Can "melting" xenias still pulse?

[jskaras]

I bought a frag of xenias 1 month ago. The 3 stalks have shrunk in size over this time but all heads continue to pulse. Is there any need to be concerned here? Does the fact that they are continuing to pulse indicate that they are still healthy?

[sjfishguy]

No, shrinking xenia means they are unhealthy. The pulsing is not a good indicator of health. Some people have very healthy pulsing xenia that will pulse in one tank and not another. It doesnt sound good for your xenia.

[sjfishguy]

No, shrinking xenia means they are unhealthy. The pulsing is not a good indicator of health. Some people have very healthy pulsing xenia that will pulse in one tank and not another. It doesnt sound good for your xenia.

[dendro982]

Mine restored the usual appearance in a may be a month (after tank crash).
If water parameters are normal and nobody/nothing bothers it (including blasting direct flow or other corals touching it), xenia may restore.

[Asuran]

i have a similar question... the stocks were quite long when i bought mine but they have shrunk down a bit. they were about 3" tall and are about 2" now... but they have gone from 3 to 5 stalks though... they are located new the top of my tank off to the side so they arent being blasted by 250w mh

[jskaras]

I have the frag about 1/2 way up in the tank. I'm using 4x 110 VHO and 3x175w MH. Water parameters are good including iodide/ iodate and all the usual stuff. Should I move it up or down or just keep it there to see if it acclimates?

[whalloper]

I bought a frag with 5 stalks about a year and a half ago which crashed to one pathetic stalk for no obvious reason. Now I have at least 50 stalks (and Ive removed some). They LOVE the light and are always moving themselves toward it as they multiply. If you really want them to do well, move them close to the light with decent water flow. Be prepared though, once they get going, they are like weeds.

[kingfisher62]

I had a prob with my alk and my xenia looked very angry. It shrunk in size and stalk looked wrinkled and very dark. Even when i got my parameters in line it took a few weeks to come back shape.
What are your water parameters?
when was your last water change?

[dendro982]

These are relatively low PC light tanks:
This one after the tank crash (some toxic inhabitants died), recovered in a month:
http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g78/dendro982/Soft%20corals/Dec14small10g.jpg
My xenia is white, it's first day after shipping:
http://thumb1.webshots.net/t/59/559/8/78/49/2996878490081040121RsQYWE_th.jpg (http://pets.webshots.com/photo/2996878490081040121RsQYWE)
Same xenia 2 months later:
http://thumb1.webshots.net/t/12/13/1/5/69/2763105690081040121PYyyjb_th.jpg (http://pets.webshots.com/photo/2763105690081040121PYyyjb)
The tank is 6g, flow is around the rock with xenia (150gph pump, xenia is in twice reflected from the glass flow, alk ~10 dKH all the time).

Here - same tank 5 months after the previous shot: high nutrients water (high nitrates and phosphates), the rock was displaced during cleaning, felt on the back wall - the same flow is going right through xenia. Xenia darkened and elongated (and was fragged few times in this half of year):
http://thumb1.webshots.net/t/59/59/9/26/43/2571926430081040121pwWZTt_th.jpg (http://pets.webshots.com/photo/2571926430081040121pwWZTt)

Same time, 90g tank, one of the frags. Flow is high, but around the rock, where the xenia is (20x total turnover), slightly lower NO3 and PO4, alk ~8-9 dKH (another frag is still very good in a clean high light tank with 7-8 dKH, weekly water changes everywhere):
http://thumb1.webshots.net/t/60/160/2/66/58/2770266580081040121boGtrh_th.jpg (http://pets.webshots.com/photo/2770266580081040121boGtrh)

They multiply in my low and med-high light tanks, grow faster in not clean water (but become darker, the same reaction on stress and low temperatures - darkening and shrinking), grow in direction of the light and are pushed by flow, but very far from becoming a weeds.

This is after fragging, under 2,300K luminescent flood light (the kind, described by Melev's Reef for refugium, with own reflector), 16W/4g shallow fuge, same parameters, as on 4th photo, tanks are connected, meant to be the xenia fuge:
http://thumb1.webshots.net/t/53/553/5/25/85/2068525850081040121emjNyI_th.jpg (http://pets.webshots.com/photo/2068525850081040121emjNyI)

A month ago I introduced the new gorgonian, infected with tiny worms, some corals closed for all this time, xenia melted to a blob with short tentacles... Toxins, may be.

