Elegance Coral

So I finally jumped on the Elegance Coral. I know there is a lot of controversy about these guys and if they can survive long term in our reef tanks. The specimen I picked up had been at the lfs for almost 6 months now and I have been eyeing it the whole time. Was originally $65 but I got it today for $35 due to fears of it succumbing to "elegance disease" and no one else wanting to buy it the past 6 months.

As you can see it is a frag from a mother colony with a flat white bottom and it is not the typical Indonesian specimen with the cone brown bottom that are thought be to juvenile colonies that do not do well in captive reef tanks. It was sold to the lfs from the wholesaler as an aussie elegance as well. I have seen it the past 6 months and it has never shown signs of the swollen oral disk and has always opened up nicely whenever I see it at the store. There was another colony that had the brown cone shape and it did parish a couple months ago.

My main concerns are the fact that the polyps seem shorter and chubby, but at least they always come out. Also the tissue does not seem to engulf the whole skeleton but that might be from the original frag and has since healed over. The pictures are of it in the bag still so obviously it is very closed up but it gives a good close up of the skeleton. Will keep everyone updated on the success or demise of this coral.

 

Actually the tissue is how it should be. If it is an Aussie then it should quite well in your tank. Make sure and do not touch the flesh and make sure that it is as deflated as possible to prevent any damage. It should do well if it has been at the LFS for 6 months.

 

Thanks, its its nice to know the tissue looks healthy. When placing in the tank I made sure it was deflated before handling and did my best to only touch the sides and be gentle with it. I know in the store it had fallen over many times and been upside down even before being corrected and always coming back out within a short amount of time. It was even dipped for rusty brown flatworms a few months ago while opened and tolerated it at the store with no problems. Seems to be fairly hardy.

I know you cant tell from the picture, will update when it comes out again, but why would the tentacles be shorter? THey are only an inch or maybe 2 in length. I thought they were supposed to be really long. Would it be because it is such a small specimen and just has a lot of growing to do?

 

That length seems about right also. Your flow may dictate the length too. Just need to see how it goes.

 

Right now its in an area with almost no flow. Very little movement from the tentacles but it is in a rock off the sand to prevent detritrus from building up underneath it. It is also low in the tank so it doesnt get blasted with light. Seems to be the best starting point from all my research on these guys- low flow low light off the ground and minimal handling= best chance for success.

 

These fascinate me so I'll be following this to see how it works out for you. Good luck!

 

My elegance is a few years old, they do very well. I actually had to remove it from my nano because it got too big, its in a 100 gallon zero edge now and even survived super storm sandy. It just keeps growing and growing. Water temp went down to 56 and flatworm toxins killed much of the livestock in the tank during the storm, but the elegance survived.

Good luck with it, but I think youll be fine.

 

Wow ncie hardy specimen you have there! Hopefuly mine can do just as well. During the 6 months at the lfs it did not seem to really grow in size at all Im surprised yours grew so fast! Im thinking I may need to increase flow to the area a little, the tentacles barely move since I put it in the lwoest flow area of the tank but at least they move lol