Calling all elegance coral experts!

[carriej]

Hi Folks,

Thought I would make a new thread and it would haul in more responses than if I posted in my other elegance coral thread.

We have spoken on the topic of the dreaded elegance coral disease. I have had my elegance for approximately 1 month.

About a week ago I noticed on one side that the tentacles are a bit stubby. Was just a couple; I figured whatever. Anyway, now it's more than a couple.

Coral still eats, opens and closes everynight, etc.

Here is a picture of it maybe a week and a half ago with my nice camera.





Here is a picture of it tonight. Now I do admit; it seems like it acts more irritated some days than others. However; this is a $125 dollar coral and I don't want to kill it or have it die. It was my own mistake of buying an indo elegance; but I had never heard of the problems with them and assumed they were all the same. See how the tentacles on the right side are stumpy? Some are very stumpy and short.. maybe a few cms... The polyp is also lifted a bit off the sandbed and not resting their like the other polyps.




So am I doomed? Is it just being cranky? Advice would be greatly appreciated.

[asylumdown]

My elegances did something similar to that every so often when they were healthy, but it usually didn't last longer than a day or so if I remember. When the one that I exposed to ECS started showing symptoms, I don't remember it being a decline by degree like that, but to be totally honest it might have been and I just didn't notice.

Time will tell. I'm crossing my fingers for you! That's such a beautiful piece. Whatever happens I hope you document it, if yours does go in to decline I think there's value in publishing the progression. I wish I had taken more images of mine as it fell apart. Better yet I wish I had had my micrscope when it was happening.

[asylumdown]

also, is there anything on that side of the coral that the elegance touches when it's fully expanded? If those tentacles are being irritated, it might explain why just those ones are retracting.

The other thing I would closely look at is the interface where the flesh meets the skeleton. On my australian one that I showed you pictures of I discovered what turned out to be a female gall crab. It was irritating the bejesus out of coral. It looked like this:

[carriej]

It shriveled up pretty tight last night when the lights went out, and I took a flashlight and didn't see anything but that doesn't mean something isn't there.

I'm stressed! LOL

I hate to take it out; because I hate to touch it period. It shrivels up to NOTHING at night; and opens up everyday... My lights are about to turn on for the day so I'm heading down to the basement to check it out now...

[reefwars]

Originally Posted by carriej

It shriveled up pretty tight last night when the lights went out, and I took a flashlight and didn't see anything but that doesn't mean something isn't there.

I'm stressed! LOL

I hate to take it out; because I hate to touch it period. It shrivels up to NOTHING at night; and opens up everyday... My lights are about to turn on for the day so I'm heading down to the basement to check it out now...

Having them shrink at night is normal , what your looking for is seperation where the flesh meets skeleton or any milky strings or mucas.

[carriej]

Nothing stringy and no mucus... I posted on a few forums and some say its doomed and some say its fine... Guess I will have to wait and see what happens

[carriej]

Looks worse today. Any advice? Should I try doing an iodine dip?

[marie]

I tried iodine dips on my first one but it didn't work. My second faired a bit better with melafix and pimafix dips
The journal of it
http://forum.marinedepot.com/Topic110834.aspx

It lasted about a year in that same condition before dieing......in part because I couldn't keep the peppermint shrimp from stealing all it's food when the lights were out

[asylumdown]

Oh no! just when we thought we were in the clear!

FWIW I didn't start seeing the stringy mucous crap until the tentacles were totally stunted/melted off.

[Bill]

Same thing happened to mine. It was well on it's way out so as a last resort here's what I did:

1. Get a shallow 10gallon container. I used the blue tupperware type from canadian tire.
2. Fill with 5 gallon fresh saltwater same temperature, salinity and pH as tank.
3. Place a small pump in the corner of the container. Water movement was circular and strong enough to circulate around the container but not so strong as to move the coral around. (I used a small pump from a big mombosa skimmer)
4. Place coral inside container and move to semi open window with indirect sunlight. This was during summer and NO heater in the container.

I read that the corals may have been harvested from deeper (darker/cooler) ocean and need to get acclimated to our warmer brighter tanks. I had nothing to loose when I tried this and I noticed improvement within a day. Over about 1 week, Coral continued to improve and expanded in the container. Temperature was about 65F. I lowered the temperature of my main tank to as low as I felt safe and raised the container temperature to match. When ready, I moved the elegance to the main tank under a cave (no direct light). Coral expanded almost instantly. I was able to slowly move it to direct light and raise temperature over a couple weeks. If this is a disease, the lower temperature / less light may be enough to eradicate.

Keep salinity constant and replace evaporation with ro/di water. No food was given and the white stringy stuff disapeared almost overnight. Strange, I also had a white crab that I speared with a toothpick.

Hope this helps.