New Wild Caught Coral And Deposit!

[N1z]

Today i sold my colt coral, i found it dominated the tank to much and not that much colour. So i went to world of fishes who last time ripped me off, didnt today and gave me 45 quid credit!

But whats more interesting! They had TMC wild cought LPS corals! guess who got the best 2! MOI!

I got a new trachphyillia radiata sp? Better then my last and hopefully if my new auto feeder fill up my dwarf angel from nippin it.

Then next to it for a hefty £125! a Cataphyillia elegance! MYGOD It was siiiiick! so i had to deposit it! pick up next week tuesday here is a naf pic from my phone to keep u occupied!

Enjoy!

 

[Filmoholic]

those suckas are hot! very nice!

 

[SkiFletch]

Oooh, joining the ranks of elegance coral owners? . Someone is mariculturing those color morphs that you have there in indonesia somewheres. These are supposedly surviving much better than live-caught ones. Nice pic. And Nice radiata

 

[N1z]

really aw cool, all the better then. Yer that was when i was feeding it and it was great to watch, Just still worried if my flame gets the munchies for it later on if not i think he will be gone IMO

 

[SkiFletch]

Definitely watch out if you've got a flame angel in there. If it looks closed up close to its skeleton, chances are the flame is taking nips

 

[steelhealr]

Cataphyllia have a near zero survival rate. They are actually being studied by Eric Borneman why they die. He theorizes that it may be a virus. I'd return it and get something else while you still can. Marine keeping is complicated and it always pays to read, keep up and research. Buying corals can't be done based on price or appearance. SH

The Elegance Coral Project

 

[Lynden]

Agree with Steelhealr;

Then again I don't find Cataphyllia very attractive anyway.

 

[N1z]

Well i havent bought it yet, its only been deposited. Really how comes skifletch's one is thriving ok?
Im not picking it up until like 5th of june so it may give me time to see from my pic if its loosing life etc plus have a chat with the guys there.

 

[James B]

Mr Miagi has and still is(to my knowledge) keeping one succesfully

 

[SkiFletch]

Ok, here come's my wealth of elegance coral knowledge....

Back in the early and mid '90s, elegance corals were wild collected throughout the coral sea and often from Australia. Back then, their survival rates were HIGH and the coral seemingly hardy. People kept them alive under T12 and T8 flourescents back then. Mr. Miagi has an elegance collected from australian waters, and likely very similar to some of the older specimins.

Eventually many of the collection sites used back then were closed off by local governments and the aquarium trade looked elsewhere for elegance corals. The specemins they began catching seem to be diseased, as outlined in the link SH posted. Many many specemins around the turn of the century until recently were caught in this "diseased" state. Characteristics are swollen, often bleached oral disks with shrunken and thin tentacles. My first elegance coral (pictured in my journal) was one of these specemins. A proper healthy elegance has a fleshy (but not swollen) oral disk, which has good color, and tentacles that in lower-moderate flow are very long, thin and sweeping, and in high flow are shorter but very bulbous (almoast like a bulb tip nem).

Anyway, the diseased specemins came in in droves and almoast all died. Thereafter many CITES permits were revoked and in some countries like the UK it was nearly impossible to find an elegance coral between 2005 and 2006. Recently however, Australian collection sites have been re-opened and a mariculturist operating out of the coral sea somewhere (i forget the exact locale) has also been shipping healthy elegance corals. The pink-teal color morph I have came from Vanuatu (trans-ship) and seems relatively un-common. It is still seemingly healthy and doing very well. The morph N1Z has posted here is from the mariculturist for sure. They've been popping up everywhere in recent months as the producer of them seems to be having some success. All are nearly identical color morphs. In my local club, I know of 4 of this color morph being kept and properly cared for. They all appear healthy and arrived about 2 months ago. I'm actually tank-sitting for one of them now and its in good shape.

Have the old problems been solved with better collection sites? Only time will tell. Either way, its a big gamble.

 

[N1z]

So i look for a healthy oral disk, cld you explain like in a pic please .
But if i was to risk it, wld things like chopped muscles, squid, invert food and coral frenzy good be ok like 3 times a week?

 

[SkiFletch]

So i look for a healthy oral disk, cld you explain like in a pic please .
But if i was to risk it, wld things like chopped muscles, squid, invert food and coral frenzy good be ok like 3 times a week?

I've actually yet to find anything that my individual elegance coral eats. I've tried: brine, mysis, spriulina brine, krill (chopped and whole), roe, cyclopeeze (it MAY be digesting cyclo at the tentacles, but impossible to tell), phyto/rotifers (same as cyclo), chopped seabass, and chopped shrimp. Doesn't mean yours wont eat them, but I've just never seen mine do it.

My current, healthy one

And my old diseased one

Differences should be obvious

 

[N1z]

Tbh i did think it wld be like my frogspawn and torch, cos none of those feed yet they grow lol. Hmm so if the tenticles are nice and lengthy say 2cm long or longer? it shows good health health.

 

[SkiFletch]

Tbh i did think it wld be like my frogspawn and torch, cos none of those feed yet they grow lol. Hmm so if the tenticles are nice and lengthy say 2cm long or longer? it shows good health health.

For the most part yeah. The key is that the body (oral disk) is not inflated drastically in relation to tentacle length. If they are placed in a very high flow the tentacles will shrink a little, but the oral disk will not widen. And when the tentacles shrink if subjected to high flows, they get bulbous. As you'll note, my old diseased one had short thin tentacles... bad sign

 

[N1z]

Talking to bunjiweb and he were saying they are TMC ones that are some shallow waters so lot hardier and used to high light levels. And i know for a fact my shop only gets their marines from TMC. So yer ill see it next tuesday and hopefully should be ok