Elegance corals

[BA]

Hi everybody--

I was at the excellent LFS the other day after a coral shipment had arrived and one of the clerks, a very knowlegeable reefer with a 240 gal tank, was shaking his head over the elegance corals. One was already in obvious decline, and he was none too optimistic about the others, although they looked healthy at the moment. I've had one in my own tank for about a year and a half and it looks fine. Elegance used to be considered an "easy" LPS coral, but I know this idea has changed. Anybody have a theory about why elegance corals are now so unlikely to do well? Are they being collected from different areas? Or what?

Best,
BA

[MaryHM]

I have 3 Indonesian suppliers and I get healthy elegants from only one of them. I have no idea why...

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An educated hobbyist demands an ethical and sustainable industry. www.reefsource.com

[horge]

Hi BA,

I'm clueless too.
I'm guessing some shippers simultaneously decided to experiment with a different shipping method ("dry"?) --which discriminated against such fleshy coral.

Stress a coral and you get nasty problems like opportunistic infections and/or aggressive/defensive responses that are serious when not diluted down via water volume.

(Hey, glad to hear from you Mary.
Pop in more often, willya? http://www.thereeftank.com/ubb/smile.gif)

[MaryHM]

I've never seen anyone attempt to ship one of these dry. I heard that a possible problem is that the collectors are leaving them in buckets on the beach for too long. I spoke with someone yesterday who is having luck dipping them in nitrofurazone.

Thanks for the welcome, horge. I'll take ya up on it! http://www.thereeftank.com/ubb/wink.gif

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An educated hobbyist demands an ethical and sustainable industry. www.reefsource.com

[JennM]

The owner of the LFS where I work used to recommend Elegans as a good "easy" coral. Nowadays he cautions against them.

It seems that they are prone to some sort of protozoan infestation that eventually kills them off. I guess with the stress of collection, shipping and all, it's not a surprise that the really begin to decline when they reach their destination.

Where I work, the few Elegans we do get in are freshwater dipped in RO water before placing in our tanks, and that has helped.

HTH

Jenn