Elegance Feeding Dramas

[Nolimdien]

I fed my elegance today and about 20 minutes after it started opening back up and about 75% of the tantacles are all shrivled up and tiny compared to normal. It looks really bad but it does this everytime I feed it.

This is the only one of these I've ever had so I can't tell if it's healthy or normal. Anyone have any ideas?

Sorry no pictures, girlfriend took the camera to work today (and left the memory stick for it here :eek2: ).

 

[elegance coral]

Elegance corals withdraw their tentacles as they fire their stinging cells to feed. It is common for the tentacles that were involved in feeding to remain withdrawn for some time afterwords. By tomorrow they should be fine again.

 

[Nolimdien]

Thanks for your quick response. Yeah it comes back to normal the next day.

When it's shrunken up like that it turns a darker red color (rather than fleshy pink), is that because there's less room for the zooanthellae to spread out along the corals flesh?

I'm amazed at how well my corals are doing in my little tank and I would hate to have something go wrong because I fed it something wrong or.. well who knows what.

 

[bradleyj]

Last night I found my elegance chowing down on my solar fairy wrasse. Can they actually catch and kill a fish like this? Or did something else possibly kill him and the elegance just get the scraps.

 

[elegance coral]

You're right about the color change. Elegance corals can capture and kill fish, but it is very uncommon. I think the fish died and ran into the Elegance on the way out. If the Elegance manages to get it down, which is unlikely, it will most likely regurgitate most of it.

 

[bradleyj]

You are exactly right. He tried his best, but eventually gave up. I found the remains , some flesh and the backbone in my tank this morning.