Sick elegance coral care and advice

[finleyz]

I got this coral a week ago and it quickly became one of my favorites. The LFS had it for three months, looked great in their tank, but the elegance coral next to it didn't look so hot.

I brought it home, skipped the dip, and it looked fantastic. It's under metal halides, in the bottom right corner of the tank, with low to medium flow.

I've been reading up on ECS, but I haven't seen any pics of this filamentous stuff coming from the coral. Check out the picture, it shows the damage. At first, I thought it was just expelling waste, but it's been two days like this.

I've got several euphyllia in the tank, are they or any other corals at risk? Should I just get rid of it?

Tank Parameters:

ALK 8.5
CAL 455
MAG 1200 (trying to bring it up)
NO4 1-3ppm
PO4 .06
SG 1.026
Temp: 78-79

[finleyz]

Here's another photo, just wanted to give a better view of the filamentous material coming from the coral.

[anglerace]

Small elegance corals, my experience with them has been pretty good so far. The two I got from my local store, they're about 2.5 inches wide and look identical. My local guy told me when they're small, the tentacles are short, but mine are starting to look a lot better than they did in the store.

I've got them in the bottom of my tank, on the sandbed, about 26 inches from the ecotech radion pro light, which is hanging 8 inches off my 18-inch deep tank. I'm running at 25% max intensity, with a changing spectrum throughout the day - 20K, 14K, 12K, and back to 20K.

My avatar picture is of an elegance coral I picked up for $200, later sold it. That one was large, almost 8 inches, with pretty long tentacles.

[kingrise]

I'd give it a bit more time, see how it settles in. Your tank parameters are likely quite different from the LFS, so I'm sure it's just adjusting.

[finleyz]

Thanks for the input, I really appreciate it. I've taken a closer look at the photos and it seems like there's this gooey stuff coming from the tentacles, not sure what that's all about. Anyway, I decided to move the coral under some overhangs with minimal light and that seems to have done the trick. So far, it's looking like it might be recovering, fingers crossed.

Dsilvery, that elegance coral of yours is incredible - I wouldn't have minded having a huge one like that in my tank.

[flynix]

"can you post a pic of the coral without the actinic lighting? the first photo looks like it might be infected, with that white stuff coming out"

[NexusCore]

Honestly, I think it's got that common elegance coral illness. You know, the one where the tentacles shrink and stop waving for food? The coral disk gets all swollen and transparent too. From what I've seen, there's no real cure - just ways to slow it down. I had a great e-coral that did amazing for years, then one day it looked just like yours... and six months later, it was gone.

Check out these links: http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2008-01/eb/index.php and http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showt ... ?t=1842368. I could be wrong though, trailblazere.

[finleyz]

I pulled it today, it was swollen pretty badly. Too bad, I was really starting to like that coral.

The thing I'm worried about now is if this is contagious to other elegance corals - I just got another one from the LFS that was a great deal, and it's supposedly been in captivity for years.

[flynix]

I think it's contagious, and even healthy corals can get it from sick ones. It's possible that's what happened to your coral - it might have been asymptomatic at the store, and the stress of moving triggered the illness. From my research, it seems like successful treatment with antibiotics is possible.

[NexusCore]

"can you post a pic of the coral without the actinic lighting? the first photo looks like it might be infected, with that white stuff coming out"

Gonna have to do some more research, I haven't come across this info before.