Elegance Coral

Dion: No, it was mainly closed up when I bought it.

I did see that elegance open once at todds store....but from the picture you got of it, it looks better in your tank already......I have seen a few that don't have as long of tenticles as others.....

you may just try moving it to a different spot in the tank.....maybe less light/flow....maybe more light/flow....

but the polyp/mouth looked open in that picture....when that coral came in, it looked like a clam with its mouth shut......so again I say it looks alot better in your tank than it did at todds store..

Looks to me like it's reaching and expanding surface area for light. I used to have one that did the same thing, and my open brain (similar morphology) blows up like that when it's not getting the modest light it needs. Just a thought.

I think its a short tentacle elegance. With that in mind its my opinion that it looks good.

In the first pic it looks irritated to me. And now, with that new pic, I see Protopalythoa and mushrooms next to it. Frankly, it is bothered by it's surroundings. If you aren't running some AC you ought to. And move it at least 3 inches, preferably 6 inches away from all other coral. It wants to expand but cannot because of the stronger stinging coral around it. When it starts enjoying it's surroundings, you may even discover that it has longer tentacles. I wouldn't worry about feeding it too much at this point. It's too bothered to grow so it needs little food.

     I understand if some people don't believe that the problems with Elegance corals are associated with light.  There are many professionals that believe the cause of the problem is a parasitic organism.  There is no known cure for this unknown pathogen.  Hypothetically speaking, if they are correct there is nothing you can do for your Elegance once it begins to show these symptoms.  The swollen polyp and shrunken tentacles would be a sign that your coral has the dreaded pathogen and will die.  Even if one believes this to be true there would be no harm done by reducing the light on a coral that is doomed.     It has been a theory for many years that there are two different types or species of Elegance coral.  A long tentacled Elegance with a very powerful sting and a short tentacled Elegance with a week sting.  There is only one species of Elegance.  The size and shape of their tentacles depends on their health and environment.  Venom is very biologically expensive to produce.  If an Elegance becomes ill or short on resources one of the first areas that will be affected is the power of their sting or amount of venom it produces.  I can take any Elegance (providing it is healthy enough to survive) and turn it into an Elegance with long tentacles and a very powerful sting.  I know these are terrible pic's, but they are of the same coral taken about 6 months apart.  The first larger pic shows how short and stubby the tentacles were.  The second pic shows that the tentacles are about twice as long.  They are even longer today. 

Hi Darrell, So is it lost or not. If short tentacles are a sign of having this problem then how can you "fix" it? I'm really interested in how you've done this?

That IS looking a lot better.

  Thanks Mike.

Thanks Darrell,

I pretty sure the coral would have been long gone by now without your help. This morning there was no swelling and actually had reduced in size from the pic above. I'll remove the detrius/slime stuff when I get home tonight or call my wife and have her do it.