Pulsing Xenia's in decline : (

[icepick5587]

I hhad this frag of redsea pulsing xenias that spread over to my rock... but the original frag was knocked down by my sea urchin and basically killed it. Now i have 3 stalks of the pulsing xenias attached to the rock, which is kind of nice, but they're not doing as good as they were. They dont pulse as strongly or as often and they arent spreading. I have no nitrates, nitrites, or ammonia. They're placed as close to the top as i could place em, but something's off. Does anybody have any experience with this?

I have some zoo eating nudis if that in some wierd way applies.

Thanks

[icepick5587]

bump

[doomicon]

I'm a newblit by all means, but my experience with Xenia is they'll grow like a weed and thrive... then wither and die. They seem to be tricky. I will say that I've had a rock where the Xenia withered to nothing but a pink smudge, and then three weeks later grow back from that smudge on a rock. I've never completely lost Xenia, they've always rebounded.

I've not experienced any problems with Xenia causing any Ammonia spikes during their dieoff.

Thankfully, I have zero experience with zoo eating nudis

[icepick5587]

hmmm, i really hope mine rebound. thanks for the insight!

[brettdgreen]

I have had the exact same thing with Xenia. I started to get worried that they would keep spreading and then they just kind of melted away.

I think that is pretty common, but some peole think Xenia is a pain because it won't die.

[icepick5587]

Oic, so when I want it to thrive, it wont... but it also doesn't die when you want it to. Sweet.

[doomicon]

Adding another observation to this thread. My Xenia has been going thru another cycle of decline. I tried dosing iodine for two weeks, zero noticable improvement. I test for Amm,Nitrites,Nitrates,pH,SG. Only two measurements are off. Nitrates are <5 (but not zero) and pH hovers around 7.8-7.9. Nitrates weren't a concern, as I'm adjusting my feeding schedule, and adding 10 lbs of live rock this week, so I decided to tackle pH woes. First opened a window at the house with a fan blowing fresh air in, pH rose to 8.2 in a few hours. Purchased test kits for Calcium/dKH (low dKH can affect pH, and Calcium/Alk are linked). My calcium is high, my dKH is low. Purchased B-Ionic to slowly bring everything in balance.

In the last week slowly bringing up my dKH (and thereby lowering Calc), coupled with opening window after I get home from work to bring up the Oxygen level (and pH). I've noticed vast improvement with my Xenia. From withered smudges to sprouting all over and pulsing again. Still experimenting.

[lildraken]

I've read somewhere that xenia are sensative to water hardness that is off. Also at Garf, they recomend housing different species of xenia together. This tends to discourange colony crashes. Also they like temperatures below 80 degrees F.

[Shekki]

My xenia went from 2 big stalks down to one shriveled clump in a weekend while I was gone. One stalk died but the other one is actually starting to grow. It never stopped pulsing.

Robb

[johnnybravo234]

I hear they like "dirty" tanks. Same thing happened to me btw.

[doomicon]

lildraken, I keep my temp at 78F. My Xenia have looked pretty bad for a few weeks. Immediately after working on balancing my calc/alk they've really started to rebound.

According to the documentation provided by B-Ionic's site, it will take 3 more days for me to get things in order. My alk was looow. A little bit of research I found my Salt mix is extremely high in calcium and low in alk.

Going to switch to Seachem Reef, and give that a try.

Have to take a picture. I think I have one of them in their withered state, provide a before an after.

Now if I can just get this sick BTA I bought nursed back to health

[scooterbundy]

I have had Zenia before and it was doing great (nitrates were above 10 probably around 20 at that time. Since my nitrates are less than 10 now all the old Zenia died off. I recently was in the fish store and saw a nice piece and placed that in my tank. It did good for 2-3 days waving and extending and lately has retreated and wont fully extend. When I stopped in the pet store the other day and ask the guy about it he ask me of course what are my Nitrates (like it was a trick question) I said below 10 and he said thats why its not doing good. He said Zenia like dirty water, the dirtier the better. He also said thats why people put it in there sumps it likes the high Nitrates. Well, even though it seems to make sense with my water and parameters I was surprised to here this-------I was always one for keeping my water really clean! Guess what I am asking is will the Zenia become use to the good water conditions and eventually grow? It really doesn't make sense in terms of aquariums that have Zenia and the Nitrates are low, does it?

[lildraken]

Scooterbundy-according to RC natural sea water is "typically below 0.1 ppm. If the guy from the pet store is correct, then xenia would not typically flourishing in the wild? I dunno, maybe someone should experiment with the high nitrate hypothesis. I"m xenia challenged myself.

[salsipuedes]

perhaps i can help since i raise xenia in my tanks. First off, xenia need lots of watermovement... not necessarily fast movement but a large amount of flow will help. second, they can live in water temps anywhere from 73 to 83 and i've heard all the way up to 85... yes my heater broke and then my fans broke on another occasion and i came home to a tank warm as a bath. third, while they do seem to like a bit higher nitrates, they still thrive in 0 nitrates. as long as temp, current, and water parameters are all in check the xenia should thrive. There is one variable left... lighting.... over my 92 corner i have 1 250 watt mh, 1 175watt mh, and 4x65watt power compacts. On my 125 i have 3 175 watt mh and 4 36inch 60 watt t5s. My frined on his 80 has the current t5 fixture with 8 54watt t5s and half his tank is xenia.
Xenia dont benefit from direct feeding because they dont have mouths, and apparently no one can figure out why it even pulses. I've heard different theories on keeping 2 kinds of xenia together.


