pulsating xenia coral disapearing?

[Sarah&KC]

So I am fairly new to the saltwater aquarium world .. Recently just got a 90g with 120# LR and 150Lbs LS..full refugium with LR, LS, and berlin red sea PS. I have 1 yellow tang, 1 clarkii clown, 2 perculas, 1 cleaner shrimp, 1 lawnmower blenny (or used to?, I moved the rocks around a little bit 3 days ago and haven't seen him since) 1 cleaner shrimp, 1 mandarin dragonet. 2 crabs which I'm not really sure what they are. I think 1 is a porcelain and the other is a small dark brown crab with 2 sm. pinchers (they came with the tank, thats why i'm not sure what they are) All fish are doing great & loving life, except maybe the blenny.. I have 2 questions for you

1.) do you think I could have crushed the blenny while moving the rocks?
2.) tried adding a pulsating xenia coral 3 days ago (even tied it to a rock with fishing line) it was a $60 piece. It made it through the first day/night fine then the next morning the largest stalk was completely gone, then the next morning the other 2 large stalks were gone and the fishing line was broke! Do you think one of these crabs is messing with it or is there something else going on? I almost feel like there is a black hole in the tank ..lol


any information anyone can provide would be great..thanks !!

[Soulofamind]

You might have something eating the xenia. You should try checking your tank at night with a red lense flashlight to see if there is something eating it. I once had a white nudibranch eating away at my colt coral at night. Then in the morning id see chunks of pink floating in my tank. As for the blenny... maybe... or maybe its still hiding from shock.

[jenglish]

OK, this is going to be more questions than answers. How long has the tank been set up? What are your tank parameters? Salinity, temp, nitrate, dkh etc? what light and filtration are you using? A crab can certainly eat a Xenia depending what crab it is. Is there a good supply of pods? that is generally all most mandarin eat and usually you need an established tank to keep one. Did the mandarin come with the tank?

[Sarah&KC]

Not sure on the exact parameters as of right this second... I'm at work at the moment, but can definetly post those later. I am running a Current USA dual actinic light with 2 metal hallides, and 6 moonlight LED's.. I bought the tank off of ebay and it was set up for 1 year. (thats what the guy said anyways) It has been running at my house for about a month now. the tank has tons of copepods, (found lots of them at the bottom of my protein skimmer, when i cleaned it the other day) as far as filtration goes, its really just the Protein skimmer, and the LR & LS set up in the Refugium..(all natural) Do I need more filtration? thanks !

[jenglish]

Skimmer and LR is all you need I was just asking. I see a new face and I'm just trying to get a picture of the tank. Usually a coral not doing well would not jsut start losing stalks but would look poor overall if it had bad water quality issues. But I wanted to start looking at water quality issues. My guess would be one of the crabs. I will say sometimes xenia simply fails to thrive in tanks where everything is done "right". I'm not sure quite why. Other tanks it spreads like a weed. I think the broken line definately points to a critter.

[Sarah&KC]

jenglish,

thanks for the information, I will definetly try to get those crabs out of there ASAP .. IF I CAN CATCH THEM !!

Is the Berlin Red Sea Protein Skimmer a poor, average, or good unit ??
the owners manual said it's good for tanks up to 200G??

[aquawolf]

There is also a chance that the Xenia is not doing well because of your lighting; however, it usually just seems to melt away in that case. Xenia seem to thrive more in tanks that are more nutrient rich and a little lower light. If I put Xenia in my 75 it melts away within 2 days, but if I put it in the 50 gallon that acts a stand alone refugium it thrives.

You may have crushed the LMB, but keep in mind that they also blend in with the rock pretty well so he may be okay and you are just not seeing him yet.

Congratulations on the tank, welcome to the site, and I wish you the best for your reefing future.

[pastina]

Xenias are just too tasty IMO
everything loves to snack on them, angels, some tangs, crabs, starfish. I had so many critters going after my tiny xenia frag that it didnt stand a chance

in my old tank with just clowns they did very well.
i think they also need a higher ph and alk. ive had them melt in low alk tanks