"But in recent years, the hardiness of this coral has been brought under question."

so i was doing some passive reading and this notion seems to come up repeatedly in regards to the elegance.

aside the cause of death from inexperienced keepers, does anyone actually know why this corals hardiness has dropped?

to be remembered that Catalaphyllia jardinei remains in IUCNs redlist as a "vulnerable" species

cheers

jeff

 

Cleaner tanks IMO, and the common use of the most intense lighting. The is also a poor shipper, small tissue injury from incorrect handling can often lead to their quick demise.

Looks were this corals comes from in the wild, not high on reef crest under the most intense lighting and nutrient free environment with the high flow.

 

Eric Borneman looked into this and never reached a definitive conclusion, but believed it was a pathenogen from holding facilities, as it appeared contagious.

The Elegance Coral Project by Eric Borneman - Reefkeeping.com


Elegance Corals: Sustainability and Disease Impacting Catalaphyllia jardinei (Wells 1971) in the Aquarium Trade by Eric Borneman - Reefkeeping.com

Others think it is light, cleanness etc... however, usually those who think this do not have evidence or research to support it.

I've had one for a few years that is doing well, in a very clean tank and under relatively bright light. Usually the argument goes that the Indonesian specimens are over-collected, so, they are being collected deeper, where they are not exposed to as much light. The Australian elegance corals are still being collected from more shallow water, so, they are more tolerant of bright light. Mine is Indonesian though, although, perhaps it was a rare one collected from shallow water. I have no way of knowing. Regardless though, the light/environment explanations don't seem to explain why it appears to be contagious and doesn't explain other findings by Borneman.

Usually I find that those who disagree though, just seem to say they don't trust Borneman, rather than provide alternative non-anecdotal evidence. I'm not really a big Borneman follower myself, and he is certainly good at finding controversy. However, in this case, he seems to make sense, so, I still tend to buy his explanation more, at least with cautious optimism.

 

Had to Google it, some of the pics looks kinda like my Duncan LPS

 

Interesting read thx, would you say in terms of survival it is close to that of a BTA meaning if it thrives for the first 6 months there is a high chance it will pull through? Also there is no definitive way of being able to determine its origin right?

 

Well now, you can know it's origin if you know from the collector

 

I would say its something that has change with processes in the last 10 years before that you couldn't kill them very easy. It was my 16" long elegance coral that Albert J. Thiel propagated at MACNA X being an easy LPS to do.