Elegance coral is STILL alive!!!

[AquariumPerson]

Well, it has been since January 15th or so since i bought a elegance coral with a base 6" across for $60. This coral opened to a diameter of around 9" when i bought it at the lfs...it had a mottled green and brown on the "face" part. (The part around the mouths.) The tentacles were completely brown, with WHITE tips.....not purple, or pink....plain white. To this day i beleive, since i bought this coral, that part of the reason it is still alive is due to the fact that it has white tips. I do not know if this has to do with its' species, or where it was collected, but it thrives. It has been around 6 M_O_N_T_H_T_S since i first bought it. And guess what folks? It is still thriving. It still opens to 8-9" in diameter and i have NEVER hand fed it. I do not beleive this is neccessary at all if you get one of the "good" elegance corals. I do not know exactly why mine is doing sooo well but i do know one thing: it thrives. Here is a pic of it today showing how it extends and thrives well. Yes I realize that this is a poor quality pic, but what do you expect with a disposable camera?!? I used a scanner for this pic. Ignore the clown tang, it was one of the few thriving healthy ones before my eel ate it. BAH eel. Anyways here it is:

http://photobucket.com/albums/v732/glooney/?action=view&current=mobmain.jpg


:strooper: :cool: :D

[Reefn00b]

Nice!! Congrats.... now for an odd question, have you ever seen it excrete anything, such as waste? If so what did it look like?

[AquariumPerson]

naw, it never excreted anything

[Steven Pro]

Can you take a picture of the skeleton/base or even describe it? Many of the older healthy colonies appear to have originally grown attached to the reef with a more vertical, meandering growth form while most of the new, sick specimens have a shallow, figure eight base and were free-living on the sand. I don't think that is the only pertinent difference, but it does seem like one distinguishing characteristic.

[Reefn00b]

Steven do you have any pics of what you are talking about... I would be highly interested in seeing some examples... Also I have yet to a any definitive pics of a sick elegance versus and healthy one. Most pics I have seen its hard to tell the difference (or at least is was for me).

[AquariumPerson]

well the base of mine is around 5-6" long...it doesnt swerve back and forth it is for the most part strait across, coming to a little point type thing at the bottom of the base...i have in in my 75g. bb temporarily as i am moving my 125 to my room and i dont have anywhere else to put it...and it is opening well in my 75g. even though my 75g. has 250w. MH bulbs (10k XM) and 2 VHO atentics

[asnatlas]

Any update on this elegance coral ?? ANy new updated pics ??