dying pulasating xenia

[drdre]

just got a frag of pulsating xenia, and it is struggling. I have a bubble tip anenome, bubble coral, frogspawn, hammer coral, polyps, mushrooms and a gorgonian, that are all doing well. But the Xenia is having a hard time . I started it off at the top of the tank. 55g with 2 110 vhos. after day one it is not looking good so i have moved it down to mid level. Any suggestions.

 

[AMANIQU77]

What are your water parameters? Do you add iodine, strontium, and molybdenum?

I just bought my Xenias two weeks ago. I have a 55G 4ft tank with (a) Bubble Coral, (b) Green Star Polyp (the waving kind), (c) shrooms, (d) finger leather frag, and (e) Kenya tree. I have a CUSA Orbit 4x65W Actinic/Daylight PC fixture. I have two HOB powerfilters and a Prizm skimmer.

The xenia came from a metal halide display tank at an LFS. I drip acclimated it. Then I placed it low in the tank while it was on actinics. It was retracted at first. But now, man, that thing is rockin'. It's the thin-tentacled kind. not the thick-ultra pulsating diamond looking tentacles. And the thin tentacled ones don't pulsate as much. But boy, that thing was pulsating after a few days. Normally at night.

Give it a day or two more to see whether it will acclimate with your light. Make sure that water current is present for it.

Try to feed the tank with phytoplankton. See if it would start pulsating to feed.

However, before you start adding stuff, test your parameters and make sure you have a good one first. I am pretty sure you do if you have kept your other specimen for a while now.

Good luck.

 

[drdre]

thanks

 

[Brenden]

Check Iodine levels. IME the pulsing has to do with light and flow not feeding.

 

[austinsdad]

How is the flow on the xenia? I have seen folks with otherwise, seemingly healthy tanks yet not be succesful with xenia. Then others can't seem to control its growth. Mine did best in medium and even heavy flow areas for some reason. Had the stuff growing on a snail. Let us know what it looks like in a day or two.

 

[Mghslowell]

having the same problem here ,

55g with DSB 4 x 65w PC 3 powerheads current. 80lbs fiji lr shrooms, polyps. salinity 1.024 just getting over an ich infiltration tank is now running without fish for 2 days now. i got a frag of xenia from a friend, the first day and 2 is was good but now its dying been dying for about a month. its midlevel with the tank. the tank is came out of same lights ect.

ammonia 0.00
nitrite 0.00
ph 8.2
nitrate .0 - 0.05
salinity 1.024
cpr bakpak2 reef ready skimmer 24/7 run time



i do use mark wiesse Combo Vital once a day usualy an hour before the lights go out.


so i should add iodide?

 

[austinsdad]

Xenia is weird IMO. Although my salinity was nearer to 1.021 when mine was thriving. I'd also be careful with iodine dosing and would rely more on water changes.

Drdre, I would try different flow areas to see it it reacts differently too. It's a mystery coral IMO. Others in the tank doing fine, enuf light, but it doesn't do well in all tanks. Check garf.org for a decent writeup on xenia gorwth and propogation. Might find some helpful hints there.

 

[cmor1701d]

Xenia is truly weird. I got a few frags that soon threatened to take over half my tank. It then seemed to crash and die back. It's now growing again. I have changed my salt brand, but everything else is the same in the tank. Could be a difference in the trace elements of the salt mix...?

 

[JG]

They are supposed to dislike a lower pH. When mine stop pulsing... it is time to check pH.

I also found that mine really did not like being next to the button polyp colony. I thought that I was going to lose them until I moved them away from the polyps .

 

[austinsdad]

Drdre - how is the xenia doing? What have you tried differently since you last posted?