[jskaras]

Excellent historical pictorial of your xenias. All my water parameters are good including iodide and iodate. I'll keep 'em where they are for now and see what happens.

[dendro982]

Didn't mean to make Memories album :p , tried to show in which situations it melt, darkened, become elongated or staying short...

[navipro1]

Interesting, I bought propagated Acropora and after 3 months, Xenia grew out of no where on the side of the plug... weird cause I never had Xenia in my tank before but great !

[goldmaniac]

I too have a xenia that's shrinking, but it's one of two stalks from an original purchase.. the othe stalk is on other side of tank and it's ok. I completely stopped feeding them (Phyto) about 3 weeks ago, as I heard from multiple sources on RC that it's not necessary.

I'm debating starting up feedings again with Kent Phytoplankton. Anyone want to chime in their $.02?

[dendro982]

I didnt't tried to find the original sources, but it's frequently mentioned, that Xenia has no digestive tract (or a reduced one) and feeds mainly on dissolved organic compounds and a light (photosynthesis via zooxanthellae).

For example,
Calfo:
"A closer look at their physiology reveals that Xenia have weakly developed structures for organismal feeding; nutrient uptake of dissolved matter is conducted in this heavily photosynthetic genus. Target feeding of Xeniids is not required (if it's even practical or possible) to cultivate them successfully in aquaria when there is an adequate supply of nutrients available otherwise (bio-load of fishes and other invertebrates, etc.)." link (http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-02/ac/feature/index.php)

Delbek: (http://www2.hawaii.edu/~delbeek/delb2.html)
"However, some forms of soft coral (e.g. Xenia) have never been observed to feed. Lacking stinging cells in their tentacles, they may absorb phosphate directly"

Shimek: (http://www.reefs.org/library/aquarium_net/0998/0998_5.html)
"A few species, such as some Xenia may have a reduced gut, and not feed; these animals do well under reasonably strong light, although extreme intensities are unnecessary. I have a colony that is growing very well under power compact fluorescent lights and it is subdividing into new colonies at the rate of about one to three new colonies per week."

[goldmaniac]

ok, so when one of my xenias is shrinking more and more daily, and the other, on the other side of the tank, is doing fine, it's animal specific, maybe.

Do Xenia have any type of "crash and grow" cycle? They've looked bad before and recovered better than ever, but never to the extent of this one. It went from 3/4" trunk to a golf pencil size trunk.

thanks, anyone..

G.

[dendro982]

Sorry, not much help, but from what I had seen in my tanks, it's twice followed introduction of the new inhabitants, that could release some toxins, because some other corals were affected too - more in vicinity of irritating factor, less - 5" away. Who knows...
Once one of xenias became on the path of direct flow after reaquascaping, also could be a cause.

Xenia crash (http://www.google.ca/search?hl=en&q=xenia+crash&btnG=Google+Search&meta=) and xenia melt down (http://www.google.ca/search?hl=en&q=xenia+melt&btnG=Search&meta=) were discussed many times: GARF observed connection with temperatures over 80F and that keeping multiple species together helps, many keepers had seen connection with iodine, many kept xenia successfully without dosing it, link (http://www.reefmonkey.com/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?t=1266&view=next&sid=977d0eea82d161d13022aaf06baa9a69) ( I'm repeating what you already know :D).
Could be if the clean water from the sump enters the tank near the melting colony, and the surviving one is in the more nutrient rich water - guessing here.
Same, if the auto-top off water creates lower salinity in the one spot, the least probable cause. I had problem with keeping anthelia, but the white xenia is OK - only yesterday found article, that the first requires low salinity, and the last - the high one. Live and learn ;)

May be somebody else chimes in too.

[goldmaniac]

Thanks, Dendro -
I was running 'xenia crash' on the RC search engines, didn't really find anything. But I should have checked Google, too.

I think my suspicions are right, the crash is normal. I have just never seen my xenia crash this hard. not only was he much smaller, but his stalk was deflated, wrinkled, and completely fallen over. But over the weekend, the stalk has compacted and the arms are all shorter but looking normal. I think i'm gonna be ok. but i've learned that putting more than one xenia species in a tank helps eliminate crashes like this.

Seems part of a reproductive cycle; that would explain why one crashed and the other didn't.

Still looking into it, but i'm not particularly worried, anymore. We'll see.