elegance polyp bailout!

[rssjsb]

I had a very healthy, growing frag of a colony that has been in captivity for 20 years. It went from one mouth to four in as many months, then seemed to stop growing. I was feeding it several times a week, but it seemed to be stressed. I have a feeling it was being picked on by my potter's angel and was planning to move it to another tank when, one day last week I woke up to find a bare skeleton.

I assumed something had eaten it until yesterday, when I saw two separate remnants in the back of the tank, one with three mouths and one with one mouth. I scooped them out and put them in a lower-light, lower flow tank.

Is there any way they can survive? How can I maximize the chances?

 

[Shawnts106]

Never heard of this happening with Elegance corals... Polyp Bailout in LPS I have noticed normally has to do with a very low pH, the corals can not calcify properly and because of this their tissues start separating from its calcium base.

I think Strontium plays a role in this... not exactly sure...


This is just my 2 cents.


The coral will probably not survive...

 

[elegance coral]

This does happen with Elegance corals. There are several thing that can cause it. High flow, high phosphate, low calcium. There was someone here on RC a while back that kept one alive for several months after it bailed out. It looked good for quite a while, then finally passed away. I hope you have better luck with yours. Sorry to here about your Elegance problems.

 

[rssjsb]

Yeah, that's what I figured. Well, I'll see if it'll still eat, but I'm not holding out hope.

I haven't tested for phosphates, but it wouldn't surprise me if they were high - I've been having some cyano issues and recently noticed that my rock is full of junk. I'm about to upgrade to a larger tank, so that will give me an opportunity to at least rinse the rock if not cook it.

Thanks for the replies.