elegance feeding?!?

[KMTaquarium]

i got an elegance about 2 wweks ago and the store recomended to feed it krill or raw shrimp once a week- so a couple days later (after its in my tank) i put a piece of thawed krill and held it on the tentacles and mouth(not applying a lot of pressure so i dont injure coral) and it took it, but 20 minutes later i saw it floating around the tank- ive tried feeding it numerously in the past two weeks , but its not taking/eating the food!!
what should i do???
-kevin

 

[phislet]

Try some of DT's phytoplankton. All your corals will love it.

 

[MFisher]

I don't think that elegance corals, or any other "Big-Mouth" coral for that matter, can eat phytoplankton. IME elegance corals aren't big eaters. Of course my elegance died really fast too. I'm not sure if all elegance corals are wimpy stingers or just mine, but if they aren't the lack of "stickyness" may be a good indication that their condition is declining. This is a pretty good indicator for all other strong stingers especially anemones, galaxea, heliofungia (ouch!) etc.

 

[Anonymous]

Elegance corals are one of the strongest stingers around. Perhaps it didn't like the taste of it. Mine will eat somethings and not others. It hates scallops, stupid coral :roll: , but really likes squid. They may or may not ingest DT's but it certainly won't keep it growing. As MFisher pointed out, they don't have large mouths to eat microscopic particles.

 

[MFisher]

steve,

Does your elegance stick to your hand when you touch it. IME strong stingers will. If it does, this may be a really good indicator for healthy specimens. If I touch my heliorungia very small pieces of it will stick to my hand after I pull it away and they leave a burning sensation and welts. Does your elegance do this? I want to get another but I won't do so until I know I'm purchasing a healthy one. I'm trying to come up with some good indicators of elegance health to help me pick a good one.

Thanks,

Mattso

 

[Reef55]

Elegance corals will not stick to human skin. They have powerful stinging cells, but do not produce the mucus that causes others to stick to you. I have accidently ran parts of my hand or fingers through my elegance tentacles many times, and never been stung or got a finger stuck.

 

[Anonymous]

i AM PRETTY CAREFUL TO NOT TOUCH ANY OF THE CORALS ONCE THEY HAVE BEEN PLACED. tO MY KNOWLEDGE, i HAVE NEVER TOUCHED THE TENTACLE OF THE elegance, or any other coral for that matter. Sorry about the caps, i am too lazy to go back and change them. The only time my hands go in the tank is when placig a new coral or fixing a rock movement. I probably haven't had my hands in the tank for 4-5 months.

 

[Reef55]

The interesting thing with mine is that my ORA Percula clownfish has taken my elegance as a host. When I feed the tank, the percula takes a big chunk of food down to the elegance

 

[MFisher]

Geez Steve! How do you keep your tank maintained. I think the old idea of no-hands-in-the-salt-tank has long since been debunked. Its OK to touch your corals. Some people even frag them . I pet my goniopora all the time it just feels so squishy-it fun, try it. You're missing out on one of the great experiences of aquaria: wet sleeves!

 

[xKEIGOx]

hahaha!! that's a funny percula. I though my crazy percula was strange when he make the frogspawn as host and won't get out even that I swing the frogspawn in the water. Left to right left to right. I got an anemone near to there but that funny percula just like SPS. kakakaka!
but then! percula with elegance?! that's the craziest percula I've ever heard! 8O

 

[jamesw]

In the wild, if a clown doesn't find a host, it will live a short life! (be eaten).

So, it is "hard wired" in them to find a host ASAP. Sometimes, in an aquarium, this just happens to be a coral.

Cheers
James Wiseman

 

[Anonymous]

Well, MFisher, I have pretty much filled up my tank with frags, so I don't have any to frag myself, yet. I have a very simple tank. No sump, skimmer or any of that fun stuff. I do have to get my hands wet to remove powerheads for their monthly cleaning and to clean the algae off the glass, but going in arm deep is unnecessary for my tank. Belive me, in the past 8-9 years of reefing, I have had my arms in there. I sure ain't afraid of no ghost. It is just unnecessary now.