striped pulsing xenia advice

[foma2000]

so i have had a nice looking soft coral that came with my live rock. its been doing very well. gotten at least twice as big of a colony as when i got it. and i just found out today that it was striped pulsing xenia(although ive never seen it pulse). so far i has just been spreading on the rock, and not up on a stalk. it also doesn't seem to grow taller then about 2 or three centimeters. i was wondering if this is all normal for striped xenia. i was also hoping to propagate them and was wondering how much they usualy sell for at the store.

 

[phases99]

How long have you had them? I have a few baby Xenia that have popped up from where I fragged, they around 1" or so tall after a few months. My older one's are a good 6-8" when fully expanded.

 

[foma2000]

ive had them for about 3 months now. although theve gone through 3 tank moves/reconstructions so theve never really had time to expand. and my calcium levels were really low. i just added a kalk water drip so hopping that will help them grow.

 

[Jason]

I had some xenia in my tank until a LTA stung it, killed it, and the crabs picked the rock clean. That was about 1 month ago, now I have xenia in my tank again.... 4 1/2" stalks. that stuff is crazy!!!!!!

I've also heard that iodine makes them pulse.

Oh and to answer your question, they sell it for like 39.99 around here for some pretty big pieces of it. I figure if you could get 3 stalks that are about 2 or 3 inches they might give you $20 for it HTH.

 

[austinsdad]

I get $8 for each frag, usually consisting of an index finger sized trunk w/3 or 4 branches from it. 'Bout 2" tall.

The LFS sells that for $25.

Reef Central has some good info on propogating xenia for profit. Not something billed as a huge money maker, but a way to offset tank expenses.

I started with a singel $25 frag about 9 or 10 months ago. I must've sold and given away about 30 pcs with no additional effort and PC lighting at abut 3.1w per gallon.

'Bout to set up a 40g tank with 230 MHs to do more focused xenia farming.

 

[foma2000]

sweet. i hope it will grow bigger. i think i need to get some more light. i dont have very much right now