The Elegance Coral Project

***********THANKS!**********THANKS! ************THANKS!

.....................Daniel Huber...................

...........................$50...........................


YAY! This donation puts us over the $500 mark to $520 so far!!!
 
Visited three local Charlotte stores with weekend with Camera in hand...not a single elegance.:rolleyes:

Oh well....onward and upward!
 
AND ANOTHER *****************THANKS!!!!!!!**************

......................MiddletonMark ..................

............................ $50 ...........................
 
Vert20 said:
Visited three local Charlotte stores with weekend with Camera in hand...not a single elegance.:rolleyes:

Oh well....onward and upward!

Same here in Madison ... but then again - not seeing any Elegance IMO is not a bad thing ... More for the ocean to care for :D
 
Hey Eric,

How much do you really need for this study to get going...? Rather than waiting for the $$$ to trickle in, throw a number out and maybe someone will foot the bill within reason. Heck if you can give me a reciept, and it is considered charitable, what the heck maybe my company will do it!!!! ;)
 
pixburg-reefer said:
I think he said total it would be $3,500. But less now, with more than $550 they have gotten in
Kelly

Eric,
If there is still problem with funds....let me know and I'll foot the bill for the remainder of the balance that you need . I would love to see this problem licked! Bring on the Goniopora next :)

Gene Schwartz.
 
WOW, Reefmeister ... I like your attitude!

Eric was thinking that the initial phase of the research, assuming we can get a significant number of sample corals donated would be around $3,500. That is the goal. We have raised $570 so far

To get you a charitable deduction, we would need to run this through an established nonprofit or file the paperwork to get a 501(c)(3) on our own. Since this has just gotten started in the last week, we haven't done that. If we're going to keep this thing going beyond the Elegance project to study other corals, we may want to consider going that route. For now, we're just unofficial ... collecting the money and using it for the research. Without recognition as a nonprofit, we can't offer a tax deduction for your donation.

But hey ... if your company will foot the bill for the rest of the project, I'll file the paperwork for the 501(c)(3). We'll need to decide on a location/state that we're going to register with, the address of the organization and appoint officers. Our mission certainly meets the requirements for qualification for nonprofit. It just takes some red tape to make that official that we don't have as yet.

Any attorney/reefers out there that want to volunteer to help us set up a recognized non-profit?

Cathy Peck
 
Awesome ... Gene ... You're in there, too.

Looks like we ought to go ahead and set up a research nonprofit to keep this going!

Eric .... Whaddayathink?
 
EricHugo said:
You know, if everyone who visited this thread sent in five dollars, or could talk their fish store into letting them have one sick elegance coral, the first part of this project would be almost done and/or we'd have enough money to really get to work.


Cathy,

I think this is just about covers it :) This body of reef enthusiasts and plain reef maniacs can lick any problem with a right direction and right attitude that comes down from a guy like Eric H.
I'm proud to be a part of it! :)
 
Gene, Reefmeister, and other most generous and thoughtful persons:

I cannot and will not throw a number out there because I don't know what will be involved yet and will not accept funds for this project beyond the original estimate until I have some idea what is going to be entailed. This initial phase will either illuminate the problem, or give me an idea of what will be required in subsequent work.

As I said in the thread that started all this, it will require some fair amount of work. As I told Cathy, I have spent many hours already just cataloguing the sparse information we have so far and in the specimens I have acquired.

Right now, all the money in the world won;t do any good if we don;t have a good sampling of corals with the condition. Clearly, funding could buy opportunities for me or someone to go travel around until they were found and purchased. But, that really shouldn;t be neccesary.

As I said, I think it is important to have a sampling in space and time. If I get all the corals from local stores in Houston over the next few months, we are dealing with likely one or two coral sources witha similar time and perhaps place of collection that may not validate a condition that is occurring with elegance corals from other places and/or situations.

This may turn out to be a pattern of death related to various stresses, a single bacterial pathogen, a parasite, a tank condition, an artifact, a handling effect. I don't know. It may be one thing, or several things with the same appearance. That's why its important to get a more random sampling.

Point is, coral samples are what it takes first. Leg work and photos and shipping. These amazing offers will definitely come into play as the true costs for the project become more apparent.

