Elegance coral suddenly closed up

[CampAquarium]

We added an elegance coral to our reef about a month ago. It was thriving for the first 3 weeks- opened up huge and gorgeous, seemed to love its spot. Then all of a sudden, it closed up. At first it looked like it was pooping, released some brown strings. But it's been about a week, and it has only opened very slightly. It now appears to be secreting some sort of mucus/film. It has not receded from the skeleton, just barely or not opened at all.

Nothing has changed in our system. Everything else is doing well (euphyllia garden, zoas, toadstool, leathers, trachy, lobos, pectinia, setosa, and some acros). We did a water change a few days ago, and the elegance opened slightly more after, but still just barely. Any ideas what might be going on?

Parameters:
Temp: 78.0
Salinity: 1.025
Calcium: 423
Magnesium: 1485
Alk: 8.7
Ph: 8.1
Nitrates: 3.0
Phosphates: 0.07

 

[Tim'sReef]

No expert but Could be ECS or Elegance coral syndrome. Do you know if it's a indo or Australian Elegance?

Mine was acting strange couple of weeks back but that's how I found out about it. But in my case I suspected my cal en manganese was a little low after I adjusted that it got better.

 

[vetteguy53081]

We added an elegance coral to our reef about a month ago. It was thriving for the first 3 weeks- opened up huge and gorgeous, seemed to love its spot. Then all of a sudden, it closed up. At first it looked like it was pooping, released some brown strings. But it's been about a week, and it has only opened very slightly. It now appears to be secreting some sort of mucus/film. It has not receded from the skeleton, just barely or not opened at all.

Nothing has changed in our system. Everything else is doing well (euphyllia garden, zoas, toadstool, leathers, trachy, lobos, pectinia, setosa, and some acros). We did a water change a few days ago, and the elegance opened slightly more after, but still just barely. Any ideas what might be going on?

Parameters:
Temp: 78.0
Salinity: 1.025
Calcium: 423
Magnesium: 1485
Alk: 8.7
Ph: 8.1
Nitrates: 3.0
Phosphates: 0.07

View attachment 3065255

Not good but these corals can be forgiving. Receeded rather than dying and seeing your mag level, mine does NOT like high mag- 1330 is where mine is at.
Elegance corals require a moderate amount of light to support photosynthesis which they require which does not translate to strong light. LEDs, fluorescent, or other reef-caliber lights are sufficient but you want to aim for a PAR of about 80-120. Also important is water flow which should be moderate.
You don’t want the flow to be too hard or too soft but keeping the tentacles flowing gently, like leaves in a light wind. Too little and elegance corals will not thrive. Too much flow and you risk tearing the delicate polyps.
The proper flow brings nutrients to the polyps, ensuring they remain nourished. And you’ll see the typical sweeping movement as they drift in the current.
The elegance coral is photosynthetic, which contain photosynthetic algae called zooxanthellae that live inside its body tissue and provide nutrition by harvesting the energy in light – much like a house plant. They also benefit from regular feedings. with foods such as krill, Mysis shrimp, brine shrimp, or small pieces of fish, and shrimp.
Elegance corals ARE prone to elegance coral syndrome (ECS). If your coral has this disease, you’ll see swelling around the oral disc and unopened polyps or a white mucus coating.

Here is mine:

 

[CampAquarium]

No expert but Could be ECS or Elegance coral syndrome. Do you know if it's a indo or Australian Elegance?

Mine was acting strange couple of weeks back but that's how I found out about it. But in my case I suspected my cal en manganese was a little low after I adjusted that it got better.

Interesting, a quick search for ECS tells me that I should hope it's not that! Sadly I don't know if it's indo or aus. I believe it was a local trade-in at the shop nearest us, so I don't think we have much info on its original source.

Out of curiosity, what levels were your cal and manganese? And what did you adjust them to when you saw improvements?

 

[CampAquarium]

Not good but these corals can be forgiving. Receeded rather than dying and seeing your mag level, mine does NOT like high mag- 1330 is where mine is at.
Elegance corals require a moderate amount of light to support photosynthesis which they require which does not translate to strong light. LEDs, fluorescent, or other reef-caliber lights are sufficient but you want to aim for a PAR of about 80-120. Also important is water flow which should be moderate.
You don’t want the flow to be too hard or too soft but keeping the tentacles flowing gently, like leaves in a light wind. Too little and elegance corals will not thrive. Too much flow and you risk tearing the delicate polyps.
The proper flow brings nutrients to the polyps, ensuring they remain nourished. And you’ll see the typical sweeping movement as they drift in the current.
The elegance coral is photosynthetic, which contain photosynthetic algae called zooxanthellae that live inside its body tissue and provide nutrition by harvesting the energy in light – much like a house plant. They also benefit from regular feedings. with foods such as krill, Mysis shrimp, brine shrimp, or small pieces of fish, and shrimp.
Elegance corals ARE prone to elegance coral syndrome (ECS). If your coral has this disease, you’ll see swelling around the oral disc and unopened polyps or a white mucus coating.

