Elegance Offspring

[Lockhartia]

So I'm hoping someone will be able to help. I have an indonesian elegance that I picked up almost 5 years ago as a tiny little "nano" coral. I have built three separate tanks around it, and it continues to grow and has become a MONSTER. It is the size of a football fully opened and a sting to rival a carpet anemone.

I have not added anything to the tank in probably six months (the last thing being an algae blenny). Paramaters are stable at:

1.025 spec. gravity
8.2 pH
430 ppm Calcium
1300 ppm magnesium
alk 7-8 (I know this is low, but the tank has ALWAYS been this low and nothing seems to mind in any way)

It's a 2x2x2 60ga cube with a pair of 5x24watt T5 units. Bulbs were replaced last October. The tank is a 50/50 mix of SPS and LPS (and 9 clams).

The elegance is doing fine, as big and mean as ever, but imagine my surprise the other day when my husband calls to say he found a half dollar sized baby elegance in the back of the tank. I get home, poke around, and I find a quarter sized one as well! There's not a ton of literature but it seems that this is fairly abnormal, although possible for them to form daughter colonies.

I inspected each piece and it is fully inflated, happy, as as mean tempered with its sting as mom is. I cannot feel a skeletal base, however, on either frag, although you can see each piece kind of "pinches" around a central point at the base of the polyp. It is a stark white and about the size of a grain of rice.

Do these things have a chance? Is it possible that they will grow a skeletal base, and that's what that white rice grain is?

Any help would be appreciated!

 

[oceanarium]

At some stage you would have bumped the coral and damaged the coraliite. Loose septa can fall away hanging within the flesh they slowly break loose taking some flesh with them. I would say the bit at the base is the septa.

You can certainly viably grow them out, I used to do this purposely to form new clones.

 

[sczlars]

I'd love to see a picture of the tank with this beastie!

 

[elegance coral]

Without pic's of the little ones, all we can do is guess as to what they are.

 

[Lockhartia]

I'll try taking some pics this morning once the lights go on. I don't have the best camera so i'm apologizing in advance for the quality!

It's def NOT an anemone, I'm 10000000% sure it's another elegance.

 

[kingfisher62]

That is so cool! I want to see pics too!

 

[Lockhartia]

Again I apologize for the crummy pictures. My point and shoot doesn't have a white balance function and I'm not sure how to fix it in paint (if I even can)

Also I was getting a wierd glare from the windows I couldn't do anything about. First off is mama Elegance

The picture doesn't do it justice. At all. This is it angry becaues I was trying to make it close up so you could see the elegence-lette better. Also ignore the credit card LOL. I needed to shield the corals above the elegance on the ledge above it from wandering tenticles.

Here is the "Little" one.

It has tucked itself into the rock and couldn't be happier. It's about the size of a half dollar coin, give or take. I know the picture isn't the best but it IS fully detached from the mother, it's base is to the left in the rock.

Here it is a little closer up...

I'm not sure where the second one is hiding. Somewhere in the back no doubt. Let me know what you think!

 

[juggy]

wow very nice