Xenia Sick?

[Fish Crazy]

Yesterday when I got home I noticed that my Xenia's had their "fist" closed and it appered to be loosing color. At closer inspection it looks like some of it is melting...does anyone have any ideas what this is and what I should do...these have been growing like weeds in my tank so I'm confused.

I'll try to post pics tonight

 

[michael_cb_125]

I just got a few frags of xenia a few weeks ago. I got a silver and pompom. The silver seems to be more sensitive. it is growing like crazy, but if anything it doesnt like gets near it, it will pout. See if anything is disturbing it, if not check your water. There is a reason, you just need to find it. Good Luck-Michael

 

[AQTCJAK]

did you PM Vicki? I am sure she knows

 

[Witfull]

xenia is very sensitive to iodine and nitrate levels. they like them. have you done a WC lately? this can lower trates which will make them pout. also they can do this once and awhile for no known reason.

 

[BigAl07]

Witfull is dead on there. Xenia is notorious for "melting" for no reason at all. The good news is that many times this "melting" leads to a new crop in short order from the remains. Xenia is fairly hardie compared to what some people believe. You can cut it, pull it, mash it and crush it and every piece just becomes a new stalk.

If it is indeed melting just let it be. It's likely nothing you've done wrong unless you've added some new chemicals or even a new filtration device. They seem to like slightly "less than perfect" water conditions so it's possible your current water is too good for them.

Mine will pout here and there for a day or so and recently my Pom had some that went from a pinkish color to brownish/grey. I figured it was the "melting" but over the weekend the grey limbs simply fell off and started new colonies along the bottom of my rock and are now pinkish all over again. So who knows

good luck.

Allen

 

[lcstorc]

Mine has melted and come back several times. Don't know why.

 

[Fish Crazy]

I did a water change on Sunday and checked all chemistry in tank and made sure trace elements and everything else was ok. I'll check everything again when I get home, maybe they are jealous because of the very nice favites I added Tuesday

 

[Fish Crazy]

did you PM Vicki? I am sure she knows

I haven't yet Jack put I will...thanks

 

[Fish Crazy]

picture of xenia

 

[Techno-Vicki]

Although they grow like weeks, I find them the most interesting coral I have; therefore, I keep them in every tank, making sure I never lose all of them. I am sorry, but I disagree with the "no reason" point. There are several reasons they melt. I have had them all I think, and yes, they do come back.
1. Bad water quality - do regular water changes and do a larger one if the quality is bad.
2. Corals emitting toxins into the tank (use carbon to extract the toxins and a large water change)
3. Very low salinity - (sowly get it back to appropriate levels)

Lynn and Lisa, I responded to the pm. Needless to say, you will be fine. You can always get them replace by me in the unlikely event that you lose them all.

 

[Fish Crazy]

Well the Xenia's seem to be doing better today as a matter of fact it looks like they are getting ready to have tiny little off shoots so perhaps that is what they were doing....great thing about tanks each day is a new experience

 

[GeeWizzItsMe]

Great!

 

[BigAl07]

Vicki maybe I should have stated it more clearly as "No apparent reason" for melting. I do know that I have had one batch melt and unless I totally missed something everything was well better than "average" as far as water quality goes. I'm not so sure about the "toxins" because I run carbon regularly every 4th week for a week straight. That very could have been the case.

Either way it's a very COOL coral and one I plan to have in EVERY tank.

Allen

 

[Fish Crazy]

Thanks for all of the help everyone...I was sick over the thought of them going away, they have become my relaxation tool each day to watch them when I get home from work

 

[Techno-Vicki]

Allen, good point, we can't always 'see' what is causing problems. Another silent killer is when I use chemiclean on the tank to kill the cyno; it always wilts some of the xenia, but not a lot and it is worth what I save in terms of cyno damage.