Need Xenia Eating Fish

[DidYouSayReefer]

Background:
110 gal w/ 55 sump, 4 fish from old 29, Yellow Tang, purple fire fish, True Perc, Royal Gramma. I have a mixed reef (xenia, zoas, leathers, open brain, frog spawn, montes, horn coral, mushrooms, ricordia, bubble tip nem) None of them are very large, all from frags.

Problem:
Xenia hitch hiked on a frag about 2 years ago. I kept it under control until I switched to the 110. With the deep tank, I have a hard time keeping it in check. On top of that it has spawned and there are little xenias on every square inch oh my LR. It will overgrow everything!!

Question:

What fish might work for eating the Xenia? I will want a reef tank. My favorite is the Bubble tip and SPS. If I lose some corals, not a problem. I don't want to lose the nem and I would like to have more SPS. I have room for several more fish, so I can go with a couple different options since I know it will be hit or miss. I am thinking some sort of angel, butterfly, or puffer. Any ideas???

 

[Stumped]

Background: I have a mixed reef (xenia, zoas, leathers, open brain, frog spawn, montes, horn coral, mushrooms, ricordia, bubble tip nem) None of them are very large, all from frags.

I am thinking some sort of angel, butterfly, or puffer. Any ideas???

Almost anything you'd add with hopes of eating the xenia would obliterate any other coral it might be partial to because you only have small frags and you wouldn't have a chance to remove the fish or the coral before it was too late. The problem is that almost any fish you could add that is a corallivore (to the point it could wipe out an out of control xenia colony) would feed on a broad variety of corals, making a diverse mixed reef difficult to achieve/maintain.

Also adding a puffer would do nothing to help your xenia problem. For the most part they tend to leave corals alone and are considered unsafe additions to reefs because they can consume shrimp, crabs, smaller fish, etc.

 

[mrwilson]

What are your water params? Some have hypothesized (or it may actually be more than a hypothesis) that xenia tend to thrive in higher-phosphate tanks.

 

[gasman059]

What's your livestock like?

If u don't mind GSp and so forth- dipping a couple of corals in fluketabs will surely melt every single xenia in your tank.

 

[NyReefNoob]

pymid butterfly, thats what i used to clean up my xenia, never bothered anything else but did eat frozen foods like a pig

 

[DidYouSayReefer]

Thanks,I will look in to the pyrimid butterfly. I know there are some fish that eat only soft corals and not others or only SPS and not much else. Anyone else with experience? I don't want to nuke my tank. I don't know about my phosphate. No Algea problems. I have a large skimmer and very little fish load.

 

[Bonta]

I saw this on another thread, first move your corals to another tank, make your tank heated to 93-95 degrees and the Xenia will melt.

 

[Mikep503]

I had pretty good luck using Apstasia-x or calc mix and injecting the xenia

 

[Chibils]

Inject them with something (anything will work that won't harm the tank: Mikep's suggestions of Aiptasia-X works, as will kalk paste, lemon juice, Joe's Juice...) or introduce fluke tabs. If you're not happy with your lr arrangement, I'm sure an lfs would be happy to trade your Xenia-covered rocks for fresh lr pound-for-pound. It's a big seller for them.

Fish are not a good solution. Trust me. You could also frag it off and sell it to your lfs or other local hobbiests.

 

[DidYouSayReefer]

None of my corals are still frags, they just aren't real big yet, but they are all encrusted or not coming of the rock. Every piece of rock is covered. I have tried injecting kalk, it didn't work too well. These are weeds. There are too many, to deep in the tank, and too small. We are talking one polyp each coral and covering every square inch. Little baby demons. Hundreds.

At this point I have two options: Add a fish or two that might eat them, or start over. I appreciate other suggestions but I am past that point. If anyone has fish suggestions, I am all ears. I know there is something out there. Butterflies and angels seem to be a good option to eat the demons. I just need to know which ones.

 

[iFrag]

Find the nastiest clown trigger in town.