Question about aggressive chalice coral
 

Hi all. I have spent weeks reading and learned much here... My first post is of course a question. We have a 65 gallon, it houses a large 12" round chalice coral and a smallish xenia tree. The tree was doing great, pulsing away, eating, growing, etc... and we came home last night to find the chalice with it's stingers out attached to my poor xenia. We snipped the thread-like stingers, not caring much if it hurt the chalice and moved the xenia father away. Of course the xenia was shook up and shriveled up so we moved it farther away from the chalice, shortly thereafter the lights went down for the night. This morning that danged chalice was stretched out 9 inches again stinging the crap out of that xenia again. We removed the xenia and put it in a quarantine tank but it is still shriveled up into a dime sized blob. One arm is still pulsing so it's not dead but we are unsure if we should put it back in the tank. We read that if it dies it emits toxins that are near impossible to remove and can be dangerous. However, I'd like it back in the tank if it's alive and just 'upset'. How do we know if it's dying. We have plenty of room to put her back in FAR away from the chalice but are unsure if we should. Any experienced guidance would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Xenia is very hardy, I would put it back in the tank as far as possible from the chalice.

That's what my opinion was after reading... I guess I just needed to hear it from someone with experience. I wasn't aware that they were hardy, I had them pegged as delicate. Probably because they are so delicate looking. Thanks for responding :)

*heads off to put xenia back in tank*

LOL, in short order you will wish that you had let the Chalice kill that Xenia, it will spread & spread & spread & spread, did I mention it will spread? Cherish the Chalice, ISOLATE the Xenia, you have been warned :}

This one seems to be quite fragile. It took weeks to come out when we first put it in and was always very tentative about "blooming" each day. I've heard people say the same thing over and over but I think we got the runt of the litter because this particular coral seems quite shy. I'm hoping it perks up and flourishes. But if it DOES spread, I promise I'll remember that I heard the warning from you first sport0 ;)