Elegance Coral - new & my only coral - is something wrong??

[billdogg]

Two Elegance Corals!

You have done a fine job with that coral - Congratulations!!!

As for a tang - look at the bristletooths. I have a Tomini in my 120. It is fat and happy. It eats mostly NLS pellets or Rod's Original but about weekly I'll put some Nori in there and it tears it to pieces in all of 5 minutes.

[fishresponse]

Looks great! Sounds like this one will be around for a long time

[KarenLR75]

Only one, which will be our...showpiece tang - a White Tail Bristletooth Tang. We added him last night along with a Blue Throat Trigger. My gosh they are both beautiful.

We had yellow tangs (I think we had 2..lol) before along with a Naso Tang (that's what we called it WAY BACK WHEN) in a 75 gallon tank when we had no clue (over 15+ yrs ago) that they were somewhat (fish only tank) and we definitely were fools that got blessed as none of them fought.

That brings our total livestock to: 1 - Mandarin, 1 -Randall's Goby and his 1 Pistol shrimp, 2 skunk cleaner shrimp, 1 red shrimp we never get to see, 1 Melanurus Wrasse, 2 Mated Percula clows, 4 fire fish, 1 electric blue knee hermit crab (LARGE), and now 1 White Tail Bristletooth tang, 1 Blue throated trigger.

We tried to keep all prior acquisitions to fish that would not grow more than 3 to 4 inches so we could handle the bio-load of the Tang. The Blue Throat Trigger was a surprise purchase...we REALLY wanted to put a SMALL yellow tang (we need some color) along with the 4"...maybe 5" Bristletooth tang but the main guy at LFS who manages all the fish inventory and ordering questioned us on this and suggested that maybe the Bristletooth in our size tank should be our only tang. We could fit another but chances of aggression...probably from the yellow...could be eliminated.

Thinking it through, we realized with mixed reef, our "color" should come more from the corals and not so much from the fish (we nixed idea of getting a Purple Tang long ago as we fell in love with the Bristletooth).

I have to say, the blue throat trigger was subtle at LFS - their lighting didn't do him justice. We have been glued near the aquarium watching both new additions. Our previously tight knit group of fish citizens before the addition are a little shook up. I hope things settle down. The firefish are in hiding...luckily they are all a good size

[KarenLR75]

Dang, how many posts do I have to get to to finally get 'edit' capabilities..lol....so many typos in prior post!

[KarenLR75]

Originally Posted by billdogg

Two Elegance Corals!

You have done a fine job with that coral - Congratulations!!!

As for a tang - look at the bristletooths. I have a Tomini in my 120. It is fat and happy. It eats mostly NLS pellets or Rod's Original but about weekly I'll put some Nori in there and it tears it to pieces in all of 5 minutes.

Thank you!

It's ironic you suggested the bristletooths....you can see my prior post about our addition of a white tailed bristletooth tang last night.

PS: Is it normal for a coral (the Elegance) to have an oral disk that is so very big? I figure it is or y'all would have said something...lol

[on the spot]

Originally Posted by KarenLR75

Dang, how many posts do I have to get to to finally get 'edit' capabilities..lol....so many typos in prior post!

many.

so, so many.

There was a window opened not long ago to edit posts/threads because of the photobucket conundrum but that is the rare exception. Editing is usually a pre-post proposition.

Good work with the elegance. Envy has gripped me.

[KarenLR75]

Originally Posted by on the spot

many.

so, so many.

There was a window opened not long ago to edit posts/threads because of the photobucket conundrum but that is the rare exception. Editing is usually a pre-post proposition.

LOL @ on the spot. Made me chuckle. I will consider using the preview option in the future

[KarenLR75]

Additional note: Our tank, while not super large is 6 ft long. We knew we'd want to put a tang in it at some point and wanted to give him/her as much length to swim as we could. Of course, 2 months after getting it, we wished we had gotten the 150 gallon tank..lol

[on the spot]

Originally Posted by KarenLR75

LOL @ on the spot. Made me chuckle.

Glad to help.

[billdogg]

Your Elegance looks perfectly normal and healthy to me. Mine now has at least 15 or 20 separate mouths, up form maybe 2 when we bought it about 3 years ago. It has also grown from ~3" to over 12.



On a different note - You will need to take special care to ensure that your mandarin has enough food. They are obligate constant eaters - pods are their preferred food source. Although some can be trained to eat prepared foods, it is not a substitute for live pods. Sadly, your wrasse is a direct competitor that will easily win the "see who can eat the most pods" contest.

A large refugium with ample liverock and/or cheato for pods to breed will quickly become a necessity.

[KarenLR75]

[QUOTE=billdogg;25299183]Your Elegance looks perfectly normal and healthy to me. Mine now has at least 15 or 20 separate mouths, up form maybe 2 when we bought it about 3 years ago. It has also grown from ~3" to over 12.



Yours is so gorgeous! That has grown quite quickly in my opinion. Glad to have confirmation from several kind people, including yourself that the coral is healthy and happy right now.

