My Xenia is sick/dying

[Clownfishman]

I came home from a two day trip to find my xenia, looking dead almost... every other coral in the tank looks fine... to chem measurements and all is ok... none of my heaters got stuck on because my max tank temp got to 80.9 and it didn't get to cold either down to about 79.5

So I am not sure what has caused them to do this.... I fragged back some of the damaged xenia, because the individual polpys were falling off... and some of the xenia looked white, in certain spots, like toward the top of them... they weren't bleached because all of the other corals were fine...

I am not sure what caused this... I have these other corals in the tank:

Toadstool Coral
Green Star Polyps
Xenia (a stalk or two that looks OK)
Mushroom Corals
Finger Leather...

And three fishes..

Clownfish
Yellow Watchman Goby
Pacific Tang..

I have read this just sometimes happens for just no reason... does anyone have any input as to what might have went wrong... nitrates were about 20ppm but I have had that xenia doing fine at 40ppm... all others levels are zero, PH 8.2-8.4, ammonia 0 etc...

Any comments would be helpful to shed some light on this.... I had a auto-top off system in place and it worked perfectly and timers on my lights... and a UPS power supply... but since the min temp was 79.5 I have no reason to believe I lost power...

[Clownfishman]

Any ideas?

[RobinsonFam1]

i cant grow xenia to save my life where others cant keep it from growing. i knnow its not much help but hey, youre not the only one!

[ruhspolostar]

the same thing happenned to me, sometimes they crash for no reason, if you have good water quallity, that might be it, the worse the water quallity gets the best those things do sometimes

[Clownfishman]

Yeah, well I removed the diseases/sick stalks and am hoping the others survive, because I like watching them sway around and such...


P.S. change your status to Hopeless instead of Hopless.... unless you meant it like that..

[ruhspolostar]

ahh, no I spelled it wrong thanks

[rtgordon]

Originally Posted by Clownfishman

Yeah, well I removed the diseases/sick stalks and am hoping the others survive, because I like watching them sway around and such...


P.S. change your status to Hopeless instead of Hopless.... unless you meant it like that..

he has no legs.

[Jabel]

Clownfish, I had xenia growing fine for about 1 year and then everything died for no apparent reason. Over the next 2 years I tried all kinds of things and spent tons of money on xenia that would always die. Then about 6 months ago I added an airstone and a skimmer to the system and tried a frag from a friend again. It worked and has been multiplying ever since. I'm not sure which helped but the xenia looked great after 1 day with just the air stone.

Hope this helps
Jeff

[yardboy]

The only time I've ever lost xenia was when I had a temporary tank setup in the garage and the temperature got up to 94. Wiped about half of it, but cooling it saved the rest, and amazingly none of the zoanthids, mushrooms, or sarco even flinched.

[StellaMN]

Just a couple of things to check...

Xenia needs lots of oxygen (this is why it doesn't ship well). Check your water flow, etc. Do you have one of those glass covers on your tank?

What is your alkalinity levels? I've found that when my xenia starts to look scraggly, it is because the alk level is off.

How often to you change water and/or dose iodine? Softies have an iodine requirement that can be met by frequent water changes. If you are lazy with water changes you can dose iodine.

HTH....

Jodi

[Goofy]

If you notice the other peices start to die of also I would look into your water quality. Many times a build up of metals you cannot test for can cause this issue. Water changes are your best friend.

Alan

[Clownfishman]

Its to late, they got dispatched.... I did do a water change though... I know my temp didn't get to high while I was gone, I have a digital thermometer that has a min/max memory on it and it was fine...

All my other corals are fine... I always though it was bad to use airstone in a saltwater tank... I don't see many other folks doing it...

I really enjoyed watched it pulse and stuff..

[akula]

not a complete answer but the first frag of it I got died withen days I suspect due to shipping issues (it was heavily slimed). the secong frag I got has done fine in the same tank. overall it starts looking crappy for me when the pH drops off. it also starts looking crappy when it deflates and starts to connect itself on multiple spots as it spreads. stalks right next to it that are not spreading look fine so I guess the task of spreading takes a bit of effort and it looks stressed.

[Xerxies]

when you say 'sick' xenia... you mean to say it looks unhealthy? or it is visually infested/infected?

about a year ago, I had a 30-gallon tank crash shortly after adding a yellow leather and a toadstool leather. One of the two was infected with yellow-blotch. The xenia got slaughtered, almost immediately after i noticed the problem on the toadstool. The toadstool and the yellow leather both healed, but I dumped the tank anyways, cause from what I understand, there's really no ever getting rid of yellow-blotch, once you get it in your tank. Those leathers can carry it for years.

Anyways... the xenia started turning white on the affected stalks, followed by a rotting. nothing else in the tank was affected. Hope your problem is something else.

[Clownfishman]

Originally Posted by Xerxies

when you say 'sick' xenia... you mean to say it looks unhealthy? or it is visually infested/infected?

about a year ago, I had a 30-gallon tank crash shortly after adding a yellow leather and a toadstool leather. One of the two was infected with yellow-blotch. The xenia got slaughtered, almost immediately after i noticed the problem on the toadstool. The toadstool and the yellow leather both healed, but I dumped the tank anyways, cause from what I understand, there's really no ever getting rid of yellow-blotch, once you get it in your tank. Those leathers can carry it for years.

Anyways... the xenia started turning white on the affected stalks, followed by a rotting. nothing else in the tank was affected. Hope your problem is something else.

This is what happened to mine, the newest coral I added was Green Star Polyps which were a healthy frag off of a great big piece... I am not sure why they just started dying... I have a few leathers to but they are healthy and have been in the tank quit sometime.. I really enjoyed the Xenia and am pretty sad about this..