What's wrong with this elegance coral?
 

Anyone know what could make an elegance coral go from this:

http://i1100.photobucket.com/albums/...n/file-108.jpg

To this:

http://i1100.photobucket.com/albums/...n/file-109.jpg

?

I've had this particular coral for well over a year, it was previously in my pico tank, and was one of the first corals in my big tank. It seems to have totally lost all it's tentacles, and the body has since bleached. Nothing in the tank has changed, other than the addition of fish (it was fishless for several months). I've seen my Doliatus rabitfish picking at the elegance, but that didn't start until well after it had deteriorated and the tentacles had melted. It went from the first pic to the second in the span of about a week, and has been like that for 2 weeks now.

Maybe the rabbit fish picked at it well before it got to this state and you just didn't see him doing it. Possibly at night or simply whenever you turn your back. I've had fish do this and would only catch them in the act if I had a camera on the tank. For some reason they would not pick on the coral whenever I was around. Fish are weird.

Anyway, it just seems too coincidental that the elegance is fine, then add fish and suddenly elegance has all it's tentacles chewed off??

I don't know if the rabbit fish are reef safe or no?
Since u had it for long time, and others are alright, maybe ur fish?sometimes corals do this, they die randomly even water is fine and everything else.

Scribbled rabbitfish NOT reef safe. I would bet that the rabbit was nibbling on the elegance since he entered the tank. If the fish are listed as 'reef safe with caution'...it means they are not reef safe. It means there is a strong likelihood that they will eat corals, and usually they do. Some people have a little luck as long as they keep the fish well fed and satisfied, but it never lasts IMO. Everyone says they are fine, until they start eating corals.

ECS- elegance coral syndrone

yours is like alot of others,they melt in a few days.

+1. This normally happens after a year to year and a half. Indo specimens are far more prone to it occuring.

I've seen it countless times, there is no cure and no way to stop it once it does.

In the 90's elegance were the easiest and most sought after corals, ecs (believed to be caused by human chemicals) has wiped their reputation and numbers to the point of small quotas and a place on endangered lists.

In the wild ecs is non existent :(

I thought ECS is caused by some pathogens. The last formal study was done by Eric Borneman in the mid 2000. Is there any thing new since then? Source?

pathogens belived to be caused by us, there is no definitive cause or cure and is not present in the wild only in captivity.

its also very contagious to other elegance and some elegance corals are immune to it.


i had a link to post on a show off your elegnace thread i started last year but apparently canreef deleted the thread so i cant find it it was a good read written in 2011-2012

it talks about the quotas, cites and ecs in particular:)

Are you referring to the following 2 links in your other thread?
The first link I believe is where Eric Borneman published his study (RK is down now so can't view the page). The following RC thread documents his study:
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=310425
I think at the second half of his study he moved the discussion to other forum. I don't have the link at this moment. I read Borneman's study years ago and I forgot the exact details, but I think he suggested that an unknown pathogen is the cause of ECS. The reason an elegance getting infested with the pathogen in the first place is due to various reasons, stress, environmental issues, etc. But the pathogen is from the seas.

The second link is just a standard iucn report. It talks about coral disease. I think they are talking about all corals in general not only elegance.