Xena die off.

[4angel]

My friend recently lost a colony of xena He checked all his levels and they were on the button. the xena just seemed to shrivel up and die he indicated that he was never consistent with the iodied.
_________________
Ferrari 275

 

[Anonymous]

I used to grow xenia by the bucketfull. Made so much money taking it into the LFS. (Note that I never dosed Iodine, I simply replaced the saltwater that I had to take out when taking xenia to the store, perhaps this provided the iodine??) Then, for some reason, my xenia began to die out. At first I was glad, it was becoming a nuisance. But now, I can't grow it at all. I have one tiny struggling stalk, that doesn't grow. All my levels are the same as they always were. I have seen this phenomena in many other peoples tanks too, the xenia just disapears for no reason.

I know that's not really an answer :wink: But just thought I would relate.

 

[Minh Nguyen]

I have and continue to throw Xenia away every few weeks. I have three different species of Xenia in my tank. I would be happy to give them to anyone who come by my how, but will not mail them. Let me know if you want them.
I don't and have never dose Iodine. I never have Xenia crashed on me. This was true with this tank or previous tanks.

4angel,
Just because the Xenia crashed and the reefer did not dose iodine consistently does not mean that this is the reason for the Xenia crash, even if everything he measured were where they should be. There are so many things in the tank that we don't measure for. Any of these factors can cause the crash.
Minh

 

[Desolas]

I have two types of Xenia in my tank, I have never added iodine; I've just done water changes.

Once now I have had only one of the types "crash." It slowly shrivelled up and died. Most of the colonies of the one type did this, with the exception of a couple - and the colonies that died were not adjacent to one another. I had one colony die right next to one that lived.

My anecdotal assumption is that something went wrong with the water. What, I don't know, as "all of my levels were right on the button" too. I can only randomly assume what happened.

If your friend knows he has kept his water quality high, the tank has been stable, and it still happened, then all you can really do is shrug and hope we eventually figure out why it happens. Someone local to him will most likely be willing to give him another colony.

 

[reefphreak]

I also have two types of xenia in my tank. It grows like wild and I have to prune it back periodically. I dose iodine once a week and it seems to like it. I had a similar problem with die off about six months ago and it was related to the age of my metal halides. Once I replaced the bulbs the xenia came back with a vengance. I understand from discussions with some friends that xenia is very sensitive to light intensity and color so when my bulbs got old the spectrum likely changed causing the die off.

Just my $.02

 

[Anonymous]

the more of these xenia stories i hear, the more i suspect lack of nutrient.

the tanks i have seen that will not support xenia look very pristine. i have a hard time thinking that iodine is the problem. though who knows, it may suffice a starving stalk of xenia for a short while.

i have heard that iodine is readily available for consumption when feeding a diet that consists iodine, like crustaceans, fish, phytoplankton... well, just about everything that we throw in our systems. also heard that when an animal dies (like xenia) the iodine contained in that animal leaches back into the water column. bad news for the dosing reefers.

so the additional dosing seems unnecessary to me. my xenia does well without it, so do many others.

and that would be my $.02

 

[fishfarmer]

the more of these xenia stories i hear, the more i suspect lack of nutrient.

I'd suspect that too. I had thriving xenia in my tank and never had a crash, but I did harvest it alot. I'd try to get rid of half of my colonies per month just so it wouldn't overtake the tank.

 

[Anonymous]

i'm having a problem with mine, too. it's weird because they were doing so well. i dose iodine for my shrimp... but only when i do my weekly water changes. i'm sad because they were so beautiful at one time. i pulled my skimmer and cleaned it, doing a water change tomorrow, and getting new bulbs just in case.

 

[Anonymous]

I find xenia to be like flatworms. When there is available food they multiply rapidly. Suddenly there are soo many that there is not enough food. This creates a mass die off(starve off). Also, the base of a xenia is highly suceptable to bacterial infections when the colony is dense. I would assume that the reason for this is that there is not enough water flow around the bases due to the dense growth. Weekly/bi-weekly pruning usually keeps the base clean. But, if that is the case you would notice a yellowish ring around the base which slowly moves upwards.

IMO a lack of food, nutrients, ans trace elements are the dominant factor in the mass die off of xenia.

Good luck