Xenia Dying

[fatdaddy]

I had my Xenia growing fine in my QT for a week. it just has CF lighting.

I then moved it to my display tank after acclimation and the xenia is dying. After a day of looking fine, the first frag shriveled up, turned grey, and appears to have died. Then the second frag started on the same course.

I moved it back to my QT tank for now, but what's up?

Could it be the MH lighting is too strong for it?

I used water from the tank to setup the QT, so I don't think it's anything inside of the tank unless the fish or a crab is bothering it.

I suspected my star fish, but I moved them to another tank after my last batch of xenia died under mysterious circumstances.

Frustrating. I thought Xenia grew like weeds.

 

[Whisperer]

Enigma. Some people (me included) can keep them without any special attention and they spread like wildfire. Others just can't keep them alive. My Xenia had gone through a very low pH (from my mistake of believing a whacked pH meter), very warm water 89-90 F, etc. Still, they are attacheing to anything they touch. Even saw another way of movement wherein the base rotted and the top floated and settled on a dead snail shell!

 

[fatdaddy]

I had a jade plant that I couldn't seem to grow from shoots. I tried everything, and I finally got it to grow. Now, I can through a leaf in a pot of soil and water. It will grow. Not sure why I had problems earlier, but I did.

It's probably the same thing. I'm thinking that it's either too much light or kalkwasser additions. Not sure.

 

[mayor10]

I agree with Whisperer. Xenia is an enigma. When I first put some in my tank it started to spread rapidly. I was getting worried I would get overrun with it. Then one day, months later, one of them looked shriveled, then another...soon all had died off.

My water parameters were consistent the whole time, I hadn't changed anything, and nothing else in the tank was affected.

It's a mystery. I'm sure there was a reason, but I couldn't figure it out.

 

[cdangel0]

It probaby is in shock from the drastic change in lighting. You need to acclimate to stronger light just as you would from one tank to another, i.e. slowly. There is a HUGE jump from CF light to MH light.

You may want to move the Xenia to the bottom of the tank and slowly bring it higher over the next few weeks.

 

[ahullsb]

Light shouldn't be the problem. Mine wouldn't grow for months....then I bought mh's. Now it is growing across my tank and I am constantly cutting it back.

 

[hyperfocal]

If there is one thing that is worse than having *no success* growing Xenia, it's having *success* growing Xenia. It may not feel like it right now, but you're better off imo ;-)

 

[AJPACINO]

Very Well Put Hyperfocal,

 

[fatdaddy]

I'm a glutton for punishment. It looks like the second frag is going to die as well, so I ordered another batch to torture. I'll put it on two different rocks this time, so I'll double my changes.

I think I did sun burn it. Next time, it's going at the bottom of the tank in a dark corner.

 

[papagimp]

fwiw, I have kept pom pom xenia and the taller stalked variety in a multitude of setups with all different types of lighting from MH, T5's, to N.O. tubes and all have done great. There was a recent Tropical Fish Hobbyist magazine that had a great article about xenia and other pulsing corals, one aspect they went into was the dreaded "xenia crash". Which none have narrowed down exactly what causes this to happen but it does occasionally happen. When the stuff is doing fine, it will grow like weeds, but when something "triggers" a crash, it'll go quickly, and with any luck, the small bits left over will recolonize for you. I have had a xenia crash recently, lost almost a square foot of xenia on one rock and now left with a handful of polyps pulsing away like everything is just peachy. They are doing fabulously right now, and as of last night, tank is still sitting with about 1.5ppm ammonia, 1.0ppm nitrite, PH 7.6-7.8, ALk 7dKH, Ca 420ppm. Nitrates....lets not even go into how high those are!. All this and the xenia that pulled through is spreading just as quickly as ever. Goes to show that water quality can vary quite a bit and still xenia can flourish.

(just for the record, I'm well aware of having corals in a tank with water quality like this, it's a problem I've been fighting for a few months now, thank god for PRIME, stuff has kept a 55g fully stocked alive for well beyond what should have killed it all off long ago)

 

[papagimp]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10165418#post10165418 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by fatdaddy
I'm a glutton for punishment. It looks like the second frag is going to die as well, so I ordered another batch to torture. I'll put it on two different rocks this time, so I'll double my changes.

I think I did sun burn it. Next time, it's going at the bottom of the tank in a dark corner.

re-read the last post I put up here, and consider this, my xenia right now, doing great, is sitting furthest to the top of the tank than any other coral, sps included. 4 x 54w T5's, and they did just as good in the same spot when I was running 6 bulbs instead. Ya just never know.

 

[plummike]

Xenia is fickled. The grow like crazy then sort of stop. I have noticed that they do not like strong flow. It causes them not to be able to eat. I actually use that info to control mine. A properly placed power head will stop them from spreading.
What do you feed yours? I mostly feed Cyclo or Phyto.
Are your Nitrates OK? a die off can cause or be caused by high levels.
I have MH lighting and they try to crawl up the tank walls to get closer so that probley isn't the problem.
I also add a touch of Iodine to help keep them healthy. Not much, I add less than half the recommended dosage and 3-4 days after my water change.

 

[hyperfocal]

From what I've read, Xenia don't actually have mouths -- they feed on nutrients in the water column... some people actually use a Xenia-laden 'fuge as a nitrate-reducer (just harvesting Xenia as one would Chaeto to export the nitrogen).

If you're feeding phyto just for the Xenia, you're probably just adding phosphates to the tank.

 

[papagimp]

I agree hyperfocal, no prominate reserach showing xenia as actually feeding. They do however absorbe from the water column and utilize the light for nutrients, I never add anything for my xenia to eat on, and have had them in very high flow and very low flow. They pulse more for me when in lower flow, but even the colony in the higher flow area's spread and grow just fine.

fwiw, using xenia as a means for nutrient exportation is far less efficient than using cheato or caulepra macro algae. It'll work, just not as well.

plumike made a good comment about them growing up the glass towards his MH's, I just recnelty managed to get the xenia off my back glass, got about 15 frags from it or so.

 

[fatdaddy]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10165498#post10165498 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by plummike
What do you feed yours?

I don't have anything to play with at the moment. Give me a week. I was putting phyto in the water for the clams I also bought. I still haven't put them in the display tank.

 

[hyperfocal]

Papagimp, yes you are certainly right about the relative efficiency of macroalgae vs xenia as a nutrient export -- the faster something grows, the more nutrients it is pulling out. Mangroves?

 

[papagimp]

Now if you had a very large "refugium" that you could mass produce xenia, enough to make noticable decreases in nutrients, as well as all the frags you could possibly want to sell, then I could see it as plus.

 

[fatdaddy]

My Xenia is coming back to life! I put the LR back in the QT tank, and it took a few days to have a few polyps pulsing again.

Whew! Hey, if it's happy, I'm not going to mess with it.