God*@%! Xenia

[reefhope]

Well I thought I would give xenia another shot in my 46gal reef. First xenia I had was overtaken by aiptasia. Now that I have a hold on that I bought a new xenia last Monday, appeared quite healthy and was rather large.

Perked right up in my tank expanding and pumping nicely, same thing on Tuesday and right through Friday....After lights out on Friday I noticed it wilting(wasn't real concerned due to lights out). Saturday afternoon lights on it appears to be struggling to stand upright...getting worried. Sunday noticed white spot on trunk about 1/2" in diameter, xenia struggling terribly, barely pulsing, can't stand upright. I gave it an iodine dip but I don't think it has helped. I think its a goner god&*#&*it!

I must have a bacteria in my water that the xenia couldn't defeat although all other corals are doing fine - polyps, zooanthids, scleronepthya, sarco, sinularia, shrooms. Anyone have any idea why xenia would crash so quickly? ammonia-0-, nitrite-0-, nitrate < 10, alk 3.2, ph 8.4, calcium 400, 110Watt pc(1 daylight, 1 50/50)+ 20watt blue actinic. I add strontium, lugol iodine, seachem reefbuilder and turbo calcium. Thanks for responses...

 

[pathos]

lately I have noticed my xenia are thinning out a bit. the other night i stayed up late to use the flashlight and see what was happening in there. I caught my peppermint shrimp near the xenia and I believe he may be the culprit. do you by chance have any shrimps and/or crabs in your tank? they may have something to do with it.

sorry to hear that...

 

[reefhope]

Actually yes I do. A peppermint for aiptasia control, a cleaner shrimp, and an emerald crab that I know of. Have you noticed any spots on the stalks which resemble open sores?

 

[pathos]

reefhope,
i'm afraid we're both in the same boat on this one. i'm not positive but my suspicion is that those open sores are from where the shrimp or crab (shrimp I believe) has taken a chunk out of your xenia. when xenias "melt" they melt a lot like butter does (had a galaxea get too close to some one time). that reminds me - are any other corals near the xenia? it is possible that something is stinging them. are the open sores well defined with sharp edges? if so i'm willing to bet those are the marks from something eating it, probably your peppermint shrimp. i'm beginning to think that peppermints may not be so innocent (they do eat aptasia - xenia's aren't all that much different). since now all of my aptasias are gone, i have increased my feeding to the shrimps to prevent them from scavenging my xenia's until I can remove them from the reef and banish them to the sump.

 

[fishfarmer]

You may have inadequate light for xenia. Do you place it high up in the tank? When I was running a 175 watt MH on my 38 gal, xenia only did great directly under the bulb, while the lower light areas could barely support it. I have a pair of peppermint shrimp in my tank, they don't touch my xenia. My other guesses are another coral might be stinging it or you have a wild colony that is having difficulty living in captivity.

 

[Ritteri&amp;Bubbles]

Xenia are VERY SENSITIVE to good water quality, and with all those chemicals you add, you sure arent helping them out any. The lighting may also be an issue, but not that quickly. If your xenia arent flourishing it may mean your saltwater is out of balance. I would do a few 25% water changes to get rid of all those chemicals. I bet your xenia perk up a bit too! When ever my xenia look a bit "depressed" I do a 25% water change, the next day they look good as new! I use em as my guide for when its time for water changes and it works great. Hope this helps you out. And BTW stay away from the chemicals, cept for the calcium and Alk buffer.

 

[pathos]

sorry to jump on your thread reefhope (hope you don't mind), but has anyone else had any experience with critters eating their xenia? i'm thinking it is my peppermint (or camelback [ahhh]?) but don't want to punish an innocent critter. can anyone else comment on peppermint shrimp feasting on xenia?

 

[Carpentersreef]

I have banished all my Pshrimp to my refugium, as they took out a maxima and were honing in on my GOB. I've since learned that they are not considered reef safe. If they are kept well fed, they may be fine, but for me, it was too big of a risk.

Mitch

 

[Powder Blue]

Xenia may like natural sunlight. my tank is right in front of a window and I have 55 watts 6700k pc over a 29 gal tank with bak pak. and that's it. no additives, preservatives, just 1-2 gal weekly water change, with addition of buffered make up water. I do have clowns, LR and other softies too. My xenia has been growing like weed for a little over a year now, grows all over the place, even on back glass.

 

[Psyduck]

Reefhope:

Where are you in Michigan? I have more xenia than I know what to do with and would be happy to give you some more to try once we figure out possible issues. I'm not sure why my xenia took off so much in my tank but I hate the stuff and never would buy it again due to the fact that it basically took over the tank. I did move a few pieces into a 20 gal with less light and a good portion of it died. However, I also gave some to my dad for his trigger/fish only tank which only has NO fluorescent lights, and at last report it was doing fine. Not spreading like a weed, but not dead either. And let me tell you I do NOTHING special with my tank, I'm quite lazy and have never been good at doing water changes etc. I doubt I have good water quality, even though I do not have an algae bloom. Really no additives, except that I used to use B-ionic, and now I have a Ca reactor. I wish I could help you more, but if you are in the Western Detroit Metro area I can hook you up with some more xenia.

