Help With My First Coral

[MM51496]

I bought some pumping xenia for my tank a couple of days ago and 3 out of 5 stalks are pulsing but 2 look closed or shriveled up and they are brown. Is this normal or are they dieing?

 

[Hoggn]

Sounds like they could be dying. Test your water and see if anything is out of whack! Sometimes it just dies and you can't tell why.

 

[ERICinFL]

I've got a nice size colony of Pom Pom Xenia going, but it took me three tries to get a frag to survive. From what I've heard, Xenia either likes your tank, or it doesn't. The first two frags I got from my LFS died and the frag I got from my friend has taken off. If 3 out of 5 are looking good, you should be fine. If the other two die off, don't worry, once that stuff get's going, you'll be trimming it back frequently. If you can, keep the Xenia on a rock of it's own, away from all your other LR. It can take over a tank fairly quickly.

 

[BONDQ]

IME the browning is indicitive of the Xenia dying.

Xenia seems very sensitive to alkalinity swings, which my friend recently had issues with.

Definitely test your parameters; that should lead to the cause.