Blake

Just so you know, in the past these corals were bulletproof. Something however happened a few years ago and losses were great. A few people tried to focus on their survival as well as a cause for the deaths. I don't recall the outcome.

However, I also haven't read recently about further demises so perhaps that was a particular disease that has since become a non-issue. Perhaps where they were obtained or even where they were transshipped was to blame.

It's an LPS coral. You can feed it meaty foods once a week. We have a few elegance keepers on this site that can chime in with suggestions. Trido and washingtond are their names.

Originally Posted by melev

Just so you know, in the past these corals were bulletproof. Something however happened a few years ago and losses were great. A few people tried to focus on their survival as well as a cause for the deaths. I don't recall the outcome.

However, I also haven't read recently about further demises so perhaps that was a particular disease that has since become a non-issue. Perhaps where they were obtained or even where they were transshipped was to blame.

It's an LPS coral. You can feed it meaty foods once a week. We have a few elegance keepers on this site that can chime in with suggestions. Trido and washingtond are their names.

Thanks melev! that give me at least a little hope )) I hope Trido and washingtond put in some input on this thread! also did u see my pm to u about a few DIY articles?

No, but I'll go check now. At the very least, you can PM both of them directly and ask them to chime in either by replying to you or link them to this thread.

I had one and the tentacles went in one week after I got it. Died months later. I tried everything to save it! Here's hopefully good news for ya though. After lots of post research: It doesn't happen in Aussie ones. It happens in the ones collected in indonesia. Because, they have over collected them and now in Indo they collect them further out. Which the ones further out collected live in a slightly different water parameter. This is what makes them die in captivity.

Hope this helps. So, ya Aussie one should be good.

We were able to keep an Elegance for two years in our 75 gallon tank before it died. We went out of town for a wedding and the Alk/calcium balance was off in the tank and it never recovered. At the time we were able to keep it longer than most.

It is my opinion that you have to start with a healthy coral at the beginning in order to have success. This seems to be a very difficult coral to keep and I do not know anyone who has had long term success with them. Often they start out strong and even grow as in our case, then shrink and die quickly. It seems once it starts, it cannot be stopped. Good luck with yours.

+1 on itaffecting the indonesian ones more than the aussies.
I've seen 3 elegance corals that came from indonesia in a couple of friends tanks and one in my tank do fine for around 1.5 year so far for the ones in my friends tanks (no spot feeding) and mine for around 6-7 months with very limited spot feeding.

I've had mine for about a year and a half and bought it from a friend who'd had it for a few months before then. I spot feed mine 1-2 times a month with either mysis or Fauna Marin LPS food. I also feed the tank liberally with frozen food (Limit's Reef Buffet, a local food similar to Rod's) a few times a week and I can see the elegance capture some of the larger particles.

While tissue expansion is NOT that reliable of an indicator of growth, mine has grown immensely.

Here's a pic when I got it:



And a few months ago (Sorry, a quick snap just to show size, disregard the ugly state of the tank)

The skeleton has put on at least .75"-1" of fresh growth since I got it