Right now, the only costs I have are those listed and some facility charges for housing living specimens (bulbs, power, salt, tanks, etc.). I have a local facility who has agreed to donate a full tank system for the duration of the study provided the operating costs for that system are met....likely less than the estimated $500 it would have taken to establish a new system.

We may wind up using any windfall on that amount or surplus donation funding to acquire the specimens neccesary, depending on how things progress over the coming weeks and months. I will be contacting wholesalers and exporters this week, but any efforts by others (especially those with stores or friends/close ties to stores, would be very valuable right now.

Again, thank you all so much.
 
Eric,

In addition to funds I'm going to visit my LFS and ask them to donate(or I'll buy all the speciemens that are showing the simptoms) live corals if i see them in the store or I'll buy them and send them to you for the research purposeses. This deaths has to stop and i really want to have one that will live for a long time
:)
 
I have dead skeleton that I can send you. It died a couple of months ago and the skeleton has just been sitting in the refugium. If you want it, let me know.
 
Eric - or anyone else for that matter - do you have a picture of this white net type thing? I got an elegance from a California source that seems to have a mucous-like covering in the morning. It sheds it by mid-day and looks like the healthy pictures at the top of this thread, but who knows what it will look like in a month. I am setting up my digital camera to take pictures at lights on, mid-day, just before lights out and will take them about once a week til furthur notice if that will be helpful. Let me know - Thanks. JW
 
Eric,

I have found two specimens with what looked like the classic symptoms but I did not have the camera with me as I was told on a phone that they did not have any, well they were wrong :rolleyes:The owner is holding them for me so I can go back tonight when I get the chance to get out of the house and I'll take pics and post'm here.
If you say that you'd like to have both or just one I'll arrange for the overnight shipping from the store.
What is the deadline for collecting specimens?
 
******* THANKS! ********* THANKS! ***********THANKS!

..............................Jeanne Warner.........................

.....................................$50....................................
 
Hi Eric, I thought I posted, but I don't see it now, Oh well. Anyway, I have 2 green elegance corals. I got one from liveaquaria and one from pet solutions. The one from liveaquaria has tripled in size and I have only had it 2 months. The one from petsolutions looks horrible, I got it in Jan. I thought it would have perked up by now, but to no avail. I feed it the same as my other, with a turkey baster every other day. It does eat, but still looks bad. here are some pics


The healthy one
http://www.babiesonline.com/imagegallery/gallery_image.asp?p=/babies/a/ashleyamy/2817985.jpg

The sick one

http://www.babiesonline.com/imagegallery/gallery_image.asp?p=/babies/a/ashleyamy/2818053.jpg

http://www.babiesonline.com/imagegallery/gallery_image.asp?p=/babies/a/ashleyamy/2818056.jpg



Should I remove the sick one? Will it pass it's disease to my healthy one? Thanks in advance!

Amanda (p.s. I have e-mailed pet solutions this issue, if he credits my card, you can have the sick one!)
 
Gene:

You are far too generous and I thank you and the hobby will thank you. There is no deadline and we are a long way from getting enough sick corals. Right now, I am in a bit of a quandary because I want to observe and play with the sick corals for a time prior to killing and fixing them. I think this is important. I also don;t want to have other variables involved, not do I want to have other things happen in the interim while sick corals are still alive.

I think, depending on the sample size, I will fix a set, observe a set and then fix them, and compare.

I am sitting ready for shipments of corals. One is arriving today.

Ereefic, The skeleton may be of some value depending on how the coral died....did it die of this condition? I think a photo would suffice, because by now the amount of growth on the skeleton would preclude any endolithic comopnents that might be involved.

Amanda: your sick one is withdrawn but its hard to say if thisis the right condition..it might be but really looks more like an unhappy elegance. If your healthy one has tripled in size in two months, you have a world record...I suspect, the polyp expansion of it has increased and is deceiving in terms of actual growth. These corals grow quite slowly and any growth of that magnitude would be unheard of. On this one, can you repost a photo weekly of the "sick one" so I can keep evaluating it? It might turn out to be a good one for the study...don;t know yet. I also do not know if yours has a disease, if this condition will be one or many diseases with the same signs, or if it is contagious (though I do not think it is, although perhaps secondary things might be).

Rev, on the white web, I will search for a photo...I do need to find a good one, and can use some help from anyone who wants to look around for a photo of it posted in other threads.

I have got to get busy on some things now.

thanks everyone!
 
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