xenia dying.....

[segraves1]

So I have this issue. My 100gal has been up since early June and overall I would say things are going rather well. Most of the things I have put in this tank are either at least "alive" (look the same as when they went in) or seem to be growing (ie: the zoes). I am however having issues with xenia.

First time:

I had xenia in my old 20gal and it was doing wonderful. I moved it over to the 100gal (about 4weeks after water was in the tank), fixed it in place with a toothpick, and after a day of looking really "thin," it nolonger opened. Over the next 2 weeks it just remained closed and eventually "poof," was desolved.

Second time:

About two months later I added some more xenia. I got another frag of xenia. Again, toothpick in the rock, looked "thin" for a day, then again nolonger opened. 2 weeks later, "poof," desolved.

Now:

Yesterday I got another frag of xenia. I again did the toothpick in the rock, it looked "thin" yesterday and today, and now tonight it won't open. So not how to I keep it from going "poof" in 2 weeks?


Everything else seems fine (including my bubble and hammer), the salt is at 1.026, temp is at 82 (the chiller keeps it between 81.6 and 82.2), I keep trying different locations (each time I get a new frag), and still nada. I have tried low/med/high flow areas, low/mid/bright light, and every possible thing I can think of. WHAT THE **** IS GOING ON?!?!?!?!?!?

[jojo22]

Is there anything in the tank that may be picking at it causeing it to stay closed??? Maby a new type of fish that you couldn't have in the 20 gal???

[segraves1]

well I have some new fish (some blue damsels, a yellow eye tang, and some scooters), but I wouldn't think any of these guys would bother it......I could be wrong though....

[seahorsedreams]

What other corals do you have in the tank? What is nearby and what is upstream from it? It could be an occurance of allelopathy.

[JustDavidP]

I had CROPS of Xenia weed growing in my 20 gallon tank. I moved some to a newly established 75 and it melted away. I did this repeatedly (as the Xen grew out of control in the 20) and it took more than a year for it to "take".

I was told then, that it was probably a matter of nutrients. That the 20 gallon tank, matured for 2 years, was just perfect for the coral. When I moved it to an almost sterile 75G that had just been started, the corals withered away.

After about a year, when I began to notice "banding" in my sand, algal blooms on the rock, glass etc. that required scraping almost daily, the Xenia took off. To the point where it became intrusive (as I started with SPS) and I actually then cleared it all back out of the 75.

Dave

[Sweetpea]

Xenia seems to be a real funny thing (funny odd, not funny haha). I've been listening to people's xenia stories for over a year, and I'm hearing the same thing over and over. Sometimes, you can pinpoint a cause, but most of the times, it seems like the xenia is plain and simply weird.

I have a 10 gallon tank full of it. I agree with DavidP that the nutrients have a lot to do with its survival, but my tank was new when I added it and it took off immediately. I have tried fragging it twice. The time I tried to fasten it to a rock, it melted. The second time, I just dropped it on the sand, and it's growing. Go figure!

I know this doesn't really help you with your current situation, but I wanted to make the point that you may very well be doing everything right and still not be able to keep it. Funny, huh?

[dakar]

Xenia is really an odd critter.... some tanks can keep it and some can't... that's the best I can come up with. There never seems to be a repeatable process or method to cause failure.... we've tried, suceeded in some tanks and failed in others.

I'm considering removing all of the macro algae from the refuge on my 25g and replacing it with Xenia as primary means of exporting nutrients...In hope of getting lucky and actually being able to get it started and take hold..

[segraves1]

COULD it have something to do with the toothpick method I'm using to attempt attachment (ie: too much trama)? This morning it SEEMS like it is "thinking" about opening (I see a head "crack a bit" here and there).

My 100gal is full of nutrients (I stopped doing water changes for a few months in hopes of working out a natural "cleaning system" and is now covered with brown hair to the point of daily cleaning) and I have started back to doing water changes (yesterday was the first day....changed 20gals).

[jojo22]

If you have that many nutrients then maby you should try to aclimate them longer. going from a low nutrient tank to one with a high concentration could be stressful.

[JustDavidP]

I've used toothpicks, crazyglue, dental floss etc. They all work fine. I actually had an incident where one was pulled through a pump and shredded. Some of the "parts" settled in and grew from there.

Dave