Elegance coral and worms in skeleton     8/13/13
Hi,
<Kel>
It's been ages since I've had to ask you guys for some help, usually reading through is all I need to do as you guys have so much knowledge on so many topics already. It's fantastic and super helpful in this hobby.
<Ahh!>
About 6 weeks ago a bought a small elegance, it was bagged and a acclimated it to the tank through drip, placed it on the sand in my tank, 30 inches below a 40 watt LED DIY light.
<Should be fine... at this "great" depth and lowish light... See my art. re Catalaphyllia captive husbandry on WWM. There are "stands" of this species from shallower (tens of feet) depths, but most in the last several years have been collected from several tens of feet... low light>
 It's been happy, getting fed Mysis, brine, and it's also been taking spectrum pellets which happen to fall into it every second day or so.
Tonight it closed up and I noticed three circular dents in the skeleton, which indented into the fleshy part of the coral. I noticed one of this dents when I placed it in the tank, but I thought they were empty and harmless misshapes in the rock. However tonight it appears to be that the little holes/dents actually contain flat headed cream coloured worms approx 6mm in diameter.
<Mmm, more likely these are (mesenterial) parts of the Elegance itself; showing themselves... >
They emerge from these hollow dents and are sensitive to light, when a torch is shined on them, they retract into the tubes which are embedded in the skeleton. The elegance seems to have grown around them, despite the animal being an entire cone itself, not fragmented off a reef.
<Yes; this is how this species "grows", lives... as a sort of "V" stuck in muck, bottom sand plus>
I'm not sure if they pose a problem, and am curious is some kind of dip may be best to get rid of them? What are you thoughts?
<Leave all as is, and do read the materials on WWM if you haven't already>
Thanks very much,
Kelly
<As many welcomes. Bob Fenner>
Re: Elegance coral and worms in skeleton      8/19/13
Thanks for such a prompt reply, ill take a photo of the 'worms' next time I see them. It's more a tube worm facing up out of the skeleton rather than the small worm like filaments that are actually mesenterial... But I could easily be wrong haha. What I'm seeing are similar to worms which emerge out of large circular tubes on live rock sometimes
<A possibility; and quite common is some Poritids, Pocilloporids... Have rarely seen/encountered in Catalaphyllia... are perhaps "too stinging", fleshy...>
You don't think the lighting level may be too low?
<I'd use a PAR or PUR meter, measure at the place/site of the specimen... a score of  100 is fine here. BobF> 

Sponge Growth on Elegance Coral -- 04/30/07 <Hello James Brown!  Mich here'¦ and I feel good!  Sorry, I couldn't resist.> About 2 months ago I notice a white sponge growing on the outside shell of my Elegance Coral. <OK.> It has now completely covered the top and bottom of the shell and looks like it might be growing inside. <Is the Elegance opening fully?  Does the sponge seem to be interfering with the overall happiness of the coral?  If so, then remove the sponge, if not, then you may want to let it be.> I'm thinking it might be time to pull the Elegance out and expose to the air to kill the sponge. <I would not do this.  If you want to remove the sponge I would do so manually while underwater and collect the pieces and discard them outside of the system.  Dying sponges can create real problems, exposing them to air and replacing in your system is unwise in my opinion.> Have not done it yet because the coral is epoxied to a piece of live rock. Should I get rid of the sponge or leave it alone? <I would leave it alone unless the Elegance is showing signs of stress.> Thanks - Jim <You're welcome!  Mich>  

Elegance problem Hi!  I have a problem.  My elegance, purple tipped, was doing wonderfully until one of my fish started nipping at him.  I removed the fish but the elegance has stayed sucked in in the middle where I saw the fish nip at him.  Now other fish, a yellow tang, has begun to pass by and nip at him.  I fear he will not recover.  I moved him a little higher on the rock as many of my fish do not go there as much.  Is there anything I can do to help him heal?  He's near the top of my 75 gallon tank.  Please help - I do not want to lose him. <Kara, elegances can be fairly delicate. Moving him up was a wise idea but you might also check on some of the discussion groups about elegance corals. I seem to remember someone, I think Eric Borneman doing a study on these corals. They are known to just begin having problems out of the blue. I believe I read about this on www.fragexchange.com  and www.reefcentral.com. The coral will need stable water conditions and good foods to recover but should recover if the nipping stops. MacL>
Elegance Hi! <Hello. Graham at your service.>   I have a problem. <Okay.> My elegance, purple tipped, was doing wonderfully until one of my fish started nipping at him.  I removed the fish but the elegance has stayed sucked in in the middle where I saw the fish nip at him.  Now other fish, a yellow tang, has begun to pass by and nip at him.  I fear he will not recover.  I moved him a little higher on the rock as many of my fish do not go there as much.  Is there anything I can do to help him heal?   <If the fish are bothering the elegance, either the coral or fish has to go. Unfortunately, once fish get the taste for the flesh of corals (Especially large polyped Scleractinians, such as your elegance), they don't seem to give it up very easily. I can recommend, however, to feed the fish often, preferably small amounts throughout the day. This may stop the fishes urge to feed on the coral. Another point is that Yellow Tangs do not often nip at corals. Is the tang nipping at the fleshy area of the coral, or the skeleton? Secondly, how long does the coral stay "sucked in" after the fish nip at it? How long have you had the coral? Elegance corals are not very hardy, and many have a poor survival rate in captivity if not kept under certain water conditions. Generally, they prefer strong light and high nutrient levels, especially since the majority of elegance corals are being collected from shallow nutrient rich areas.> He's near the top of my 75 gallon tank.  Please help - I do not want to lose him. <I look forward to hearing a response from you. Elegance corals are indeed very beautiful. Take Care, Graham.>

Elegance Coral Problem Hello, Thanks for the nice service. Always very helpful. I got an elegance coral recently, it seemed to be settling fine, till I fed it once with brine shrimp. Several hermit crabs got to the shrimps as well and have started picking on the elegance. <You said you got the coral recently. I do not know what recently means to you, but it is a very common story. While you may have thought your Elegance was "settling fine", it may not have been. The hermit crabs are feeding on necrotic tissue. I can tell you a healthy Elegance has a strong sting and ho hermit crab is going to be able to mess with it. There is an incredible amount of writings on Elegance corals and there demise over the last few years. Elegance were previously thought to be hardy. I know, I have one from seven years ago. The thing goes like crazy. There are various suggested reasons for why hobbyists are having problems now including shipping trauma, some unknown bacterial infection, etc. My opinion is that these somewhat different corals now. They appear different, are collected in different areas, and their skeleton is morphologically different and yet we treat them the same. Also, there is a lot of rather poor shipping of LPS corals, IMO. I strongly prefer to see all LPS shipped suspended from Styrofoam rafts that do not allow the tissue to abrade against the bag in transit.> They are coming back for more. The coral has closed mostly and has started to produce a very thick white slimy excretion. Can you give some idea what's going on. Tank parameters are: 30 gal/4 NO @30W SP 1.023 Temp: 78 DKH 11.2 PH 8.1 Ca 410 Nitrite/Amm - Undetectable Nitrate ~ 6 ppm Phosphate ~ .025 <These all seem good.> Thanks a lot in advance. Pabak <Unfortunately, nothing magical I can tell you. For the time being, removing the crabs would be my course of action and hoping for the best. -Steven Pro>