Xenia Collapse?

[bigworm175]

Does anyone know why xenia colonies collapse? I had it growing like weeds and then it just started withering and it's completely gone from my 120. I have some that were on a rock I put in my nano as the colonies were shrinking. They are now taking over my nano so it must not have been a disease but something with the water.

Any ideas?

 

[Reefman29]

I have heard of xenia colonies just collapsing for no apparent reason. Did you change anything in tank? Light and chemicals? Any chance you used a chemical outside the tank that got into the water?

 

[bigworm175]

Not that I know of. I didn't change anything. Something may have gotten into the water without me knowing? Any specific chemicals or lack of a trace element known to cause this? I'm stumped.

 

[Reefman29]

I'm not too familiar with it either. I have xenia now and haven't had a problem yet with it. Specific chemicals... no not really. Do you have other corals in the tank? Fish or inverts? Has anything showed changes recently?

 

[bigworm175]

This was awhile ago. It grew like crazy for about 1 1/2 years. I have a mixed reef and several fish but the crash doesn't coincide with any additions I would think harmful. Just a couple SPS frags about a month before. Maybe something came in with the frags? I'm always more worried about my softies damaging my SPS than the other way around but I guess it's possible. I've heard of xenia crashes before too but I've never heard a definitive reason for it.

 

[Reefman29]

Off topic here some, but I think sps can have polyp bailout. Again another random thing that doesn't always have a definitive cause. Do you have any LPS that could have stung the xenia?

 

[ashtree68]

Xenia, IME, just does this sometimes, I had it EVERYWHERE in one of my tanks, then for no apparent reason it all melted and went away, didn't change anything, everything tested the same as it had been. A couple stalks made it and were growing crazy again, I think it just comes and goes. Think lemmings and the cliff jumping that they do.

 

[thebanker]

I wonder why this happens. I had a total zoanthid crash a month ago, SPS and xenia both growing like crazy. Who knows.

 

[schwa6970]

Xenia problems

Xenia problems

In my experience Xenia will shrivel and disappear if your water is too clean it likes cruddy water quality.
I have never had luck with it when in a sps system but in a softy tank they should do pretty good. Try turning your skimmer off for a couple days and see if this helps if so then you have nailed your problem.
hope this helps

 

[bigworm175]

Well, the xenia that was transferred to the nano actually has a little better water quality as far as nitrates and phosphates than the 120 because I have to be so diligent about keeping on top of the parameters due to it's small water volume. I guess we really just don't know much about this coral. Have they even figured out exactly why they pulse yet?

 

[thebanker]

Gas exchange is my thought. They devote a lot of energy to it, so it must be a vital function.

It's possible that they crash in closed systems as mother nature's way of resetting the clock on a massive colony of genetic clones. I wonder what resource they're using.

 

[180+55reef]

I think they are very sensitive to salinity,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

 

[bigworm175]

So maybe low salinity could cause a crash? Is this personal experience or did you read that somewhere because now that you mention it my salinity did drop to 1.022 at one point due to my skimmer skimming extremely wet for a few days without me noticing and the top off dropped the salinity. I'm not sure if it coincides with the crash though. Interesting.

 

[mike_cmu04]

Also if you are not as good with water changes in the 120 maybe they are using up the trace elements they need and are causing them to crash

 

[waldomas]

It seems to me as well that they prefer the water quality to be not so clean.

Something else I noticed is that they tend to "melt away" after prolonged spikes in temperature.

 

[sjmantis]

Im my experience of having xenia over the past six months I have noticed that flow also plays a lot of importance with it. The best place it has flourished in my tank is actually laying on the sand with very little flow.

 

[thebanker]

What kind of xenia were you keeping? The pink pulsing type I've kept only likes to "walk" to the highest point it can... and will do so at any opportunity.

 

[bassplaya12]

that salinity drop probably didn't help too much. I read that xenia's like fairly high salinity (like 1.028 or something crazy)

 

[ashtree68]

Im my experience of having xenia over the past six months I have noticed that flow also plays a lot of importance with it. The best place it has flourished in my tank is actually laying on the sand with very little flow.

Mine was the exact opposite, it melted down on my sand bed with little flow, but got huge when it was being hit by a good amount of flow.

 

[greg123123]

the lfs in my town had a nice xenia colonin and it all died of beause the tank got a littile waemer than usaual but all his other corals and anenomes are fine. so i think they are sensitive to temp.