[KarenLR75]

Originally Posted by billdogg

On a different note - You will need to take special care to ensure that your mandarin has enough food. They are obligate constant eaters - pods are their preferred food source. Although some can be trained to eat prepared foods, it is not a substitute for live pods. Sadly, your wrasse is a direct competitor that will easily win the "see who can eat the most pods" contest.

A large refugium with ample liverock and/or cheato for pods to breed will quickly become a necessity.

Thankfully we had a mandarin before (WAY BACK WHEN) but in those days we had no refugium, didn't know about pods but with a lion fish in the tank we fed live brine, etc.. and we got lucky.

With this tank, I forgot to mention we have about a 30 gallon or more refugium. We waited for some cheato we put in to get established and got inundated at first. We had pods galore (like a blizzard).

We have had to do some siphoning so the population is a bit depleted but we keep an eye on his eating and body size. Our wrasse is a PIG and eats so many pellets and mysis, that for the most part he doesn't eat as many pods as he could (simply because he is full).

We actually may go get another ball of cheato to help re-amp up pod population. We brought live brine shrimp last night, which the mandarin thankfully ate the last time we bought some...to ensure he has extra to eat for a few days.

I've bought the 'pods in a bottle' before too..but wow, they are expensive!

[crawlerman]

If your tank is clean and stable enough to keep an elegance coral for three months and have it thrive, you would be fine adding your tang. Just make sure you add a tang suitable for your tank size.

Edited to add that the coral is beautiful

[CindyK]

Karen your elegance is beautiful! I'm too chicken to try one (also I am out of room )

[TrojanScott]

Originally Posted by billdogg

Your Elegance looks perfectly normal and healthy to me. Mine now has at least 15 or 20 separate mouths, up form maybe 2 when we bought it about 3 years ago. It has also grown from ~3" to over 12.



On a different note - You will need to take special care to ensure that your mandarin has enough food. They are obligate constant eaters - pods are their preferred food source. Although some can be trained to eat prepared foods, it is not a substitute for live pods. Sadly, your wrasse is a direct competitor that will easily win the "see who can eat the most pods" contest.

A large refugium with ample liverock and/or cheato for pods to breed will quickly become a necessity.

That is a gorgeous elegance. Congrats.

[sde1500]

Beautiful coral, nothing looks out of the ordinary there at all.

Side note, huh! Someone actually uses those built in cloud and t-storm features!

[Reefpuck]

Beyond jealous! Would love to have an elegance...but apparently it's hit or miss with them.

[KarenLR75]

Originally Posted by crawlerman

If your tank is clean and stable enough to keep an elegance coral for three months and have it thrive, you would be fine adding your tang. Just make sure you add a tang suitable for your tank size.

Edited to add that the coral is beautiful

Thank you, crawlerman, for your kind words on my coral.

Hopefully the white tail bristletooth we just added will be very happy. Our tank is technically 112 gallons..not sure why I say technically as it is 112 gallons with a 30 gallon (or maybe a bit more) refugium. It is 6 ft long though (not 4 ft) which was a requirement we had as we wanted a tang and although we successfully kept a Naso and a yellow tang in a 75 gallon aquarium that was only 4 or 5 ft long 15 yrs ago (we didn't know better), we wanted the most amt of swimming room we could get for him.

Also, we had pondered adding the white tail along with a smaller yellow but decided why tempt fate with 2 tangs. For additional "color" we should rely on adding corals.

We added our bristletooth this past weekend along with one of our last acquisitions, a blue throat trigger. They are both eating well and swimming all over the tank.

Unfortunately our shrimp and Randall's Goby combo have gone into hiding. Our 4 fire fish went into hiding until 3 popped back out today.

[KarenLR75]

Originally Posted by CindyK

Karen your elegance is beautiful! I'm too chicken to try one (also I am out of room )

Thank you, CindyK! LOL...I don't blame you for being chicken. Once again, I made a mistake when I should have known better and got overly excited when I saw the coral at my LFS and got it w/o asking about what it needs, how sensitive it might be, etc. - ALL the questions I normally ask about fish, etc...I did not even ASK!

I also love your signature line about taking stupid questions to a whole new level...I may borrow that!! I feel like the Queen of asking the obvious lately. Thankfully everyone has been more than gracious.

[KarenLR75]

Originally Posted by sde1500

Beautiful coral, nothing looks out of the ordinary there at all.

Side note, huh! Someone actually uses those built in cloud and t-storm features!

sde1500...you cracked me up!! LOL..yes, we do...and I swear the timing of the dang thing must be 'human motion activated' as every time we approach the tank WITH camera in hand...."here comes the rain..."......

Then when we tell someone about the thunderstorm feature...I swear we can be in the room the ENTIRE day...and NOTHING. Want a video of all the fish out swimming right after a water change and everything is sparkling and lovely...and here come back to back storms.

I swear the thing (ight system) is sentient (AI coming soon to a tank near you).

[BranchingHammer]

Following, can’t wait to see your mom success with that elegance.