Real deal blue xenia?

[Chelsey]

I know there have been several threads about this recently, but I acquired this frag as a freebie two nights ago and am quite curious. Any help would be appreciated

Camera flash only:

Camera flash + flashlight:

flashlight from ~3 feet away:

What do you guys think? Yes or no?

 

[sir_dudeguy]

hard to tell, but the fact that it was a freebie makes me think its not. Then again, i've gotten a lot of freebies that should not have been free lol...i'd say maybe try getting a better pic w/no flash and just tank lights on it.

 

[ek9vboi]

no it isnt. my xenia elongata looks like that with flash... unless i have true blue xenia... which i dont.

 

[aztbs]

There is a variety of regular old fast growing xenia that is called "silver" because it has a silvery blu tint to it, especially when it is closed. I believe that is what you have there. It looks nice, enjoy it!

 

[sir_dudeguy]

fergot to mention that it also looks exactly like my elongata when its closed up a bit.

 

[Puffdragon]

Use a flashlight to look at it with the lights off. I fyou see bright blue "threads" running up and doen the stalk then there is a good chance it is blue xenia.

 

[salty55]

my xenia looks just like that when i take a picture of it. he has a turquise, blueish color when he's closed up. i think the actinic lighting give him the blue color when a picture is taken. because i allway turn the flash off when i take a pic of my tank and i get the same effect you did

 

[Chelsey]

The tank lights were off when I took these pics, forgot to mention that.

 

[kiran523]

I learned about the whole flashlight thing after reading all these threads. I bought this from a LFS as blue Xenia and two other LFS owners Verified them. Actually one of them took some frags from me and featured it on his website homepage. He took a better picture than me. These were taken under Halides with a flashlight. They look much more blue under actincs. Whatever they are I like them and they are growing very well in my tank.

 

[ViPeR_930]

Kiran and Chelsey, neither of yours are blue xenia.
The real blue xenia is Cespitularia.

 

[kiran523]

I am aware that it is Cespitularia (Indonesia/E. Africa). That is what the name in which it was sold to me. The "bright blue "threads" " that PuffDragon was referring to are the Sclerites within the coral. I could not get them to show up well on camera. And as I said previously I have mine under Halides. Actinics are required to bring out their true color. The only reason that I am saying these are what they are is because multiple LFS owners have said these are the real deal. If you can give me more information I would love to here it. Cheers

Edit: Check out this pic on Frags.org from Atlantis
Atlantis blue Cespitularia

Mine look exactly like them.

 

[naka]

Flash, no flash, mh, or actinics you should see glitters that sparkle like crazy if it was blue cespitularia.

 

[kiran523]

Thanks for sharing that photo Naka, very nice. I'm not going to try to get into a classification battle. I've seen them get overheated too many times. Talk to Ray, at Tropicorium.com , he is an expert on coral propagation with over 20 years experience. His father Dick is well know in the trade and has over 40 years in. They are the pioneers of captive propagation (50,000+ gallon facility), so they they were around before almost anyone in the US. More importantly they are great people to talk to. They gave me a lot of good advise when I started my tank. He told me that he is one of the only dealers in the US that has Cespitularia. He verified the authenticity of my coral. My expertise is in Medicine not corals, so I try to be careful when I talk about them. I'll leave it at that.

P.S.

He has only one small frag for sale as of right now. Congrats to whoever gets it.

 

[Jamokie01]

Naka is right, Id put a pic of my cespitularia up, but it wouldnt be any better than the one he put up. Calling it blue xenia is misleading, as it isnt blue, its irridescent, like its zooxanthellae have been replaced by glitter. That being said its one of my favorites in the tank, never seen anything else like it.

Kiran , I think your xenia looks like long stem pom pom.

 

[Jamokie01]

Oh, and cespitularia does not pulse.

 

[ViPeR_930]

Kiran, I would bet a lot of money yours is not cespitularia.
I've seen Ming's (at Atlantis) 30+ stalk colonies in person. When an accident wiped out his entire stock he got a frag back from me to grow out.

 

[ReefMonger]

Yes yours is not blue cespitularia. This is what it looks like with flash, indirect light, overhead shots

Ray likes to talk a big talk if you ask me. If he said yours is blue cespitularia he is wrong.

 

[kiran523]

Very nice pics Reefmonger. Like I said, I'm not a coral expert. I can only go by what those with more experience tell me. They are nice to me either way. I have seen 6 types of Xenia so far (I have pom pom and Yellow encrusting), and mine did not match any of them, they are much more blue in color. Now I want a frag of yours so I can look at them side by side. Oh and Jamokie01, according to Julian Sprung's "Corals", Cespitularia may pulse. If any of you would like to trade a frag of yours so I could compare and share the pics I have a few nice corals you may like. Take care.

 

[apex003]

Reefmonger's got it right. The other 2 specimens I don't believe are cespitularia. On cespitularia, in parallel incident lighting (e.g. flashlight) the stalks will be blue and the polyps are gold. In perpendicular incident light (e.g. tank lights) it has a faint blue coloration.