Here is mine:

Yeah, we have been trying to bring our mag down slowly, I'll keep at that and see if it helps improve things for the elegance. As for flow and par, what's odd to me is that it LOVED the spot it's in for 3 full weeks. It opened fully every day, even to a much larger extent than it did in our LFS. It opened so fully, in fact, that we had to scoot some other corals away from it lest they get stung.

Here's a video of it today, if this attachment works. You can see some of those stringy mucus bits I mentioned.

 

[Uncle99]

We added an elegance coral to our reef about a month ago. It was thriving for the first 3 weeks- opened up huge and gorgeous, seemed to love its spot. Then all of a sudden, it closed up. At first it looked like it was pooping, released some brown strings. But it's been about a week, and it has only opened very slightly. It now appears to be secreting some sort of mucus/film. It has not receded from the skeleton, just barely or not opened at all.

Nothing has changed in our system. Everything else is doing well (euphyllia garden, zoas, toadstool, leathers, trachy, lobos, pectinia, setosa, and some acros). We did a water change a few days ago, and the elegance opened slightly more after, but still just barely. Any ideas what might be going on?

Parameters:
Temp: 78.0
Salinity: 1.025
Calcium: 423
Magnesium: 1485
Alk: 8.7
Ph: 8.1
Nitrates: 3.0
Phosphates: 0.07

View attachment 3065255

Same with mine…..happy then gone……get another…..happy then gone. Like Helio Fungia, happy then gone.
I don’t keep these anymore.
Sorry, some seem to have great success.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Yeah, we have been trying to bring our mag down slowly, I'll keep at that and see if it helps improve things for the elegance. As for flow and par, what's odd to me is that it LOVED the spot it's in for 3 full weeks. It opened fully every day, even to a much larger extent than it did in our LFS. It opened so fully, in fact, that we had to scoot some other corals away from it lest they get stung.

Here's a video of it today, if this attachment works. You can see some of those stringy mucus bits I mentioned.

Video has sound but no pic. Increase flow slightly and try to feed Mysis shrimp and see if it accepts it. In the event that there are toxins especially if you have leather coral in the tank, Do a 2 gal water change daily for next 10 days which will help reduce mag also UNLESS your salt mix already has high mag content

 

[CampAquarium]

Video has sound but no pic. Increase flow slightly and try to feed Mysis shrimp and see if it accepts it. In the event that there are toxins especially if you have leather coral in the tank, Do a 2 gal water change daily for next 10 days which will help reduce mag also UNLESS your salt mix already has high mag content

Agh, annoying. Here's a link to the video, maybe this works?
I gave it a bit of mysis today and it did close up around it, so hopefully that's a good sign. Mag continues to slowly drop. Today it's down a bit more, to 1450. We also replaced our activated carbon after our water change.

Curious, you mentioned "in the event there are toxins, especially if you have leather coral in the tank"... did you mean that the leather coral may have released its toxins and that could be causing issues? Or the reverse-- that whatever is wrong with the elegance may irritate our leather to the point that it releases its toxins and causes even more problems?

 

[vetteguy53081]

Agh, annoying. Here's a link to the video, maybe this works?
I gave it a bit of mysis today and it did close up around it, so hopefully that's a good sign. Mag continues to slowly drop. Today it's down a bit more, to 1450. We also replaced our activated carbon after our water change.

Curious, you mentioned "in the event there are toxins, especially if you have leather coral in the tank"... did you mean that the leather coral may have released its toxins and that could be causing issues? Or the reverse-- that whatever is wrong with the elegance may irritate our leather to the point that it releases its toxins and causes even more problems?

leather coral releases toxins known as terpenes and can affect some LPS and SPS coral. I run ChemiPure Blue for this reason. High grade carbon also works. Good news on Mag
In the video, flow is a tad aggressive. . . Bring it down 5-10%

 

[CampAquarium]

leather coral releases toxins known as terpenes and can affect some LPS and SPS coral. I run ChemiPure Blue for this reason. High grade carbon also works. Good news on Mag
In the video, flow is a tad aggressive. . . Bring it down 5-10%

As an update here, our local shop recommended dipping the elegance in a mixture of Reef Primer (8 capfuls per gallon) and Chemiclean (4 spoons per gallon), for 5 minutes. We repeated this every 3-4 days for about 2 weeks. We also adjust the flow to be slightly less aggressive over the elegance.

It’s been 2 months and the elegance is certainly improving. It is not yet back to its original glory, but it’s opening its polyps every day to about 4 inches across. The tentacles are still pretty short, but ever so slowly extending further again. The color is still somewhat striped, but definitely more vibrant again overall. Big difference from back in March.