toomnymods]

my elegance coral looked like these just a month ago, but now it has shriveled up to almost nuthing, it still has flesh on its skeleton, but it just doesnt expand at all, it's in the lowest lit part of the tank, so i dunno what to do for it, hate to see it suffer.. ive been feeding zeovit lps amino acid concentrate, my other lps like acans, scoly, and dendrophyllias love it, they expand fully at night to feed on it and a teaspoon of oyster feast when i feed, but the elegance doesnt even expand at night anymore.. guess it's a goner..

 

[isawill]

I didn't think they expanded at night...mine always retracts a great deal at night...sometimes all the way in, but so far has always come back and expanded fully when the lights come on...

 

[feersomen]

How is the Elegance Coral doing so far? Try not to over feed and/or force feed the elegance coral. Judging from from your images it looks happy.

 

[Seanthefish]

Elegance coral looks great... Always wanted one but am afraid of what I've heard. Good luck!

 

[iwishtofish]

I don't think elegance corals acclimate well. I'm also inclined to think that they need very low flow, gradual acclimation to light, and an environment free of critters that will bother them (picking fish, like angels and tangs, and shrimp or crabs). Water parameters should be right on, as well.

I think that I screwed up on all four of those factors, perhaps leading to the demise of my aussie elegance. A hard pill to swallow!

 

[niteowl03]

Here is my elegance. It is in a 120g with 52 LEDs running at about 80% it used to close almost fully at night until my clowns started hosting it not it only closes about 1/2 way. Yours appears to be the same kind as mine which is an aussie. I also have it in medium flow area. In a 48" tank both power heads are on the opposite side but they are koralia 4s. These are amazing corals but they do seem to be temper-mental.

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[MonsterTankMan]

Nice elegance, but very tempermental coral, I had one for a yr .

 

[Jhsellers2]

thanks for all the comments so far it is doing well, but i have a cleaner shrimp that is driving me nuts. he likes to stand on it and cause it to close up and im always running it off, he is so persistent, if he dosnt knock it off soon i will FEED HIM TO IT. i made a dummy mistake of not quarantining a new fish so i got ich and had to take rock work apart to catch fish to treat and i could tell the coral didnt really like all the disturbance in there but bounced back the next day. so its going to be a long 10 weeks before i can put fish in but thats what i get i guess. so far fish are doing well with copper treatment. anyways ill keep updates on the coral once and a while to let you all know if i killed it or not..

 

[iwishtofish]

thanks for all the comments so far it is doing well, but i have a cleaner shrimp that is driving me nuts. he likes to stand on it and cause it to close up and im always running it off, he is so persistent, if he dosnt knock it off soon i will FEED HIM TO IT. i made a dummy mistake of not quarantining a new fish so i got ich and had to take rock work apart to catch fish to treat and i could tell the coral didnt really like all the disturbance in there but bounced back the next day. so its going to be a long 10 weeks before i can put fish in but thats what i get i guess. so far fish are doing well with copper treatment. anyways ill keep updates on the coral once and a while to let you all know if i killed it or not..

Glad to hear it's doing well! I sure hope you don't kill it - that privilege seems to be reserved for me...

What a bummer about the ich. Ups and downs in this hobby, right? About that shrimp: My coral banded shrimp was attracted to that coral like a magnet, the second I put the coral in the tank. It wasn't long before he hopped right up on top of it. You should have seen me trying to catch him (soon did) - I put him in the sump, much to the chagrin of my peppermint shrimp. I'd pull your shrimp out, if I were in your position.

 

[jukboxx]

very nice coral

 

[feersomen]

thanks for all the comments so far it is doing well, but i have a cleaner shrimp that is driving me nuts. he likes to stand on it and cause it to close up and im always running it off, he is so persistent, if he dosnt knock it off soon i will FEED HIM TO IT. i made a dummy mistake of not quarantining a new fish so i got ich and had to take rock work apart to catch fish to treat and i could tell the coral didnt really like all the disturbance in there but bounced back the next day. so its going to be a long 10 weeks before i can put fish in but thats what i get i guess. so far fish are doing well with copper treatment. anyways ill keep updates on the coral once and a while to let you all know if i killed it or not..

how'd you get ich?

 

[Drichards36]

Nice elegance coral, never had luck with em but only tried 1 from indo and I heard they rarely make it.

 

[Jhsellers2]

man usually my shrimp will eat out of my hand. but he knows im up to something i tried to catch him earlier but got out slicked. i called the lfs where i got him and told them about it and they said they would take him back. i think im going to get rid of my larger hermits as well and just keep snails. as far as the ich it was from not quarantining the fish. as far as the shrimp i have my net in there so he can get used to it. and if that dosnt work i guess ill try something diffrent