Elegance Slime?

[Samhain]

Ok, so what is going on with my Elegance frag? It has been happy and healthy, open and beautiful. Then, about 5 days ago it started looking not so happy. It wasn't extending its tentacles all the way and was just not quite as puffy as it had been. I thought it might be the lights, so I set it down on the bottom on the sand bed where it had been during acclimation originally. No better, and now it has some white slime trailing off of it! I removed a long string of it last night, looked today and it was back again! No brown slime, just this white string. What's going on?

This is the slime

 

[SarahSmile]

Do you have too much flow? Is your water too clean? They like dirty still water from what I've read.

 

[Mandarin66]

Do you have too much flow? Is your water too clean? They like dirty still water from what I've read.

I wonder if spraying tap water straight at it works lol

 

[Samhain]

Do you have too much flow? Is your water too clean? They like dirty still water from what I've read.

I can certainly try moving it to an area with less flow. It WAS doing much better when I was having a nasty algae bloom, but that's all cleared up now. The water is crystal clear and my levels are all coming back at or just next to 0. Maybe that's the problem......Silly little pigpen coral.......

 

[Samhain]

My coral is still unhappy. I've moved him again to an area with more light than he was getting in his last spot, but less flow. He's still all curled up and kind of slimy. He wasn't any happier in any of the spots I've put him. Any other ideas?

 

[little_fish]

They can be kinda hard to keep, im not really sure what to tell you but good luck!

 

[SarahSmile]

Maybe try less light, do you have a cave you can cram him into?

 

[SarahSmile]

I looked into getting one of these a while ago and found that many people had problems with them; The Elegance Coral Project - Reef Central Online Community
Hope it's ok I posted a link to another forum, but there's a whole study on the problems with elegance corals...
I hope yours recovers Samhain!

 

[Samhain]

Maybe try less light, do you have a cave you can cram him into?

I do have a cave I can stick him in. That was my next thought. Just give him a stint in 'Time Out' and see if that gives him an attitude adjustment.

 

[SarahSmile]

Ha ha, sounds like a plan...let us know how it goes. Crossing my fingers for you. It's so worrying having something in the tank that seems unhappy, isn't it?

 

[Samhain]

Sarah, that link to the Elegance Coral Project was excellent. I read it through, and it seems likely that my Elegance was collected in the deep waters of Indonesia. Quick synopsis of the study found that only Elegance collected from this source seemed to develop this problem, possibly from lighting, pressure, and water quality changes from their original habitat. Shallow-water Elegance do not seem to suffer the same problem, and they are available from Australia. But the popularity of the coral in the 80's-90's led to over-collection of Indonesian shallow-water Elegance which resulted in a decimation of the shallow-water population there. It seems that most deep-water Elegance seen in the aquarium trade these days develop this condition, without any notably successful treatment. Unfortunately, they just seem to wither away and die. Aussie Elegance have not shown signs of this condition, so I may try getting one of these one day. Unfortunately, I think my current Elegance is doomed. Very unhappy about this! I will be letting my LFS know about this, and hopefully they will do what they can to avoid purchasing Indonesian Elegance again.

 

[SarahSmile]

Glad it helped you! Isn't research fun, I love it, now we are elegance info nerds. That's awesome that you are going to let your LFS know, I mean, it's pointless for them to get this particular type and you'll be hopefully saving some little creatures :)
Bummed about yours tho...

 

[sen5241b]

When a coral gets sick test everything! Plz provide water prams.

 

[Samhain]

Have tested everything, but that doesn't seem to be the problem

Salinity: 1.025
pH: 8.0
Ammo: 0
Trate: 0
Trite: 0
Phos: 0
Calc: 450
KH: 8

Like I said, levels all look good! However, research indicates that this is a common problem among deep-water collected Elegance, which seems to be what I have. It only affects deep-water collected Elegance, and it doesn't seem to matter how good or bad your levels look, although bad levels can make it happen faster, as it increases stress on the coral.

 

[sen5241b]

I know the test turned up nothing but is always a good idea to do them

 

[Samhain]

I know the test turned up nothing but is always a good idea to do them

Very true! That's one of the first things I did when I first noticed the problem. And I've tested every couple days since the coral started having issues. I was sure it was a problem with one of my levels, and perhaps the first tests weren't accurate. But my levels haven't changed, and the coral has just gotten progressively worse. That's why I posted here, hoping that someone would know more than I did. Fortunately, Sarah found a very informative thread on another forum that had the answers I was seeking. Unfortunately, the answers weren't anything I wanted to hear (read)!

But ultimately, you are very correct. When something's going pear-shaped in the tank, first things first check ALL the levels you can possibly check! And if everything comes back normal, run a second set of tests to make sure you didn't screw up the first one!