 

[Dawlfandav]

I had a bunch of hermits. BLue legged ones. At least I thought until I saw a brown legged one eating my xenia. I took him back to the lfs.

 

[davelin315]

I agree with the person who said xenia are very sensitive, however, it's usually hit or miss with them. A lot of the time you will have xenia and no matter what you do, they will fade away. However, I disagree that you need to stop adding the chemicals. I dose strontium, molybdenum, iodine, coral-vite, and kalk into my tank, and my xenia are like weeds. You might have a culprit eating them, but that shouldn't matter unless it's an urchin, which will mow them down and leave nothing. I have xenia overgrowing my tank (they've killed off a clam from overgrowing it and blocking the light) and besides taking them out and throwing them in a basement pond I have, there's no other way for me to get rid of them. I have a few fish that have been eating the heads off of them, but they always grow back (mostly a yellow tailed damsel that has decided it's a daily part of her spawning routine and her mate). In fact, when I take the xenia out, I don't cut them, I just tear them out and any little pieces of flesh that are left behind inevitably grow into new "weeds". One problem you might be having is that a lot of corals will release things into the water to kill off the competition, and xenia can be very susceptible to that. Also, xenia dump a lot of waste into your tank as well, adding to water quality problems. I would suggest trying out some carbon filtration and maybe a resin or two to polish your water, and see how they do. The hole is probably from somebody eating at it unless it's oozing, in which case it's probably dying off because of the water, but like I said before, it's very resilient when it's healthy, and having a few holes chewed in it shouldn't affect it too much unless the entire thing gets eaten (even then, individual polyp heads are growing out of my substrate as leftover meal scraps).

 

[reefhope]

Psyduck

thanks for the comment, I'm about 1hr+ east of Ann Arbor (macomb township) - I would definitely be willing to drive to give xenia one more shot.

From the posts I see 2 possible causes (1)predator (shrimp or crab) or (2)water quality.

You can see my current water parameters on my first post + I used to run an activated carbon/water polisher but have switched to just activated carbon (cheaper and probably just as good) 3 days or so per month. When I began the hobby 18mos ago I did use tapwater treated with amquel and would run my change water through a brita filter until I discovered the "phosphate dilemma". I have switched to ro/di water and have successfully brought po4 to .2 or less, negligible IMO. I am a bit low regarding lighting but all other corals in tank flourish under it and I don't think low light would cause the drastic downfall i have observed.....this leads me to believe a critter injured the xenia opening it up to whatever bacteria resides in a closed system.

Perhaps I'll peek in after lights out to see if anything comes out to munch. In the meantime I may set up another tank(actually to cultivate LS to replace the substrate in my tank)and try the xenia isolated from potential predators. I can use water from my main tank-this should clarify whether the problem is water-quality related. Thanks for the posts everyone and wish me luck.

 

[Psyduck]

Actually change that location (I need to do this on all my things now), I moved to Livonia so I may be closer yet to you. Once I get my tank re-setup, we can figure out a way to get you some xenia if your stuff doesnt make it. Again I'm not so sure on the water "quality". I'm thinking that, and lighting, are not as important as everyone thinks. I think part of it is water movement, and another part is pure random luck

.

 

[reefhope]

Psyduck,

Livonia, great, that is closer - probably within an hour of me.

email me when you get [email protected] from the looks of the xenia this morning it would be UNBELIEVABLE if it, or any portion of it, comes back. Thanks again.

 

[reefhope]

Just thought I would keep people posted. Something is DEFINITELY eating the xenia although I haven't caught the culprit yet.

Checked this morning to find a portion of the stalk chewed away - I will post when/if I discover who is munching at night.

 

[cindywennin]

reefhope: do you have hermits? I had blue legs and caught them munching on my daisy polyps. Come to think of it, I had Xenia at the time also and figured it disappeared because of me, something I did or did not do at the time. Never thought about the tie to the hermits until now.
Cindy

 

[reefhope]

yes I do have blue-leg hermits, an emerald crab, cleaner shrimp and peppermint shrimp...I still haven't caught the culprit(s) but more of the xenia stalk had been eaten as of this morning so I believe it is a nighttime feeder.

If I id the culprit I will post to let you know. Thanks

 

[jdeets]

Well, I'll jump in to defend your peppermint shrimp. I've got one peppermint in my 180 and he hasn't touched the xenia. I started with two heads about a month ago and now I've got 10 heads. I'm sure I'll have to start ripping it out in a month or two, unless there are some D/FW people out there who'd like some!

Also, my xenia is about midway down the tank and seems to do fine under 3x175 W MH and 440W of VHO. I've got a few polyps now growing at the sand line on one end of the tank from a frag that I put in a couple of months ago and that disappeared after a few days. I found two single polyps on the other end of the tank at the sand line and they've now grown over the course of a few weeks to each be a full head with 10 or so polyps each. They don't seem to mind the fact that they're all the way at the bottom (and they're shaded somewhat by the rocks above and by some 'shrooms). So I don't think lighting is your issue.

When all else fails--BLAME THE HERMITS!

 

[domma]

i have no prob with my xenias...in fact i constantly have to cut and move them because they spread too fast. I even have one growing on my glass. I do water changes every week and add the basic in terms of supplements.