Pulsing Xenia coral

[shpanski]

Hi, i need some help, i have a Xenia (pulse coral) in a 2 month old set up. Its been very happy for a month but got home tonight and it look almost dead, all limp hardly a pulse and even some arms fell off when gently fanned! Whats wrong with the little fellow and what can i do to help???? Just done a 10% water change. Please get back ASAP!

[Rob]

what size is your tank, what are your current water parameters
(nitrate, nitrite, ammonia, PH, etc... actual numbers)

have you added any livestock or additives recently?

[CarmieJo]

Hi shpanski and :welcome: to TR.

Sometimes my anemone bends over and stings the xenia which is on the same rock.

[wakbrdfr]

What is the water temp at?

[iglowce]

happened to mine a couple months ago.

i asked around and was told xenia is hit-or-miss species. so i guess i just have to try it again =\

[wakbrdfr]

I have had great success with xenia, it is becoming almost a nuisance in the fact that it is spreading all over my tank. So I am interested to see what your water parameters and temp are at?

I have found that if my tank goes anywhere under 77 degs. that the xenia start looking bad. Happened one day, I noticed and got my temp back up and they were fine.

[shpanski]

Well it is dead, almost!! The water is good, Nitrite 0, Nitrate 10, PH 8.2, Alkalinity Normal, Ammonia 0, Calcium 400, temp 26C (80F). The arms have just about fallen off and is just about seen the end of days. Its in a 58 litre nano tank, with sulpher goby, 2 x damsels, shrimps, hermits, snails. where did i go wrong? It was next to a pussy coral, i have been told it was because they were to close and was stung but they pussy coral, true?

[CarmieJo]

What does the base look like? Even though mine gets stung by the BTA the base seems to stay intact and it regenerates in a couple of days.

[wwest]

When i had xenia i noticed that they didn't like 80 degrees, however xenia is the only thing i can't grow in my tank lol. so i gave up :)

Also welcome to TR :)

[rmulet]

I have a pulsing Xenia disintegrate on me when I had a crash. I scraped off what I could and noticed a couple of weeks later little hands starting to form on that same patch. Now it's grown to a nice size and moved over to a rock that is high on the plateau. I was truly amazed on how it grew back from nothing. I also saw a posting on another site saying when they are stressed, the hands will separate from the stalk and grow on another location. I think this is a survival thing with them. If I can find where I saw that, I will post it for you.
-Ralph

[JayBeDriften]

[quote=wakbrdfr;49272]I have had great success with xenia, it is becoming almost a nuisance in the fact that it is spreading all over my tank. quote]

Would you be interested in shipping some of the nuisance frags over to me? Just let me know the cost.

[wildeone]

I had a some yellow polyps that wwest gave me, they spread too close to my little pulsiong xenia and it died. I learned a good lesson, never get corals from wwest :). Actually it was just a small patch of my large amount of xenia. Some corals can be so competative!

[saxman]

Xenia don't appreciate high temps, and once they hit 82*F, they literally melt. i typically run my reef at 76*F, but lost my Xenia when the temp spiked on me.

most of the folks i know that are super successful with Xenia tell me they seem to thrive on "neglect", others say they appreciate iodine dosing (which i'd test for if you go that route).

additionally, i'd say a 2 month old tank might not be mature enuff to support Xenia very well.

[wakbrdfr]

I disagree with the high temps, had mine around the temp and no affect, might be a high temp mix with other water parameters issues.

The iodine helps to dose been doing that for about two years, works great.

Placed my xenia's in at about 2-1/2 months one of the first things in my tank other than fish, and have thrived like the plaque.

[Seahorsedreams]

I too agree that they don't liek high temps. You are always going to get a specimen that doesn't jmind it but for the most part they don't do so well.... for those of you looking into xenia and have a "warmish" tank.

They are very hardy creatures when acclimated but can be difficult to acclimate. There are many different speculated reasons as to what makes these guys pump. They pump water faster when the water is "cleaner" to move more water past their polps. When the water is heavy in nutrients they don't need to pass as much water by their polyps.

They like a 8.3 pH

And they do like light. Low light doesn't always provide them with what they need. But if you get a specimen who acclimates well to your tank they seem to get use to anything.... even low light. But you have to think of what kind of light they came from before they reached your tank, sometimes it is hard for them to get over the change.

Xenia are a weed-like...... they try to smother their competition. They should be growing like crazy in an ideal environment. (and as I said every xenias ideal can be a little different according to what environment they came from and how they were able to adapt to the new one). If they aren't growing like crazy they are not in an ideal environment but are able to be sustained.

If you are bending towards supplementing with iodine, try more frequent water changes first. That should get your levels up to where you need them without the added risk of dosing.

What other corals are in your tank?

[wakbrdfr]

Leather, green star polyp, monitpora, various acros, some zoas, and hammer coral. Also if you get a chance, could you respond to my email I sent you about seahorses or just head me in the right direction.Thanks!

[Seahorsedreams]

Oh ya... I guarantee there's allelopathy going on in your tank. Very common in a mixed garden reef.... otherwise known as chemical warfare. It might not save the xenia because there could be any number of things going on, but your tank would be even happier if you did a couple of things to help with the War of the Roses going on.

Water changes are always on the top of the list. Dilution is golden.
Adding carbon will help remove chemicals from the water.
Placement is essential. Don't have the leather or the GSP "upstream". They are 2 of the worse offenders of this.

When did ya send the email?

[wakbrdfr]

I currently have everything well spread out and everything in my tank is doing very well! The only one that is upstream is the GSP. What will happen with the GSP upstream?

I sent it about a week or two ago. If you didn't get it, I just wanted to know all the basis of hosting seahorses. I have another tank that would be good for it. If you can help me out that would be great,Thanks!

[petunia]

i've heard... that the green star polyps are one of the most toxic polyps. they need to be kept downstream of eveything.
has anyone else heard this?

[Seahorsedreams]

i've heard... that the green star polyps are one of the most toxic polyps. they need to be kept downstream of eveything.
has anyone else heard this?

LOL... yup :-) Look above. (or below)


Don't have the leather or the GSP "upstream". They are 2 of the worse offenders of this.

[Seahorsedreams]

I sent it about a week or two ago. If you didn't get it, I just wanted to know all the basis of hosting seahorses. I have another tank that would be good for it. If you can help me out that would be great,Thanks!

Now I think I remember reading this. Lemme clean a few things off my plate and I'll get the 411 to ya :-)

The GSP could be ticking off the xenia... or not. It's one of those things that is difficult to tell.

[wakbrdfr]

Yeah, I don't know the GSP has been upstream for some time now and the xenia are still thriving like a weed.

Sounds good on the 411, my wife is getting excited to do the whole thing! Thanks again!

[andy.thompson12]

Oh my gosh! I have been trying to figure out for months why my Xenia won't pulse...let alone extend. I have read EVERYWHERE that they only like a PH of 8.3, which of course is my PH most of the time. I couldn't figure it out until I read this thread...I looked over at my tank and my colony of Green Star Polyps are up top right next to the Xenias. THANK YOU SOOO MUCH!

[rayme07]

Hi Andy Welcome to TR.

I am glad you found out what you were looking for I hope your Xenia gets better. :)

[CarmieJo]

Hi Andy and :welcome: to TR!