waving hand xenia

[hiepatitis]

I've had problems keeping waving hand xenias in my tank before and I recently got another stalk but it's starting to shrink. My pom pom xenia do just fine though. I tested my nitrate, ph, alk, and calcium but they are all fine. Anyone else have this problem or know what it might be?

[miracles38]

I believe that they like pH 8.3 or higher.

[bkmorris]

yeah they like higher pH. mine started to shrink so i raised the pH and they perked back up and pulsed hard again.

[fishykidd916]

sorry if that piece i gave you is not making it. Right now, the xenia you gave me are not doing as well either. They look like they are melted. My silver tips are doing very well, growing fast, and pulsing hard even at night.

if you want, i can give you another frag whenever you feel like giving it another chance.

[hiepatitis]

thanks vung. same for you, i can spare some more pom poms if you want. how's the rose anemone?

[fishykidd916]

rose is doing good, but i can't get my clowns to host it. My large clown is too occupied with my carpet and the other two smaller clown is occupied with my flowerpot.....

[dots]

Xenia will burn and melt otherwise shrivel up and die under high shifts in alk. Learned that the hard way.

[seaworks]

I read that maintaing good xenia health might be tied to occasional iodine dosing.

[Reefugee]

It doesn't surpise me at all. IME when a clown decides to host something, it won't host anything else unless you remove the item that it is currently hosting. My clowns at home are hosting a torch, even though I have a LTA for them. Oh well...

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7028876#post7028876 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by fishykidd916
rose is doing good, but i can't get my clowns to host it. My large clown is too occupied with my carpet and the other two smaller clown is occupied with my flowerpot.....

[thereefgeek]

I wouldn't dose Iodine, and many a discussion related to the toxic effects can be found. Iodine is an antiseptic and the only thing I use it for is a dip for new corals before I put them in the tank. Kills just about every hitch hiking predator you could accidentally introduce into your system. I've had great success with xenia by maintaining good alkilinity levels (4.5+ meq/l). Temperature also makes them pulse faster or slower.