Our elegance, which used to be very large and flourishing has recently shown signs of distress. It’s not as full and recently has a section that just ‘hangs’ like it’s dying flesh. See photo. It’s an Aussie Elegance and we’ve had it for over a year. Thanks for any insight you might have! Photo of entire tank attached as well, elegance location is circled.
Elegance showing signs of distress
- Thread starter LuAnnG
- Start date
Thank you! New to the forumCan you post some pictures? Also, I’m moving your thread to a more appropriate forum
We do feed it regularly. Nitrates are high, otherwise normal
No problem and welcome. It’s been since 1991 since I kept an Elegance
And brown jelly or stringy stuff coming off it?
No. Thanks
Very likely, I believe (if I remember) they occur in lagoons…sandy bottoms.Thanks. After some additional research, we have moved her down to the sand. Most everything I read said they don’t like being on rocks and we had her up on a coral pedestal.maybe being off the bottom stressed her?
Thank you. Moved her off the coral pedestal into the sand. The circled spot on this photo is the area we are concerned about. She is also only about 1/5 her normal size
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T Diddy
Happy to be here
I don’t disagree with what @griss said, but I’m not so sure that placement is the issue here. If the coral has been growing and happy in your tank for a year, it’s highly unlikely that placement is the problem. Is it possible that your elegant is budding or dropping an “offspring “?? I had an acan lord on a pedestal at one point and it, too started to sag at one corner of the happy, growing colony. I decided to leave it alone, and within a few weeks, I had two acan colonies.
I wondered if it could be budding but could not find anything that said they do this. That what be great! If they do drop offspring would this impact their size during this process? The reason we put her on a pedestal, was she was taking over that side of the tank and stinging everything. She was also hoarding snails and eating them
we are now testing all the parameters again to see if something is off. Nothing else in the tank is in distress. Thanks for help!
T Diddy
Happy to be here
Typically, budding is described as new (baby) polyp growth at the base of the mother colony…you often don’t even know that they’re there until they get some size. What I described with my acan is more of a self bifurcation of the tissue. It literally started sagging and looking like something from a Dali painting. I know that elegans coral will reproduce through the traditional budding process I described, but I’m unsure about the tissue drooping and bifurcating as I saw with my acan colony. Then again, I didn’t know acans would do that until I saw it with my own eyes.
T Diddy
Happy to be here
As for the question of size, when the coral is splitting, all/most energy is directed toward the reproduction as opposed to normal growth. It’s not unusual to see an otherwise healthy specimen retract during this process. Again though, I’m unsure about the ability of the elegans to reproduce in this way. How long had it been on the pedestal exactly??
Didn’t think of that.
8 months ago, she was originally in the sand. Hoping for the best. She was an incredible specimen. The foot in the sand that’s new has full polyps and they are moving in the sand. The tips are bright yellow and similar to the rest of the animal
hi Sorry I just saw this.
hi Just saw this, sorry. Will post parameters in the morning, did all new tests earlier…
Yes I spot feed her frequently.
shred5
Premium Member
Elegance can be very touchy. Used to just get to a certain point and die like some goniopora.
Australian Elegance seem to be better.
Can you get a white picture without blue..
My first thought was budding too. It does happen.
Yea if it was on the sand moving it up may have been the problem, not only that corals once established do not like to be moved. Elegance prefer the sand because there skeletons are sharp and the weight of the flesh can damage them plus it is where they come from mostly in the wild. Allot of the lps with cone type skeletons do.
I have had lps detach from the skeleton too, polyp bale out. A lot of corals can do it but elegance is one polyp so you do not want it.. Not sure the cause then.
I would get a icp test make sure nothing is happening with the water like heavy metals just to rule that out.
How high are the nitrates? You may want to get them in check depending on how high.
Australian Elegance seem to be better.
Can you get a white picture without blue..
My first thought was budding too. It does happen.
Yea if it was on the sand moving it up may have been the problem, not only that corals once established do not like to be moved. Elegance prefer the sand because there skeletons are sharp and the weight of the flesh can damage them plus it is where they come from mostly in the wild. Allot of the lps with cone type skeletons do.
I have had lps detach from the skeleton too, polyp bale out. A lot of corals can do it but elegance is one polyp so you do not want it.. Not sure the cause then.
I would get a icp test make sure nothing is happening with the water like heavy metals just to rule that out.
How high are the nitrates? You may want to get them in check depending on how high.
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I would look at any changes that have happened over the last several months. Depending on the energy reserves a coral has and the stress event(s), when stressed it can take weeks to months for a to show. I would try to think back to when it first started to shrink and list anything that happened then.
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