1. i'v e heard that it helps keeping either colony from crashing

2. the 2 different kinds of xenia compete for the same nutrients and neither one thrives since its constantly competeing with eachother.

i'm leaning more towards the 2nd theory cause i ahve probablly 60 stalks or more of xenia umbelata and the xenia elongata (the brown longer xenia) just cant compete it doesnt look all that healthy while the other thrives. in my 125 its reversed. the elongata thrives while the umbelata grows much more slowly. Both tanks are 78 degrees, both have adequate lighting and circulation, both have refugiums, both have perfect water parameters.

I guess its just one of natures mysteries... hope i could help. ask me if u have any other questions i'd be happy to help.

[MoCha920]

how is your pH fluchuating at night what is it showing

[lildraken]

I forgot that your pH fluctuates at night. how big of an affect does that have on xenia?
Good sign. I bought some xenia from a LFS and they said that they were "regular" xenia because they didn't pulse. After I put them in my aquarium they looked as if they were melting at first, but now they're waving in the current and pulsing. hurray!

[flrydr]

high nitrates, xenia was one of the first corals i got, at that time i was converting from poorly maintenanced fo tank to a reef, the nitrates were in the 40-60 range at that time, if rem correct, and that was down from nearly off the scale, i finally got them down to under 20, then did a tank, light, fuge upgrade, previous was a 65g fbh acrylic with a divided 10g fuge, lighted by 36" dual sunpaq retro 192w, now i have 75g, 29g (sz 2/3 working depth)divided fuge/sump, lighted by an outer orbit hqi/pc 560w.
water;
sg 1.025
ph 8.2-8.3
dont test regularly for ammonia & nitrite because i havent seen any since this was a slow transition to a reef tank.
nitrates < 5
PO4 .5-.7 down from 2.0 w/ phosban & reactor
mg 1140 currently addjusting
sr no test kit yet next endevor
iodide ? even tho i dose daily it stays unmeasurable
salifert kits ex for iodide, phosphate, & silca (seachem) sg via refract.
so as you can see xenia in my experience fwiw grows in all nitrates, phosphates we started with 2 stalks now i have nearly 40, i have traded xenia back to 3 diff LFS for store credit and now i'm thinkin i need another FOWLR tank with xenia eating fish to keep it under control
oops forgot the CA & ALK/dKH 420, 3.54/9.92 respectively

[Cuby2k]

I have a question about xenia I hope is appropriate for this thread.

I have a small colony that has split from a frag that I got from a LFS. It seems to be doing well with one exception. There are times when one or another of the stalks will pull in tightly from the water, kind of like a ball of little fists. There will be maybe one or two fingers out or there may be none at all.

I have tried to see if it is related to time of day, hours under the lights, fish feeding, water temp, etc. but I can't seem to make any correlation.

They seem to recover ok after about an hour so there is no major panic. I'd just like to know if this is normal behaviour and if so what the heck are they doing?

I'll see if I can post a picture that is worth viewing.

[flrydr]

for here it's considered normal to see some to the whole colony do the same esp during feeding times also notice it when the stalk is spreading
our start;

today after many traded frags

[RedSonja]

Originally posted by Cuby2k


They seem to recover ok after about an hour so there is no major panic. I'd just like to know if this is normal behaviour and if so what the heck are they doing?

As long as they recover and open up I'd not worry too much. I have some that does that on occasion and so far they open back up and are pulsing pretty soon.

-Sonja

[doomicon]

salsipuedes, I think I'm gonna have to agree with you. Mine are rebounding, and about the only thing that has changed is my pH is up to more 'normal' levels. Flow, Light, Temp..

Another thing that I have begun to do differently is change water anytime they look a bit down. I've gotten into a better regime of doing small water changes every two/three days. So far so good.

[lildraken]

Sometimes when the Xenia bunch up into "fists" if you look around the perimeter, there may be a snail or nudibranch in the proximity. Mine do it once in a while but always return to their pulsing in a short time.

[salsipuedes]

told ya. Its a great indicator of how your tank is doing

[doomicon]

salsipuedes, I agree, great indicator and so many experienced people like yourself have said it, it's something I no longer ignore.

I used to just ignore when my Xenia started to decline, figuring everything else was doing good. Now (especially since my BTA purchase), if I notice a hint of decline, I do a water change, and double check parameters. So far, So good.

[salsipuedes]

great, good to hear. When I set up my 125 and i threw in a piece of xenia to see how it would do while cycling the tank. I just watched it shrivel up as the ammonia and nitrite spiked, and then as it came down the xenia opened up more and more. its pulsing nicely again and starting to look a whole lot better. I guess its kind of fun to play god, lol.