Coral Of The Week - Xenia

[xxBarneyxx]

I think I will try just putting a rock with xenia on up against the back and have the water flow push the xenia towards the back glass. Would prefer to do it that way as then you don't have superglue stuck on the glass. I do already have quite a bit growing on my back glass but the tank is going to be empty for a couple of days before I rescape it so will have to remove it all first.

 

[sorgan]

Would love to get this coral but my LFS never seems to have it.
I saw it once there but it was £50 for the colony and my tank was a bit to fresh to put it in, oh well I guess I will get it eventually

it's a great looking coral.

 

[xxBarneyxx]

Where abouts do you live? I'm gonna have loads to sell soon. I did approach a couple of LFS to see if they where interested in buying it or swapping for store credit. I was told "we can take it off your hands but cant give you anything for it". Seeing as the amount I have they would sell for about £200+ I don't feel too inclined to give it to them for nothing.

 

[sorgan]

Pm sent

 

[CoMan]

I think I will try just putting a rock with xenia on up against the back and have the water flow push the xenia towards the back glass. Would prefer to do it that way as then you don't have superglue stuck on the glass. I do already have quite a bit growing on my back glass but the tank is going to be empty for a couple of days before I rescape it so will have to remove it all first.

Ok I hear ya. Sounds Interesting. Would love to see a picture of that when it's done.

 

[seffieuk]

Barney, if you are happy to post, I would like some please, just let me know how much you would like and I will send you a paypal gift

Seffie x

 

[simonas]

I love my pulsing xenia it certainly adds to the "reef" look of the tank and is active within the the tank flow, attractive polyps as well

 

[GAB99]

when i got mine ought 2-3 months ago it was 3 heads, then it grew to a max of 7-8 then it died back to 3 and now its 4, its taking FOREVER to grow, im trying to get it to grow all oer the rock but it doesnt want to

 

[simonas]

looking at that last pic of mine , mines shrunk a load

whys that?

 

[seffieuk]

Its strange, it is one of those corals that either grow like a weed or die off after a while. Barney has been very successful with it, I have not!!

Seffie x

 

[xxBarneyxx]

Sorry I never got back to anyone about the frags. I did take a LOAD of frags from my xenia when I rescaped the tank. Unfortunately I didn't acclimatise them properly to the water in the frag tank and killed most of them off (my fault for not using the water from the display tank in the frag tank).

Mine goes through periods where parts of it seem to shrink but this is generally when it is about to go into a massive growth spurt. For some reason it seems the xenia in my display tank is pretty much indestructible.

I put a rock with 4 or 5 heads on directly in the front of the output from a korilla 4 (its literally being blasted constantly by it so its laying flat) and the bloody stuff is still growing and pulsing away! I have some more rocks at the bottom of the tank and one at the top it seems that as long as it has some light it really doesn't care about anything else.

I have had it for a long time now (few years)and while it did grow at the start its only in the last year that it has really taken off and turned into a weed. I think it does take quite a while to get fully established and as Seffie said it sometimes just doesn't get to that stage.

I'm moving all of mine into my cube tank (#28###, just remembered I didnt put it in my cube tank last night when I transferred the rest!) as I don't really plan to have many corals in there (its now just somewhere for my clownfish to live). I expect that in a few months I will be able to frag it all again (and will do it properly this time).

 

[Morri]

Meh Xenia is all I can say have tons of it which I could find a xenia eating nudibrach or summin tried fragging some of bit it just rips to bits

 

[xxBarneyxx]

Meh Xenia is all I can say have tons of it which I could find a xenia eating nudibrach or summin tried fragging some of bit it just rips to bits

Yeah getting it out of a tank is a nightmare. If you leave the smallest bit behind it grows back.

 

[fishboytoo]

I think pulsing xenia are awesome. I just bought 4 heads yesterday on a coral skeleton. I put them in and they were pulsing away withing minutes.

However, by last night 2 had "melted" of at the base and the other 2 were loosely attached on. I glued one onto my rockwork and the the other I attached with a rubber band. This morning the one I glued on is 95% off again! Why is this?? And how do I keep these attached?

 

[GAB99]

i hear somewhere when researching this coral that it tends to do better in low nitrate (not 0 but not 20ppm) water, and yeah that its sort of a hit and miss with this thing.