Xenia problem

mapster · 05-27-2002, 05:17 PM

Hello, my Xenia is not looking good today. It is about half its normal size and has not extended its polyps all day. I noticed some hair algea tangled in the polyps, so I pulled it out. That seemed to make it a little happier. I also noticed some sort of growth or injury (yellowish stump). I added a Flame angel yesterday and am wondering if that could be the problem. Although I have not seen the flame bothering the xenia, I am curious because when I stuck my hand in the tank to remove the hair algea, one of my clowns attacked my hand. My flame angel has a chunk taken out of his tail (which was not there yesterday) and am wondering if he was nipping at the Xenia and my clown took a run at him. There have been no problems with the clown and the Angel getting along, in fact they dont even seem to acknowledge each other existance. One last thing, my clowns have not taken up the xenia as a host or anything, why would they be so protective of it?

Anyway, any help would be appreciated, heres a pic of the "growth" mentioned earlier.

Alice · 05-27-2002, 06:52 PM

Your flame angel may well have taken a bite out of your Xenia; I hope not, once they start they generally don't quit!

Your clown might just be a little riled up with the new addition and decided your hand coming in the tank was the last straw and jumped to protect "his tank." He'll probably calm down in a few days.

If I remember right, bill-e had some similiar yellow growths on his Xenia. I'm a little hazy on the outcome but I don't think he ever really figured out what it was and I seem to remember the Xenia didn't fare well. You might try a search or look on bill-e's website to see if you can come up with anything. Keep an eye on the Xenia, once they start to "melt" they're usually goners, but you'll probably see a few little Xenia "sprouts" around the tank after it does if it comes to that. Yours doesn't look to be at that stage, though, thankfully.

Alice

mapster · 05-27-2002, 06:57 PM

Now it has turned into an ugly lump. I have heard of Xenia collapsing for no apperent reason, is this what is happening? I am checking my parameters now, but everything else seems normal.

Notice the lump where that pre-mentioned growth is:

socal surfer · 05-27-2002, 07:47 PM

this has happened to me before, it seemed like it was dying for awhile and had those yellow white spots in some areas. It evenually bounced back and was healthy again...I dunno what causes it i think the just kind of crash every now and then.

balakoth · 05-28-2002, 12:14 AM

My Stalk of Xenia seems to be doing the same thing. Its pulsing hands have closed up every now adn then turning a mild glowing green. It has kind of collapsed but it opens up when it can. It seems to be splitting again for its third time. I was wondering if Xenia tend to show this kind of behavior when they split?

If not possibly my lack of feeding DTs to the tank as they are filter feeders could be a problem?

BTW Mine doesnt have any ugly yellow growth on it.

Any suggestions to Maps, myself and others?

THanks

Joe

CAT · 05-28-2002, 07:15 AM

Just a thought - could more water flow help? I have mine under a powerhead and they seem to deliberately stretch up so their polyps get pummeled by the flow... very weird.

mapster · 05-28-2002, 06:51 PM

Happy to say that my Xenia looks a lot better today. That growth is gone and in its place looks like a scar. Seems to be healing itself. At least I hope so. Still not fully extended like before, but getting there. Thank everybody for your input.

Emprr_Angl · 05-29-2002, 11:46 AM

Xenias are high flow and high light corals, make sure you have both.

05-29-2002, 03:45 PM

the xenia are osmotic feeders, they really dont eat as most corals do. the DT's may help slightly, but I havent had a huge sucess. my xenia grows best when I do frequent waterchanges and under 250 watt halides

hamburglar · 05-29-2002, 07:41 PM

I don't want to start an argument about this, but there are some serious xenia misconceptions being shared on this thread. (Except for Alice)

Mapster,

In my personal experience with xenia that looks just like yours, the yellow areas are the beginning of a non-stop meltdown. I have let it progress to destroying several stalks in the past. Sometimes it heals on its own.

I have a moderate sized colony that I take 10-20 cuttings from every other week. It seems that I have this sort of trouble on stalks that I cut every now and then. I first try to cut out the “yellow” area, but sometimes have to remove an entire stalk if it comes back.