Survival rates of fragged xenia

[Caleb Kruse]

Hi, I am wondering when you frag pulsing xenia, how fast do they attach to the plug or rock. And whats the survival rate. I fragged mine and two of them attached in 2 days, and another just melted.

[RedEyeElf]

so far 100% of my xenia has survived, and attach after 2-3 days

but I have only done 3 frags

[dragonforce]

Xenia is easy to frag, shipping can be another story however.

[tankbuilder]

I've fragged Xenia about 30 times with 100% survival. All attached within a few days. Had to shut it down though. Had Xenia all over the house!

[eddie c]

100% survival with xenia elongata.

[Caleb Kruse]

Thanks for the input guys. Did you put them in a prop tank.

[flfirefighter13]

I cant kill it, I hack it off and toss it under a rock, 4 days later it usually pokes out the side and is attached, sometimes takes 6. As long as it doesnt get moved by a crab it always survives.

[Invisible Reef]

You should have a high success rate when fragging Xenia if you can catch them before they float away!
The easiest method comes from G.A.R.F. Just put the Xenia cutting on the plug and cover it with some bridal veil and snugly rubber band the cutting in place. In order for this method to work well you should have a cuttings with multiple heads otherwise the single head will slip right out through the net and float away.



The cutting will start to pulse again within one day and the heads will come through the net and the net will hold it in place until it has time to attach. Then just carefully cut the net away once the cutting is attached and growing. An X-acto knife works well. Using this method you will have 100% success.

[plc001]

Anyone had success shipping it? If so, how?

Thanks.

[apex003]

pic001- I've received shipped xenia before. The sender rubberbanded a piece of styrofoam to the BOTTOM of the frag so it would float inverted. That way the frag never got crushed by the rock it was on and always stayed nicely floating in water, since he made kind of a round ball out of the shipping bag. Very clever and worked great for this delicate shipper...

[Reet15]

I just put a small piece of rock next to my xenia colony and within a week it has 2-3 stalks on it and i pull it out. Hasn't failed yet!

[RedSonja]

I put empty frag plugs beside my Xenia umbellata, it spreads to the empty one in less than a week. I just use a razor blade to slice any connecting tissue from old plug to new, haven't lost any yet with several hundred frags done this way. It usually doesn't even stop pulsing, even while being cut.

-Sonja

[chris melb]

Wow u guys all have great success with Xenia, would anyone mind posting their water parameters here?

2 days for Xenia to attach is great, ive had xenia melt many times, my best attempt of fragging took three weeks to attach. Then after attaching it slowly melted away.

[tankbuilder]

salinity: 1.025, ph: 8.4, nitrate: in display 50 ppm, in frag tank 0.0,
seemed to do well in both, nitrite:0.0, calcium: 400+, alkalinity: averages about 9 dkh. Started with 220 watts vho lighting on a 50 gallon tank, had to add more light. Added 80 more watts of no floesence before it started to thrive. Dose Lugol's solution to keep Iodine levels at natural sea water level. I think IMO that lighting, ph, and iodine are the key factors.

[Reefdiver77]

I frag tons of xenia and trade it in at my LFS. I attach mine with fishing line to rubble. It attaches on it own in 2-3 days. I then cut the line. I have xenia in all 4 of my tanks from pc lighting to MH. I have never lost a stalk of xenia or a frag.

[Drock169]

Does anyone know if fragging Cespitularia is done the same way. Because thats what I'm doing with LR pieces and so mesh netting from a cherry tomato package. My first attempt melted away and I'm on my 2nd attempt. If this one doesnt work out I dont know what to do

[scuglass]

I litterally cant get rid of the stuff.. it attaches to everything within 2 days max grows like a weed and floats arround the tank spreading all over.. the only way you can get them to melt in my experiance is hacking them up realllllllllly bad and having no flow.... but this will happen with any type of coral.

when i rip it off the rocks some of the stalk stay attached and havve now grown heads.. i had scrubbed them daily with a toothbrush but they didnt melt... anyone have advice on getting this vile weed out of my tank?

[roblack]

I just place a small piece of rock against the xenia colony and wait for them to spread onto it, and then pull it away, over the course of days if it doesn't break apart. I also just clip the tops of liverock to separate already thriving clumps of xenai that have spread over large rocks. This stuff is somewhat of a nuisance in my tank at this point. Anyone in Miami Beach want some cheap xenia? LOL

[roblack]

To get rid of them you can try Joe's Juice, the nuisance anemone killer. Accidentally got some on my xenia when I was trying to get rid of little anemones a while back, and it really seemed to affect them in a bad way.

[JotaDe]

I'm not sure xenia dies

I've fragged one plant maybe 25x in about 3 years and have a 100% survival rate.

[Muggle]

Yeah they are pretty tough. I've dropped my xenia "infested" rock on the ground with the xenia facing down and they came back full force a day later.

[roblack]

I dropped a frag of the Purple Monster on the floor, took a minute or two to find it. Never missed a beat and it's doing great. Scared me though, and I dont recommend trying this at home or anywhere else.