Xenia Care

[jwblocal701]

mine are now about 2 weeks old and split already I add Bionic 2 part additive daily iodine weekly and green water daily
I have no skimmer and there pumping good ill see how they last
I do know they are filter feeders so green water (plankton) is necessary or they will starve

 

[lildraken]

Okay, so my xenia are dead so i have no leg to stand on, but I've read that xenia have no digestive system and are not filter feeders. Are there any people that are successful with xenia that DO have a protien skimmer? Otherwise i might just have to move my skimmer to my FO aquarium. Everyone's input it so wonderful! thank you guys

Biggie, I also read that Xenia colonies "crash" for unknown reasons. You can prevent that by keeping more than one species together in the aquarium. I don't know from personal experience, but I read that on the GARF website.

 

[lildraken]

Sorry, didn't mean to Jack the thread-- if I did.

 

[Gary Majchrzak]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8185902#post8185902 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by lildraken
Are there any people that are successful with xenia that DO have a protien skimmer?

:wavehand:

 

[fsn77]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8186927#post8186927 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Gary Majchrzak
:wavehand:

Me, too. We don't have the best skimmer, so that may have something to do with it.

Otherwise, weekly water changes, keeping up with water parameters (pH, alk, Ca), dosing iodine weekly, and moderate flow are what has worked for me so far. I started with a piece about 4 months ago shorter than my pinky finger and have been fragging it for a couple of friends and will start fragging it for the LFS soon enough, all just to keep it under control. I do have another Xeniid in the tank, which might be helping like the GARF website states.

 

[CraigG]

We couldn't keep Xenia at all before when we first started our tank, about a year later we tried getting a piece again (We also had a PS this time) and it grows like crazy. About a week ago I trimmed a bunch of it away and every spot I cut already has new polyps that are out and pulsing.

The old ones are growing like crazy over some rubble for store credits.

 

[lildraken]

I managed to frag 3-5 individual polyps from the main head of xenia before it died. I'm changing some of my water parameters slowly to see if they do any better. my salinity had always been 1.022- 1.023 because the Instant Ocean hydrometer marked that area in red to indicate that is ideal.
According to RC, salt water should be 1.025-1.026. grr. this is frustrating. Xeniids are supposed to be the easy coral to keep and i they croak on me in a few months!

 

[reefbuzz]

I have zenia with a good, adequately sized skimmer but feed heavily. Threy are still growing but I take care to keep water parameters stable though. Nirates test zero but they could be locked up in chaeto fuge.