This normal? Xenia

[Gdbyrd]

I pulled out all my powerheads, heaters, etc today and scrubbed everything down. When I put the pumps back in the tank, I couldn't get them positioned the way I had them. Now my xenia is really wilted. It's basically fallen over to the side and looks awful. Everything else in the tank looks great.

I've always noticed that when I turned off one of my pumps and the flow changed, it would start to fold in on itself...but I've never seen this before.

Wondering if this is normal or if it's going...Is there anything I can do to help it out?

 

[yote]

Xenia is one of those corals that's either going to love when something changes in the tank,or their gonna hate it.They'er just picky for some reason.
Just give em some time and see how they do.

 

[dcantucson]

I agree with yote, but I would add that if for some reason they should fail, then be grateful. They are the weed of the aquaria world. Gottta love 'em and hate 'em!

 

[Melosu58]

What did you clean your equipment off with?

 

[Gdbyrd]

What did you clean your equipment off with?

Tap water and a new toothbrush. I then rinsed them in RO/DI water and let everything soak in a fresh batch of saltwater for about 30 minutes before it went to the tank.

It continued to look like crap for a day or so. I unplugged the rear powerhead and with just one on in the tank it perked right back up. I'm considering ditching the sureflow modded pump and start using two normal MJ 1200's in it's place. With my tank being a tall...there's no real use for a super high flowing pump.

I know they're considered a weed, but it's pretty..the way it pulses. And not sure how they're supposed to do, but mine hasn't changed much at all in the past 3 or so months I've had it. I would have figured they would be growing everywhere by now.

 

[dcantucson]

I love the pulsing motion of Xenia too. Mine took about 3-4 months before it took off. Now I have to thin it out about once every two weeks.

 

[Gdbyrd]

I love the pulsing motion of Xenia too. Mine took about 3-4 months before it took off. Now I have to thin it out about once every two weeks.

I'm trying to find some of different colors. I think it'd look good to have a nice mix, but it's really hard to find locally. Hell, I paid almost 40$ for a single head : /

Do you just pull yours out? The way my rocks are kinda stacked...I'm very hesitant to jerk and jab on mine...If I ever do have this problem, I'm hoping it's an option to cut them at the base with an xacto knife.

 

[daugherty]

i have a shit load of xenia. when i take some out to sell to the lfs i just grab the base and pull it will come off the rock.

 

[Gdbyrd]

I really want mine to grow out more, but I really do not want it to become a huge problem. It'll be interesting to see how it does over the next few months...see if it picks up like you guys did.

Hey James, how much do you get for yours at your LFS?

 

[daugherty]

i sell mine for 6 bucks a frag and they sell it or 12

 

[Gdbyrd]

Grumble grumble. I'm just going to assume my LFS sells it for more because we're a good 4 hours from anything. 12 bucks could buy me....two turbo snails, lol.

When you yank yours off, do you just take it in a baggy to them? Or do you let it attach itself to something then take it in?

I picked up a huge bucketful of small shells chunks last time I was at the beach to place around my Xenia if it ever starts growing. That way I can just pull the little pieces out and give them to my dad or craigslist them.

 

[daugherty]

i pull it off and seew it on rock rubble with fishing line

 

[Gdbyrd]

i pull it off and seew it on rock rubble with fishing line

Do you drive the line in between it? Like with a needle and thread? I think Biff was saying you can do that with leathers in another thread.

 

[dcantucson]

I believe you do.

 

[daugherty]

i run the needle right through the base of it throught the meat of the coral

 

[Bifferwine]

I use to farm xenia in my 240. I had about 4 square feet of the stuff at its worst!

I'd cut them off with razor blades, then dump them in a tupperware container with a layer of rock rubble at the bottom and let the xenia attach on their own.

 

[dcantucson]

Biff did you trade it to SW Saltwater? If so I probably ended up with some of yours at one time. :lol:

 

[Bifferwine]

Yeah, I took them there. I got a couple decent mushroom rocks as trades. But my thinking now is that unless I can give them a dedicated tank, it's not worth trying to farm them. They just take over everything so quickly.

 

[Gdbyrd]

Yeah, I took them there. I got a couple decent mushroom rocks as trades. But my thinking now is that unless I can give them a dedicated tank, it's not worth trying to farm them. They just take over everything so quickly.

That would be interesting looking. If you had a lot of your aquascape sticking out, could look really neat.

That's discouraging though. Hopefully mine won't do that. I'm surprised they're considered pests. Mine do not do well with any changes in the tank. Even when I do my water changes they shrivel up and don'tt come back out for awhile.

 

[Bifferwine]

They're one of the reasons why I ended up having to boil all my live rock when I moved. Between the kenya trees, xenia and majano, no other corals stood a chance. They were all killed off.

Sometimes they don't act as pests. It seems to vary from tank to tank. In my old 55 gallon tank, I could not keep xenia to save my life.