The Elegance Coral: An Introduction

Elegance coral is one of that coral that has attracted a number of hobbyists into the hobby. 

The Similarities

In many ways, this incredible coral resembles an Anemone. It is fresh, has long tentacles that way in the current, and has great colors and patterns.

If you have ever kept an Anemone, you know that they have a funny way of finding overflow boxes of powerheads and getting stuck or worse. Some enjoy trampling corals in their path. 

Unlike an Anemone, Elegance is stony corals that have a distinct advantage of staying where you place them. Of course, they sting the nearby corals, but it will not run from one side of the coral to the other like a Bubble tip anemone.

The Elegance Coral

The Elegance coral has a cone-shaped stony base elegance. When they get really large producing buds at their base, they can be broken off. Another similarity with Anemone is that the larger Elegance can act as a host for Clownfish.

The jury is out on whether it is a good thing because Clownfish tend to aggravate corals, both with body contacts and the fact that they like to bite off the tips of the tentacles.

Going the other way, Elegance corals have a very potent sting that may be more than what most clownfish are used to.

Although the jury is out on Clownfish, snails have no such ambiguity. They are on the menu, and you will quickly find just how good Elegance is at catching and killing them.

Specimen

Elegance comes in many rare specimens. Their body varies in color from blue to green to purple, and they can have very interesting striping. But it is their tips that really set the coral apart. Most Elegances have pink or purple tips. 

Feeding 

These corals can be fed a wide variety of fleshy seafood items like shrimp or krill. They do grab food and consume it, but they are not quite as aggressive as some other corals, and that leads to a weird situation where they hold the food out there, and then fish comes and pick it up.

They benefit from regular feeding despite the harassment by fish. The food makes it to the center of coral and then into its system. As the coral grows, its mouth splits.

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