Elegance or clam

Elegances are one of the cooler fleshy lps. Unfortunately they are considered more difficult to keep.

Aussie Elegances are considered more hardier than the ones that origin from indo.

Aussie elegances are typically found availabe much smaller than the indo ones.

Aussie elegance are broken off a mother colony. So on the skeleton you see a "broken" side.

Indo ones have a smooth cone like base.

Thought I'd add this info.

 

Thanks for the info Tatted. Knowing how to tell Aussi from Indo is handy to know. If I do go for an Elegance, are there any corals that do okay within range of their sweepers? I get the feeling that a 14" cube may be a bit cramped for it, ricordea and the various polyps I wish to keep.

 

The elegances get rather large. I have not personally seen one in a nano.

 

I'm gonna build upon what has already been written here, but I'm going to say neither. I don't believe you have enough water volume to really support a clam. It'll soak the Ca out of your water column in a quick hurry. Likewise, I don't think you have enough room for an elegance. They can get very, very large. I have seen some bigger than a basketball, growing at a fast pace.

 

I have both an Aussie elegance & a Maxima clam in my 55g reef. +1 on what was said on Elegance growth, they can get very large. My Maxima does well on a rock on the sandbed under 5-bulbs of T5 lighting. I dose bi-weekly to maintain params. It shows great coloration and growth on that lighting and regimen.

In stead of an Aussie, I would stick with a nice Torch, Frogspawn, Hammer, those are nice corals that are slower on growth. You could get a clam as long as you dose to replenish levels.