Hi all, Hi cheeks69.
It's been a while since I've posted but this subject is very near and dear to me as I've had about a 3 year experience with this coral. Tagging along for further friendly discussions.
In Feb of 2006 we had chat session with Eric Borneman and he briefly updated he Elegance Coral project. I hope you don't mind the link.
Eric's chat
Most of the talk was about his salt study. The elegance talk is towards the bottom.
Here's mine.
Oldsaint, that is a beautiful Elegance. Nice job.
There are a few things about this conversation with Borenman that I would like to discuss. First, to the best of my knowledge Julian Sprung was the first one to come up with the theory of a protozoan being to blame for this problem. Borenman took this theory and concentrated his research in this area. Before he received his first test coral his plan was to look for organisms to blame. He never looked for any other cause. He never did any research on living corals to determine what may bring on these infections. By his own admission in this conversation, he only had one healthy Elegance and its purpose was so that he could say he had a control subject. I have read everything I can get my hands on about his Elegance coral project and I have not found any mention of him doing the first bit of research on this coral. His assumption from the start was that these infections were the cause of the problem. According to this conversation and other writings by Borenman he found many different organisms in this damaged coral tissue. He did not find one parasite he could link to the corals demise. Finding organisms in damaged coral tissue is not something unique to Elegance corals. In this conversation he talks about how brown jelly and fish parasites are contagious in closed systems. We have known this for a very long time. Any infection can be contagious in a closed system. I do not understand why it is put forward as such a shock that an elegance coral that has an infection can be contagious. Any infection can be contagious in a closed system. He states that this problem is contagious and he knows this for sure. How does he know this? Allow me to explain. He had an Elegance that was his personal pet. He had this coral for many years. He placed several of the donated and infected corals in the same system with his old Elegance. The Elegance began to react negatively shortly after these corals were placed in the tank. Borenman intervened and tried an experimental medication on the system. Within moments of adding the medication the water was cloudy and his coral was dead. While these infections can be contagious this is not what killed Borenmans coral. His treatment is what killed the coral. I don't know any reef keepers that would purposely place a coral they know to have an infection in their reef tank with their other corals, and then be shocked when the infection spread. We have learned that in most cases where a coral comes down with an infection there is a primary cause for the infection. physical damage, shipping stress, acclamation stress, or stress from tank mates are just some of the causes. It is very rare for a healthy coral to just come down with an infection for no reason. Even when we can't determine the cause of the infection, it was still most likely brought on by something. These infections we see in Elegance corals are no different than any other infection. They have a cause. It is brought on by the cellular damage caused by exposure to light that is to intense. If Borenman or other researchers would have concentrated their research on living corals to determine what brings on these infections the problem would have been solved long ago.
Borenman states that this condition is in the wild. The next sentence he states that he has never seen it in the wild. He draws his conclusion from the fact that he saw corals showing symptoms that were collected the day before. As I mentioned in the other thread on this sight, it does not take days for these symptoms to appear. They can appear in minutes. These collection sights are very close to the equator. The sun light there is very bright. The change of light these corals would go through on their journey from over 100 feet down to the surface would be enough to cause damage. This problem is not in the wild. I have never read where this problem has been witnessed in the wild. Even the person from the Philippines that I was arguing with in the other thread said that he had never seen the problem in the wild. They don't have the problem until we change their environment.
I hope that this does not come across as if I'm trying to beat up on Borenman. I don't know Borenman so I can't judge the man. I can even understand him drawing the wrong conclusions from the evidence he has seen. I'm not about to say how many times I thought I had it figured out, in the course of my study, only to prove myself wrong. The problem is that when someone in Borenmans position draws a conclusion, correct or not, people take it as gospel. He is a human like the rest of us and should be expected to make mistakes. All I ask is that people look at the evidence that is there. Even without seeing what I have seen, the only logical explanation for what these corals are going through is damage associated with the drastic change in light they experience after collection.
I have purchased a good Elegance coral to expose to light on video to demonstrate how fast they will swell up and withdraw their tentacles. Then document the corals decline after the fact. I am having second thoughts, though. The idea of killing an Elegance coral does not set well with me. It would be nice if through my upcoming website and continued discussions on forums like this I could get the word out without killing an Elegance in the process.
-here is a article about his project. 
Thank you boozeman.
