Coral/Anemone ID

Seanybaggs123 · Nov 26, 2019

Hey Guys,

This little guy/guys looked pretty rough through the transition from the previous owners setup to mine.
However, yesterday he was in the center of the tank, and pretty white, when I left for work. When I got home he was in the corner of the tank and colored up like in the pictures below.

Can anyone tell me what this is? (sorry my phone camera sucks)

DSC reef · Nov 26, 2019

Looks like an elegance coral.

Seanybaggs123 · Nov 26, 2019

DSC reef said:
Looks like an elegance coral.

Oh wow, they do look similar! Any recommendation on how to get it to attach to live rock? Should I feed it?

AllSignsPointToFish · Nov 26, 2019

It's difficult to tell exactly. I agree it looks like an elegance coral. When it retracts, is there one skeleton or multiple skeletal stalks?

Seanybaggs123 · Nov 26, 2019

AllSignsPointToFish said:
It's difficult to tell exactly. I agree it looks like an elegance coral. When it retracts, is there one skeleton or multiple skeletal stalks?

That's the exact question my aunt asked! Haha. I plan on checking when I get home after work.

DSC reef · Nov 26, 2019

It's an elegance coral, LPS. Typically meaty foods, they do not attach to live rock as they have there own skeleton.

lpsouth1978 · Nov 26, 2019

I agree that it looks like an elegance, though a pretty bleached elegance. Elegance corals don't like to be on the rock as they have their own skeleton. Place it on the sand in an area with moderate light and flow. They do not like direct flow, but can handle a decent amount of indirect flow.

Good luck with it, it looks like it has an up hill battle to win. Elegance corals can be difficult to keep healthy long term. I have one that has been in my system for about 9 months. At one point it was almost nothing and I was SURE it was a goner. Somehow over the last month or so, it has started to come back, is opening up more all the time and it's tentacles are regrowing. I think in my case the difference was finding the right light settings. As soon as I switched AI Hydra 26's, it started to improve.

Seanybaggs123 · Nov 26, 2019

lpsouth1978 said:
I agree that it looks like an elegance, though a pretty bleached elegance. Elegance corals don't like to be on the rock as they have their own skeleton. Place it on the sand in an area with moderate light and flow. They do not like direct flow, but can handle a decent amount of indirect flow.

Good luck with it, it looks like it has an up hill battle to win. Elegance corals can be difficult to keep healthy long term. I have one that has been in my system for about 9 months. At one point it was almost nothing and I was SURE it was a goner. Somehow over the last month or so, it has started to come back, is opening up more all the time and it's tentacles are regrowing. I think in my case the difference was finding the right light settings. As soon as I switched AI Hydra 26's, it started to improve.

Thank you!

So I think it's current resting place meets the flow and light requirements. Have a reefbreeder photon V2 T5 Hybrid light. Left the blues and purples at 45% to start, and the T5's just go on from the time I get home from work until we go to sleep until I can get a timer set up.

I bought the setup off a guy who thought he was doing well, but clearly wasn't. The nitrates were 90 for starters... I have since removed copious amounts of detritus, tuned the skimmer, removed the filter socks (they were pretty gross), and plan on doing at least 3 large water changes this week.

Over the span of just one day that coral looks a million times better. Before it was just white. Hopefully the removal of excess nutrients, feeding, and a good light schedule will bring it back because they're beautiful!