PLEASE DO NOT ORDER FROM THE WEBSITE, please use our Facebook pages, thanks Phil
PLEASE DO NOT ORDER FROM THE WEBSITE, please use our Facebook pages, thanks Phil
The Elegance Coral, Catalaphyllia jardinei, also known as the Ridge Coral, Wonder Coral or Elegant Coral, is an awesome LPS coral for the mixed reef tank. This elegant coral is an anemone look-alike and has long, flowing tentacles, although it is more closely related to the frogspawn, torch and hammer corals than it is to anemones. You will find that individual specimens will display different colours, so shop around to pick the colour morph that suits you best.
The Elegance coral may reach an adult size of 12 x 8 in the wild with tentacles extending out an additional 6 inches. Suffice it to say, this is a fairly large coral, which you should take into consideration when placing in your tank.
Catalaphyllia jardinei also has sweeper tentacles, which are tentacles specialised to sting and destroy–so be sure to give it wide berth and room to grow in your tank, if you want to avoid coral warfare in your tank.
The Elegance Coral is hardy and relatively easy to take care of, which makes it an attractive addition for the average reef tank.
Ideal habitat:
In the wild, these coral can be found in the Great Barrier Reef around Australia, as well as some areas near Japan, Vanuatu, Micronesia and Mozambique.
Because this coral will grow to a relatively large size, if healthy, the Elegance Coral is typically best suited to larger tanks around 90-100 gallons in size, under the assumption that you would like to keep this coral along with several other coral species. If you wish to keep this coral in a smaller tank, consider making this coral the focal point and give lots of room to grow.
Feeding:
The Elegance coral is photosynthetic, which means commensal photosynthetic algae, called zooxanthellae live inside its body tissue and provide some nutrition by harvesting the energy in the light, much like a plant. They will also benefit from regular feedings.
What should you feed your elegance coral?
Your coral will greedily accept soft, meaty foods. A few notable foods are: krill, mysis shrimp, brine shrimp, or small pieces of fish, shrimp or shellfish.
Care should be given to the size of what you feed this coral–with preference given to high quality foods that are relatively smaller in size. An Elegance Coral may greedily accept a larger size food, but if the food is too large to reach the digestive tract, it may be regurgitated later.
Behaviour and tank mates:
Clownfish and other species that tend to host in anemones are are particularly good tank mates for Catalaphyllia jardinei. If you’re lucky, these animals may take a liking to your Elegance Coral and make it their home. Some specimens will tolerate this well, while others may seem bothered by it.
The Elegance Coral, has relatively large sweeper tentacles that will sting neighbouring corals, so it’s best to provide a lot of free space around it. The tentacles will extend ~6 inches around the base–and the base will continue to grow, over time (hopefully), so be sure to give it ample room to grow or be prepared for your neighbouring corals to get ZAPPED.
You will also want to keep this coral away from other corals with potent sweepers, to prevent it from getting damaged
Avoid keeping this coral with fish species that are notorious polyp nippers–since the Elegance Coral may be the target of their nipping desire.
Lighting:
The Elegance coral, Catalaphyllia jardinei requires some reasonable amount of light, to support photosynthesis, but it does not require strong light. LEDs, fluorescent or other reef-caliber lights will be sufficient.
Elegance coral placement:
What is the best spot for Elegance coral placement in your tank?
Like most other LPS corals with large, fleshy polyps, Elegance corals tend to do best with just a moderate water flow. Higher water flows will cause the tentacles to remain retracted and small or else may get damaged and ripped.
It is not healthy for the Elegance coral to keep its tentacles retracted for long periods of time. An Elegance coral with retracted polyps is likely to starve.
In the wild, Catalaphyllia jardinei is often found on a soft, sandy substrate, so if you are looking to replicate their natural environment, in terms of substrate and lighting, the best placement for your specimen would be at the bottom of the tank, on a sandy substrate.
Of course, that is not the only place you can keep them, many aquarists have had success attaching them to live rock, as well.
Elegance coral tips:
Look at the coral polyps carefully before purchasing and avoid buying a specimen with polyps that were damaged in transit–sometimes these corals don’t recover from serious injuries like that
Don’t forget that corals are animals, not plants and this coral likes to eat–so be sure to feed it regularly to get the best growth
Give it space to grow into that even a year or two from now will still be far enough away that it can’t sting its neighbours
Conclusion:
If you are looking for a hardy Large Polyp Stony (LPS) coral that looks great and is relatively easy to care for, the Elegance Coral is a good choice. Keep lighting and water flow moderate and give it space to grow.