looking to buy an elegance coral

kyrie_eleison · 02-21-2007, 10:26 AM

My saddleback clown is starting to go crazy with his anemone's recent death. Now it swims around in the gionopora (something I don't like). What is the survey on the survival rate of elegances these days?

ChilisREasy · 02-21-2007, 01:46 PM

looks like its an easy coral, tho ive never tried one, just going on this info http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/p...pcatid=461&N=0

kyrie_eleison · 02-21-2007, 02:52 PM

It may have to be one of the options...either that or a plate coral. I'm NEVER buying an anemone again; they're too hard to understand.

dobejazz · 02-21-2007, 03:01 PM

Elegence do not have a good success rate lately in aquaria

for the clown I would try a long polyped toadstool or something. Clowns can be rough on LPS

J_T · 02-21-2007, 03:02 PM

The clowns don't "need" to host anything. The corals that you have listed as options, will likely die if the clowns host them. They have skeletons that the clowns will push the flesh of the coral into, causing tears.

My first question before you look to replace the coral, would be, what caused the death of the anenome? Water conditions? Lighting? non-pristen water conditions? I am not bashing your husbandry skills. I prefer to solve the cause of a problem, rather than spend time and resources fixing the symptoms.

If you provide more info about your system, maybe some better suggestions can be provided.

Also, I have clowns that host a large leather, I know others with simular hosting stories. I have seen them even laying eggs on the leather coral.

jenajet · 02-21-2007, 04:09 PM

My maroons took to xenia after I relocated the anemone. I love my plate but they could care less about it.

kyrie_eleison · 02-22-2007, 10:00 AM

J T,

I understand. I have had the anemone for about 4 months (give or take a day or two). Unfortunately, there really is no possibility that it could be the water quality or lighting. I was testing every other day and there were only 2 fish in the tank (55 gallon w/ saddleback and a scopas) so the bioload was practically nil. My skimmer was working 24/7 and it's designed for 220 GALLONS! At one point, I had to turn it off in order to dose my tank with phytoplankton. I was doing 20% water changes once a week with very good quality seachem salt. At some points, I was feeding the anemone with a turkey baster just to be sure it got fed.

I've had several possible theories but none seem too plausible since I've only seen it once. One would be that it could have been...eaten or even harrassed by one of my cowries in the tank. I had two; I removed one because it was knocking over some of my corals. Another would be it was too stressed out from not having enough freedom to wander the tank. I've placed obstructions within it's path so that it couldn't wander. Other than that, I seriously have no idea.

My saddleback is...quite destructive (nearly as bad as a maroon; although I've actually been 'biten' by a maroon once--can you believe it? not that it hurt just surprised me); it would rub-a-dub-dub my flowerpot, something I just can't come to terms with. As for my leather...it doesn't like it. I was actually considering buying a fake anemone but I'd never be able to sleep knowing that I have something fake in my tank. hahaha.

kyrie_eleison · 02-28-2007, 01:32 PM

I took this one early this morning...the clownfish was sleeping in the platecoral; something that worries me because of its erratic swimming behavior. It's a little fuzzy but it had to be taken in the dark. I'll try and get a better pic later on.

Enjoy!