The Elegance Coral Project

Dberlin, I too had a elegance that looked like that for MONTHS. After probably 4-5 months, it finally died in a period of about 24 hours. it went from beautiful and normal to looking like yours, then remained that way for the 4-5 months.
 
Hi All:

Well, I obviously can't speak for Eric. However, what I can tell you is that I attended the MACNA conference this past weekend in Boston and sat in on Eric's lecture. He is extremely busy working on quite a number of projects, one of which is the Elegance situation. Currently he is waiting for various lab test and pathogenic identification to be completed before he can continue to hopefully narrow done the myriad of possibilites. So, I think patience is the name of the game at the moment. I am not trying to make excuses for him, but I do know that he is working hard to find an answer for all of us.
 
I also think that he is involved with helping folks out with the most recent hurricane and is off-line for a few days. With MACNA last week and now Ivan - we'll see Eric soon hopefully.
 
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My elegance... one year on my reef

I think this coral not appreciate much light
 
UPDATE! It's now week 4 and my Elegance Coral appears to have regained most of it's health!! The tentacles have regained their original look and are now much longer and thicker and show plenty of movement. This particular elegance coral I believe was one taken from deeper waters (the purple and pink tentacles, bright flourescent green and black body). The coral surface areas have changed for the better and tentacles are now in proportion with it's body, extending upwards 1 -2 inches as they did 4 weeks ago. 1 week ago (under different lighting and conditions)the coral appeared to be on it's way out (no movement, shrunken tentacles, total recesion in all areas. I have read through most of these posts and decided to try a few of the suggested ideas. I moved the coral down to the sand bed in a shaded area only exposing it to actininc lighting and very little white light (moved the Power Compact lamp more towards the rear of the tank). My tank is a 180 and the depth is approx. 2 feet from surface/lighting. Like what others have mentioned before this coral may have have some symbiotic relationship with the sand bed?? The tentacles are constantly dragging brushing along the sand bed as though it's looking for food. I have been feeding all 3 heads of the coral a small piece of Zoe soaked silverside, every 4-5 days. I also feel my system's water chemistry may also have a dramatic affect on it's health. I have 4 refugiums loaded with DSB's, Live Rock and pounds of various pecies Cualerpa and Macro Alages. I am a strong believer that Macro Algaes release elements back in to the water column that improve the health of all coral and fish species. You have never seen fish this healthy and vibrant before. I feed them twice a day and nitrates are still very low approx .5ppm , perform just weekly 5 gallon water changes on 200 galons. Dose small amounts of Iodine, Strotium, Calcium (daily) and Magnesium (weekly). Phytoplankton 4 times a week. Many corals and 15 med. - large size fish. How do I attach a picture here?
 
Here's a statement someone made about marine algae and it's benefits on other livestock.. just thought I'd share this...

"Various marine algaes contain medicinal substances. Several have significant antibiotic effects against fungi and disease causing microorganisims from the marine substrate. These antibiotic substances are broad spectrum and particularly useful against microbes that are resistant to "classic" antibiotics. Sick animals introduced to aquariums with dense algae growth are sometimes spontaneously healed, even after standard treatments failed. Based on the antibiotic properties, the advantages of a lush stand of Caulerpa in a marine aquarium seem to outweigh the disadvantages! "

I have 2-3 pounds of Macro in my system and thousands of beneficial microfuana that develop in these miniature slow water eco systems. Could large amounts of macro algaes and the isolated plenum environments provide the healing answer? there are some negativesassoc. with plenums and macro algaes but the positives far outweigh the negatives IMO/.
 
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A fairly sizable Elegance came in Wed. with a coral pack from ERI.

I have it in the sandbed of a 72 Bow under 220Ws PC lighting.
Its is the green variety with bright purple tips and has 4 mouths.

Right now it looks exptremely healthy and opened up within an hour of acclimation.

I don't think my boss will be into sending a healthy specimen but I will ask anyway.

If or when it starts to die should I send it to Eric? I am not sure if he still needs some.

The 72bow is a coral display stocked with 1 green chromi and various corals. The system is skimmerless and has cheato and gracilaria in the fuge. Nitrates in this system are nill.

I have not tried feeding it yet but will try some silversides tomorrow.
 
Eric? Any news on this topic. My LFS has several elegance corals that I would love to have in my tank but I am not going to buy a doomed specimen. Ironically your book mentions the decline of these corals back in 2001 and you call them "problematic" even without the unexplained decline.
 
Sorry to hear about your Elegance, Chris. You worked so hard to save it.

I'm sure the project is not dead. Eric has been traveling, I believe. The donations given are safe and still held for when Eric needs the funds for the project. Anything not used for Eric's research will be refunded prorata.

I'll post back if Eric doesn't as soon as I know more.

Cathy
 
Hi All,

Keep the faith! I was at the recent MACNA convention in Boston and Eric gave a lecture on "Current Research Project Highlights". He did discuss the Elegance Coral Project and is currently awaiting results of analysis of tissue samples, etc... So, when he returns from his Fiji coral research trip, I'm sure that he will be filling us all in with yet more interesting details.

So, don't give up the ship yet!! :)
 
I just donated what I could afford. Elgance corals were one of the first corals that I really liked when I started this hobby, but I've held off on getting one because I'd heard they were difficult and didn't do well.
 
Thanks SO much for your support! Hopefully we'll have an update soon from Eric.

It all helps ... Thank you!

Cathy
 
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