Need Elegance help... Not looking good

[AliKat]

My elegance was gorgeous and happy for awhile, and now it's not opening much. The clownfish have been down in it - don't know if that has anything to do with it.

It's my first elegance coral and is gorgeous. I'd hate to lose it! Any ideas?

What all do I need to be doing - food, additives, etc. - to make it happy?

It's in a 55 tall with 250W 12K MH light.

 

[zeppelin]

A pic would help allot, although getting your clownfish out of it would be a good start. They irritate the coral and it will not open the way it should.

 

[AliKat]

I'll try to take a pic later today. My digital camera doesn't do a very good job taking pics of my tanks.

 

[porky]

Yeah I agree w/Zepp. get those darn clowns away from it, they will irritate the coral to death!

 

[mrwilson]

The clownfish could even be the entire problem. Certainly if they keep going down in it, the elegance will be unlikely ever to expand much.

 

[AliKat]

Just moved a BTA into the tank, so hopefully the clowns will go to it. Will take elegance pics later. Right now it's so closed it looks like it's dying. :-(

Hopefully, that's not the case. It's gorgeous - yellow with purple tips.

Anything else I can do for it?

 

[jadeguppy]

Is there room to build a cage around it out of eggcrate? The holes are large enough to allow plenty of flow, but small enough to keep most clowns out. If the clown can't get to the elegance hopefully it will decide it likes the bta. Keep an eye on the clown though, I lost one to my pipes when I removed his open brain. He was so upset at night because he couldn't sleep on it that he kept ending up in the overflow.

 

[Freed]

What kind of elegance is it(aussie or indo)? Does it have large areas of mostly brown/tan with blotches of green here and there? If it is mostly on the brown/tan side, you need to shade it. That would mean it's from a deeper water environment and doesn't want the high lighting that you have currently. If it's more on the bright green side, hmmm, the clowns would be my first thought then.

 

[AliKat]

It's bright green. Actually more like a bright yellow. Still can't seem to get a good picture (and it's not open anyway). Will keep trying.

Stupid clowns haven't noticed BTA yet.

 

[stunreefer]

I 100% agree with the clown notion - get those suckers away from your awesome elegance!

 

[Aust95]

Too much light without acclimation to the intensity is thought to cause Elegance decline. Make sure it's not losing it's zooxanthellae from too much light.