ELEGANT CORAL HELP!!!!!

[hexcolor reef]

Flesh exposed on elegant coral, noticed it’s been bitten off. The damaged side mouth is still attached but its skeleton and flesh is 20% exposed underneath. The coral has 3 mouths in total so will it heal itself or is it the start of more deterioration????
how long will it take for the coral to heal from this

 

[Stephen8169301]

Looks like the start of elegance coral syndrome but I could be wrong

 

[Kmst80]

Good luck to you but i haven't heard of many people keeping these long term. I had one myself turning to mush.
Better find out whats eating your coral.

 

[mtraylor]

Well I can't really tell from pic. But if it's been bit. Then that is the problem I would be addressing first. What fish do you have? Or did you just get the coral and think it was bit?

I see other damage to the skeleton on the left side as well. Chips missing. That bein said other than what looks like you have irritated the coral or its pinched itself up. It looks in pretty good shape considering and a good time to try and address the issues before it gets too bad.

I don't see any fresh cut. But if it is a nice luguls dip can help. For bacteria issues. A nice dip in 50/50 tank water/hydrogen peroxide is effective.

When did issue happen?

 

[hexcolor reef]

Well I can't really tell from pic. But if it's been bit. Then that is the problem I would be addressing first. What fish do you have? Or did you just get the coral and think it was bit?

I see other damage to the skeleton on the left side as well. Chips missing. That bein said other than what looks like you have irritated the coral or its pinched itself up. It looks in pretty good shape considering and a good time to try and address the issues before it gets too bad.

I don't see any fresh cut. But if it is a nice luguls dip can help. For bacteria issues. A nice dip in 50/50 tank water/hydrogen peroxide is effective.

When did issue happen?

Purchased then, I’ve noticed it. Here’s pics today with the skeleton showing. The 3rd mouth is fully viewable from underneath no longer attached to skeleton. I have a nice flow underneath to stop decaying matter from building up. How soon could this heal itself?

 

[Uncle99]

Elegance.
Very few survive for some reason.
Like Helio-Fungia….

 

[mtraylor]

That doesn't look good. You need to dip for sure and hope for best. Sorry to see that. It went down hard

 

[hexcolor reef]

Elegance.
Very few survive for some reason.
Like Helio-Fungia….

Thinking about cutting it in half removing the decaying mouth

 

[LPS Bum]

I’d dip it in iodine (I use Seachem ReefDip, but there are plenty of other options). If it’s really doing poorly and the infection is spreading, you can try a H2O2 dip too (add 40-50 ml of fresh peroxide to some tank water and dip for 5 min).

 

[hexcolor reef]

i have it in iodine now, just figured out that it’s a wild caught coral. Has what looks like a star fish and a fan worm on it
This star fish has 6 legs maybe that’s what babies look like.
so the star fish has been eating away at the elegance coral sucks big time

 

[hexcolor reef]

After surgery, it’s sitting in my frag tank with low flow fingers crossed

 

[Outlaw Corals]

I’d dip it in iodine (I use Seachem ReefDip, but there are plenty of other options). If it’s really doing poorly and the infection is spreading, you can try a H2O2 dip too (add 40-50 ml of fresh peroxide to some tank water and dip for 5 min).

I would KFC dip it for the save

 

[Kmst80]

That looks like a Asterina star fish and from what I heard the brownish ones eat away on certain corals.
You might have found the culprit.

 

[hexcolor reef]

That looks like a Asterina star fish and from what I heard the brownish ones eat away on certain corals.
You might have found the culprit.

I did after removing the star fish then doing some surgery on the elegance coral, it looks like it will survive. It already grew tentacles were I cut and removed the 3rd mouth and dead flesh
Soaked in a lot of iodine

 

[MichaelReefer]

Good luck to you but i haven't heard of many people keeping these long term. I had one myself turning to mush.
Better find out whats eating your coral.

I've had an Elegance for 3 years, never had issues? Its the size of my hand.

 

[hexcolor reef]

Clown fish eating elegance coral anyone know about this behavior it also swims very close to it most of the time

 

[Uncle99]

Clown fish eating elegance coral anyone know about this behavior it also swims very close to it most of the time

Sure, they can take out hammers and frogspawn so I see no reason they might mistake elegance as a “home”.
Not seen clowns “eat” elegance but can make it (and others) very unhappy, which can lead to death,as they shrink to protect themselves and slow or stop photosynthesis.

 

[hexcolor reef]

Sure, they can take out hammers and frogspawn so I see no reason they might mistake elegance as a “home”.
Not seen clowns “eat” elegance but can make it (and others) very unhappy, which can lead to death,as they shrink to protect themselves and slow or stop photosynthesis.

Exactly what the elegance coral has been doing. Shrinking. I may have to remove that clown fish from the tank. I also started to feed more just in case that may have been the issue

 

[Kmst80]

Sure, they can take out hammers and frogspawn so I see no reason they might mistake elegance as a “home”.
Not seen clowns “eat” elegance but can make it (and others) very unhappy, which can lead to death,as they shrink to protect themselves and slow or stop photosynthesis.

Absolutely agree. I don't think either the clownfish ate parts of the ellegance. Very likely the ellegance is not happy with the rough treatment of the clown hence not extending fully. Thats the risk with having clowns.

 

[Uncle99]

Exactly what the elegance coral has been doing. Shrinking. I may have to remove that clown fish from the tank. I also started to feed more just in case that may have been the issue

They may have selected the elegance as home, rough treatment by clowns of a nem is common so this behavior would transfer to whatever coral piece they decide is home base, but in most cases will not kill the Nem. The elegance on the other hand is quite a delicate piece, many reefers have not been able to keep elegance long term.
If you move the elegance and they follow, that’s going to be a problem.
I have a nem for my clowns so they don’t move more than 1 ft from it ever.
Elegance, heliofungia, Fungia, I’ve never got past a year so I just don’t keep them anymore. I think some stuff just has trouble with captivity, but others claim long term success.