So I just picked up and in the process of acclimating a mini elegance. I love elegance, but they're so dern big. This mini is perfect. Gonna start him in the sand, then move him into a hole on a rock about 1/3 up my tank.

Question is, do they continue to spread with these small heads, or are they just baby elegance corals that will get massive in a couple years? I'm not worried as I will either frag, or hopefully be working with a bigger tank in a couple years anyway, but I'm looking for some input from people who've had them long term.

I've never heard of a mini-elegance. I'm somewhat sure you have a baby big boy.

I'm also not sure you can frag an elegance safely. I haven't seen it done, but if you have access to one of those diamond blade bandsaws, it might be possible.

And it will grow big quicker than in a couple years


But man, I hear ya. Elegance is such an awesome coral. I have a friend with a 240g that has a basketball size green elegance with pink tips. Insanity.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure the elegance being sold as "mini" are just babies of the real deal. I been poking around and haven't been able to find any info other than that. Went into it expecting that it's going to turn into a behemoth, but they're awesome corals and I couldn't resist. If (when) it gets big I'm going to take a shot at fragging. But that's quite a ways off. In the meantime, here's a pic to give you some perspective on how small it is. If I end up needing to move him in the nano I have real estate free that I can move it to.

WANT. I really WANT.

Where can I get one?

I WANT! I've always wanted an elegance as well... Its one of the few corals I have never purchased in my 12 years in the hobby...

I have seen people offering elegance coral frags online at a few places...all I know is that they can be a hard coral to keep healthy.

Me too! Not the 12 years part though, I heard there was a mass die off a few years ago or something, like they all had a bug, they seem to be fine now...

I have heard reports of people fragging elegance corals. Diamond blade up throug the ekeleton. The last part of the Fleshy top you need to cut with coral scissors as you carefully split the last fragments of the stoney body.

This was the basics of the procedure i had read some time back . I will see if i can find a link again .

There are still definitely issues with Elegance (they get over illuminated frequently and it leads to issues), but you are right there was a time when they were all getting a brown jelly infections.

Soooooo pretty...

Australia?

Local guy I know got one in from a wholesaler and I couldn't resist.

I also saw that a handful of years ago there was a mass die off of elegance and people seemed have trouble with them. Nowadays it doesn't seem so bad, but some sites have them listed as expert corals.

He's getting fed tonight, can't wait to see how it reacts to a belly full of mysis!

Degener8 - if you can find that link that'd be great. The method you described is what I've heard too, same method as doing something like a scoly. I won't be ready to frag for awhile, but as long as it does well in my tank I'd like to try it at some point.

That one is a beauty!

Here's some info on the propagation and reproduction of Catalaphyllia jardinei:

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-03/ac_s...ature/index.php
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-06/nftt/index.php
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-06/eb/index.php

Can elegance sting you?

They are a little sticky, but not to the extent of most anemones. Anemonefish hosts them with no issues; it's basically a very nice water bed

Yes but they do eat fish. One of our local dudes has one that has taken out small tangs.

great pickup..that's a beauty..what lighting do you have it under?

A few weeks ago the lfs had a shipment delayed in Atlanta due to bad weather and when he finally received it, as expected, most of the corals were dead or dying. Except this one big Elegance. It looked bad but there was still plenty of tissue, but it looked kinda weird, like it was breaking into pieces of tissue. It was placed in a tank and the next day it began breaking off into little "mini-elegances". He got five at first, but the parent is still looking bad and like it'll split some more. I scored one, and it's been fine for about 10 days. It's tentacles are shorter than the one pictured, but I have it on the end of my 20L jetties tank, which has 4-T5's. Because they're in the middle, the end is much lower light. It responds to touch and will take mysis into it's mouth. Some of the first ones thrown are developing skeletons, but I've not looked under mine to see.
Somewhat of a concensus of what happened to Elegance was that the original imports were shallow water species, and easy to take care of in tanks. I can verify that in the Philippines they occure quite frequently in the shallows, and have a friend who finds small ones and when after a year or so they get huge, he puts them back in the wild.
The improts now are from deep water, and can't tolerate bright light, which is supposedly why it is so hard to keep them alive.
Hopefully, these weird bailouts will be hardier in our tanks, and can maybe spawn a comeback of these beautuful corals. I know I'm excited about mine, as like others, I've never bought one because of their reputation as being nearly impossible to keep alive. Oh, and the lfs gave me mine.

tangov - 150w halide, 14k, in the sand bed at about 18" of depth

yardboy - that's quite the freebie from the LFS! Let's see a pic!

zook- great articles, that fragging one has been bookmarked!