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Why won't my Xenia grow?? (1 Viewer)

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boudster

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Everything in my tank is thriving (Leathers, frogspawn, anthelia, polyps, zoos, flower pot) except for my Xenia. It doesn't pulse, and it seems to get weaker every day. I just added some more and it hasn't even opened up. Anyone have any idea what could be wrong?
 
G

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Xenia is the strangest coral it thrives in some tanks and dies in others, sometimes it thrives for years then dies. There have been so many ideas of why from iodine to having Mushroom leathers in the tank which can induce pulsing. The only known fact is that they can suffer from bacterial infections easily and meltdown to nothing in a day. A lot of people say that it either dies or is a plague. I have mine at the bottom of the tank on a small piece of LR which has caused them to spend their energy growing tall rather than splitting. I would try a different frag of it.
 

HolyBanana

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get some of aqua-nut's xenias. They are made out of steal. I think Polecat will have some frags at the frag swap this month or aqua-nut
Mine are thriving. I have like 12 of them and I started with two about a month or two ago.
 
G

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Xenia? I'll be bringing some xenia. I got rid of all my rock-mounted xenia frags over the weekend, but I'm gonna start whacking again today and should have at least a half dozen or so. This stuff grows really well, so they should be good and established in a couple of weeks, in time for the frag swap. What is a rock-mounted xenia frag worth anyway?
 
G

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if you can't get some from pole cat i got a lot of xenia from aqua-nut's frags as well.

just let me know Jim
An
 

aqua-nut

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You know, I used to see xenia at Keiths (Aquatic Design) and just pine for it, wishing like crazy I could have some. Thanks for the kind words about my "steel" strength xenia. I believe it's a strong strain because it's tank raised (for many generations) and I ignore the whole tank most of the time, except for feeding, top off and cleaning the glass, which I feel I should do because it's in my office, not my home.

What has made my xenia varieties (now I have two kinds, a white kind that's feathery and doesn't pulse) grow is the following recipe:

1. Keep it high in the tank unless you have MH, which may be too much light. (I have 600 watts of PC lighting currently).
2. Dose the tank weekly with Lugol's solution, which is a special blend of iodine and iodide.
3. Feed the tank with DT's three times a week per the instructions on the bottle.
4. If you have an eco-system like I do, don't use a skimmer... xenia like "dirty" water from what I can tell. Read #5 for proof...
5. If you get the urge to do a water change, take a nap instead. I do very, very few water changes to the 150 and the 55 I had before that for 10 years. Four or five 10% water changes per calendar year. I know this sounds absurd, but everything's growing and happy, so its hard to argue with. But, I believe I must also add that I have a balanced bio-load and probably 200 pounds of live rock.

I have found that this recipe is also keeping my hard corals, soft corals, fish, inverts, LPS and SPS quite happy and growing. Problem with the xenia is that it grows fast and begins to encroach on the light and physical space of my frags and enormous candy cane coral (which resembles a human brain in size and shape now).
 
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